Register article

This article was brought to my attention by Kris Ritter here.

The article, entitled "Second Life escapists told to wake up", by Chris Williams is some sort of attempt to knock SL users for not spending 100% of their time worrying about worldly issues. Just one of 8 Register articles that pop up in a search of the site using the keyword "sadville", apparently a pet name for the virtual world of SL (and helpfully pointed out by Kris in the forum thread linked above).

The article opens with this

An anti-poverty campaign has reminded the inhabitants of Second Life that while
they fanny about wasting time and money hiding from their own trivial worries
there are people are dying unnecessarily in the real world.

A helpful reminder, to be sure. I had completely forgotten.

The article goes on to detail the efforts of the World Development Movement to make SLers "remember reality and participate in it." The article and the attitudes of both the writer and the WDM's Peter Taylor are a poor way to make a point for WDM and the real issues at stake. The article cites a "chilling survey" indicating that approximately half (43%) of US users of virtual worlds think that the virtual goings on are just as significant as those in the real world. The survey actually notes that those people felt as strongly about the virtual society they are a part of as the real physical world. Certainly, there are some kooks online, but I don't think this representation of the survey results (in Williams' article) really gets to the heart of what the survey actually says about people and their online activity. I feel strongly about SL, but I also feel strongly about Da Bears, deviantart.com, my invisible pen pals, my buddy GingerDead, my college roomate who now lives in China and is an MSN Messenger junkie, etc etc. This does not mean that I don't spend over 70 hours a week concerning myself with the problems of other people. It also doesn't mean that I don't recognize the realities of the world in which I live. In fact, there is more awareness among the SL community then there is amongst my suited colleagues in my downtown office building. They are busy gambling, drinking and watching The Office and Monday Night Football. Everyone needs a bit of entertainment, otherwise we would pine for the amount of real world time lost while we are stuffed in an office with an alley view and the sickening reality that the numbers we blithely move around on a PC actually have real significance to someone.

Here's another pitiful attempt to belittle others by Oz Stern. Typical in it's bashing and poorly edited. Come up with some new material folks and, as they say here at work, "edit ruthlessly".* At times, the diatribe seems to be hinting at some of Stern's own issues. I don't have a clue what they are, nor do I care, but he certainly seems angry about them. Here's the list of results for Sadville. I've never been a reader of the site and these penetrating articles didn't sway me to become one, however, I am curious as to what the deal is. SL isn't really worth all that bile (unless, of course, you are a hapless resident trying to make your way on the grid).

*I am exempt from this, of course, so piss off!