[ExI] Death AND Second Life

Jef Allbright jef at jefallbright.net
Mon Oct 20 21:24:40 UTC 2008


On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 1:30 PM,  <natasha at natasha.cc> wrote:
> I was just reading:
>
> "When your avatar is in an area that allows damage to occur, a heart is
> shown at the top of your screen with the percentage of health. When this
> reached 0%, you will be teleported to your home location. So the "death"
> isn't a permanent one, you don't loose any inventory and can return to the
> damage enabled region."
>
> Does this mean that in Second Life, the concept of death is unacceptable,
> that when your avatar is unhealthy, for whatever reason, you are
> automatically returned home as a locale to regain avatar healthfulness?

Technically, it's not that "death" in Second Life is unacceptable, but
that it's a feature for the benefit of playing particular games.

Philosophically, "death" in Second Life is simply "ludic death", a
perceived termination of a particular trajectory of actions expressing
particular values.  So, within context, it corresponds with biological
death.  Difference being, of course, that in Second Life the greater
context is clearly and readily accessible.

- Jef



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