Hillary and Rudy’s second life
by WonkoKevin
I spent my Friday night hunting around the candidates’ places in Second Life, and have some intrigiuing findings. In sum, Hillary’s place is the nicest, but Rudy’s is the most fun…
As context, here is how Wikipedia describes Second Life:
Second Life (abbreviated as SL) is an Internet-based virtual world launched in 2003, developed by Linden Research, Inc (commonly referred to as Linden Lab), which came to international attention via mainstream news media in late 2006 and early 2007. A downloadable client program called the Second Life Viewer enables its users, called “Residents”, to interact with each other through motional avatars, providing an advanced level of a social network service combined with general aspects of a metaverse. Residents can explore, meet other Residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, create and trade items (virtual property) and services from one another.
Like other social networking venues, Second Life offers political candidates an opportunity to create a virtual meeting place, and some have taken advantage of it. All of the Second Life political sites I visited had certain elements in common: posters with the candidate’s message, some sort of area where avatars can aggregate to listen to someone, and a place to become a volunteer for the candidate.
Hillary’s place was the most built-up and fancy. There’s a grand piano on the speaking platform, and a limo next to it. I tried to get into the limo but it was locked. Her place also has a nice beachfront with some fish in it, so you can virtually “swim wit da fishes”.
John Edwards’ place didn’t have much infrastructure; mostly just a couple walking paths and a cabana and sign posts that had Edward’s buzz phrases. Edwards site was the only one that had been infilitrated by a competitor–there was a big “Ron Paul Revolution” sign that had been put up.
Obama’s place was fairly simple. He gave away the most stuff though–notes, banners, posters. I even got a free t-shirt and hat (for my avatar).
Mike Gravel has a very large virtual space. He literally has “platforms” all over in 3-d scape, and each platform discusses a, well, platform.
Ron Paul’s Second Life site was shockingly austere. But you could teleport directly to a bar for libertarians.
Alas, in none of these places did I find one single virtual soul. Just dust blowin in the wind on a Friday night. That is, until I went to Rudy’s place…. I waited in anticipation as the Second Life search engine took me to my destination, Rudy Giuliani’s Campaign HQ… I’m here! I look around. No Giuliani signs. No political signs. But there’s gambling machines, posters for bars and dance clubs, lots of stuff to “buy”, and finally, another avatar! This particular avatar is a bikini-clad female (my avatar is kind of a Edward Scissorhands-looking character, without the scissors) who happens to be tied to a wooden post, S&M style.
“Isn’t this supposed to be Rudy’s place?”, I type in. No answer. This is no surprise. In the 3 or 4 hours I’ve ever spent in Second Life, no one has ever talked to me.
“How long have u ben tied up?”, I type in. (Notice my keen use of chat-room English, which perhaps signals that I am “in the know”.)
“Not long enough,” she replied. My first Second Life reply!
Her avatar had some text attached to it that implied she was getting paid Second Life money for ”residing” in the sponsor’s scene.
The encounter was already too much for me though, so I brought up the search engine again and headed back to Ron Paul’s bar.
