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Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Transnational relations

Olive and I spent a couple of hours together today.

Two women facing a challenge, with no clear cut solution, working together to save a virtual land. Marlboro Island in Second Life, where my TLVW class meets and works, suffered its first grief attack in years. A visitor set off the nuisance tetris script, which generates physical boxes, ad infinitum. Boxes that fill the island in three dimensions, boxes that push avatars off platforms, boxes that crash sims. Together Olive and I worked to report and ban the offending avatar, delete his objects (repeatedly), stop all scripts (unsuccessfully), stop this script. There was urgency. Keep the sim from crashing. Solve the problem before other students arrive. It took real time, real thinking, real effort, real collaboration. Finally Olive found the source and deleted it.

Two women talking. About our experiences, about our class, about what we've read and thought about. Two women who know very little about each other's "real lives," brought together in virtual space.  We have common experiences, like two people who have spent a lot of time together. One tells a story and it resonates for the other. One points out something funny and the other finds humor there too. We share emotions and insights. We are two women, one american, one egyptian who would not know each other if not for a virtual connection.


3 comments:

OliveTree Lighhouse said...

It was strange how it felt like a real attack with my heart thumping, the sense of urgency, fear for the sim and anger anger with the perpetrator. I love how in SL you can count on your groups for help 24/7. No one knows who you really are or where you're from but many will spend real time and real effort to try and help you if you ask (remember that girl who tped over to help?.

Imagine if we had in VWs groups dedicated to RL learning similar to those that are for building and scripting where anyone studying can just ask for help and get answers from around the world (There used to be a school in SL that offered tutoring for RL subjects but unfortunately they closed).

BTW I asked around about reporting the creator of the objects and script used to grief our class but most of them said that in many cases those things are created originally for other purposes or as a game then they are misused or even modified to be used for grieving.

Vicki610 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Vicki610 said...

I am glad that I read this blog and comment. I am sad, but not surprised that others take something that was meant for good and use it for evil. This is just another example of how RL and SL are similar. This is an example of how we need to be vigilant in RL and SL. This is an example of how we can find help and support in RL and SL...Actually, I find it VERY easy to find help in SL - more easily than in real life.

Thank you for saving our SIM!