SLebrities!

Celebrities, yeah.
I have always thought Second Life to be too much an "easy" world for anyone to define themselves as Slebrities. I mean, no matter how popular and productive you can be as an avatar, it doesn't take much effort to become well known and respected in a little village of 400 thousands active users worldwide. Moreover, the common definition of celebrity in RL is of someone who is popular, and exclusively in the media, for the most various reasons, even if the reasons themselves aren't really praiseworthy. So, since I can't really find any representation of the "media effect" in Second Life, (hmmm, gawd, how crazy would it be to have a SL TV in world??) then what is it that makes a celebrity out of a pixelled avatar?
I guess it's a matter of money again, or at least in part. I won't name any of them, but there is a little bunch of guys in here that is actually capable of earning REAL money, even if the legend says only 49 people worldwide (Linden Labs not included) earn enough to fully sustain their real lives. I can't anyway define them as celebrities, i'd rather think they 're just..very smart guys in the virtual sex/porn industry(lol), and a few ones in the fashion business.
Then, there 's the much wider community of avatars who THINK they are Slebrities. "A year in SL equals to 7 years in RL", as the saying goes. 100% true, though I haven't bought Banana a present for our 14th wedding anniversary yet. Fact is, emotions run fast in here, and so does self-esteem. From noob to entrepreneur, from camper to landowner, from ruth to supermodel, from nerd to trend-setter, the target is at anyone's reach. All you have to do is get a hundred dollars charged on your VISA. Lacking traffic? Some 50 more dollars spent in advertising will do the trick, for a month or so. But hey, nothing compares to becoming a celebrity!

I 've been lucky enough to witness some of these guys while stressfully dealing with their change of SL-status.
No more 'how are you?' IM's 'cause they were often in busy mode.
No more 'Let's go for a ride' IM's 'cause they were frantically going through the list of possible managers to hire.
No more rezzing helicopters on their land 'cause it could offend the patrons.

But the point of no return is...when you open their profiles and the guy who once was a..

"friendly easygoing man who enjoys SL and all it has to offer! Send me an IM if you like"

becomes a...


OF COURSE you 're a PROUD owner and of OF COURSE your IM's get capped!!!
But please tell me why you can't just check them in your friggin' email.

Pathetic.

Peace.


*someone please stop me from uploading SL profiles on my blog or i 'll get sued one day or another.

6 commenti:

Anonymous said...

I would leave a comment, but I'm unavailable at the moment due to too many SL committments. My PA will get back to you later.

Peter Stindberg said...

I never understood that. Yes, I do get a lot of IM's. Yes, they do get capped on occasion. But still I get them all via email - and I even reply to them via email. Plus - seasoned avis know about the notecard trick anyways, so no need to point it out. I even put my email address in my profile so people can chose that way to contact me.

Definitely Gibbs said...

No worried Miss Banana. But don't forget you can "fring" me anytime:)

Tateru Nino said...

Actually, I know from personal experience that some IMs (perhaps even many, if you get a lot of them) don't make it through to email. Also not every notecard makes it through the inventory transfer process either (if I can find it among all the notecards I get). The most reliable method for me is email.

Definitely Gibbs said...

Don't get me wrong guys... I know about the issues concerning offline IM's. It's just the use of the "ims capped line" as a status symbol that makes me laugh a lil' :)

Definitely Gibbs said...

And Yeah! Tateru your blog is fantastic. :)