The People Behind the Avatars

Home

Editorials

I recently had the pleasure of walking the story trail on Storybook Island that was created by Jenaia Morane (see story in this issue) who has been collecting stories of participants for the Virtual World Stories Project . When Jenaia told me she got the idea for the project because stories have been coming to her ever since she entered SL, it made me reflect on my own experiences here these past two years. While I haven't recorded them in the way that Jenaia has both on her blog "Days of our Second Lives" and in narrative stories that document her experiences in a virtual world, I, too, have been chronicling events by writing for the Metaverse Messenger newspaper and RezLibris.

While journalistic accounts are not the same as narratives, they do give us details and facts about the people and places we encounter and how they impact on our lives and those of others. In Second Life, these moments are just as fleeting if not more so than in real life as sims close and avatars leave to focus more on real life pursuits, become ill, and even die. So what is left but our memories, photos we've taken and shared on Flickr, words we've written in chat, posted on a blog, or published in an article.

When Rocky Vallejo came up with the idea to create a visual display of love and comforting wishes for Haldin Koba and his wife HollyJean Allen right before Haldin passed away, the response was great and very touching. People added gifts, flowers, photos, and notes to a platform above Rachelville, a place itself designed to bring youthful cheer in the face of sadness. The friendship and support these offerings symbolized are what make SL communities special. It's about the people behind the avatars, their stories both in SL and real life, whatever they share with us and whatever we give back to them.

But, thankfully, not all stories or experiences are sad. Virtual events can be happy and even memorable. For instance, take the recent Night with the Stars on Eduisland 4 (see story in this issue). This wonderful event brought out the richness and wonder of SL along with the gowns and tuxes the avatars wore. While lag may have slowed some of the rezzing, the meaning behind the awards was clear. The contributions, hard work, and achievements of the librarians, educators, and volunteers on Info Island in the past year was worthy of honoring with such a gala. It is something people who attended will talk about and recall as one of the highlights of their SL experiences, not only for any awards they may have received but also and mainly for the recognition by their friends and colleagues that acknowledge them as an important person in this virtual community.
So whether you create your own virtual scrapbooks or blog, save a folder of note cards with your reminiscences, or just keep a SL diary, you will be surprised at what you learn about yourselves and others through what you record. In particular, you will find that you have caught some interesting glimpses of the people behind the avatars.

Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites

Last Updated on Thursday, 07 May 2009 23:57

Add comment

JComments

Add comment

Magazine Sections