Le Monde Label Second Life “Absurd, Creative and Debauched” But Still Alive

Over at SLUniverse Tatiana Dokuchic explains how an April 1st contact turned out to be no fool :

I was interviewed for this article and didn’t really know what to expect. It didn’t help that the journalist, Morgane Tual, just happened to contact me on April 1st. I had already received an invitation to a new “Marquis de Sade” roleplay that morning and was on the lookout for more April Fool’s fun so when she said she was from Le Monde I took it with a grain of salt.

The article by journalist has now appeared on the website of the famous French Newspaper Le Monde :Absurde, créatif et débauché : dix ans après, « Second Life » est toujours bien vivant, or to put it another way, “Absurd, creative and debauched: ten years later, “Second Life” is still alive“.

Those of us who use Second Life know very well that it’s still alive. Alas I don’t speak French, which is a shame, so my take on the article is based upon usage of Google Translate, which means something may very well be lost in translation. The article does start quite well and this exemplifies that Morgane Tual did actually enter Second Life and take a considered look around :

I expected to find , a decade later, a deserted world, aging technology and a few cobwebs in the corners. It was exactly the opposite.

This is a warts and all article, it doesn’t shy away from the adult content in Second Life and yet it manages to get beyond that and not run screaming that everyone is a freak because adult content exists.

There are humorous parts in the article that just cry “Only in Second Life”, for example :

the game teleports me in a sort of crowded central square, a sort of limbo where are found the homeless of Second Life. A court improbable miracles, which intersect jumble three cheerleaders is a majestic unicorn, a sandwich man, a guy in a suit with four legs, a tiny Shetland bipedal mouse to look mean and a boy who types in hand bystanders shouting “High five motherf*cker!”. Before apologizing sheepishly, before the congregation, “Sorry, I did not purposely push this button.”

The article also mentions art galleries, music, friendships, networking, groups, creativity, the economy, fan based creations and more and it’s all so tactfully done. The article touches upon the user base, how there are disabled participants, but it’s not judgemental and contains a few quotes from Linden Lab CEO, Ebbe Altberg :

Linden Lab is not able to provide accurate statistics on the profile of its users, but its CEO Ebbe Altberg ensures that “Second Life users do not fit the stereotype of” gamer “as people sometimes imagine. We have a very broad representation of age, adolescents to senior. About 50% of users are women. “

The diversity within Second Life is oft missed by those who pour scorn on the platform, it has a far more diverse audience than many other online worlds.

The article also includes Tatiana Dokuchic, whose post alerted me to this article and we learn that Tatiana is Canadian and spends more time on Second Life in the winter months, than the summer months because in the summer, Tatiana likes to be in a physical world garden enjoying the great outdoors, when possible.

This article is quite an accurate reflection of Second Life, although it can only fit so much into one article it does explore the many avenues available to participants and it explores those avenues in a refreshing fashion, it’s well worth a read, even via a translation service.