Joined: Fri Sep 08, 2006 1:57 am Posts: 1337
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Last night I filled in for an absent DJ in Second Life. The event was a long-running regular Saturday theme dance and get-together, and the regular DJ is in the process of moving so his equipment is still in boxes. My connection with general Second Life events is fairly tenuous, but these people know me for various reasons, and asked me to provide music for their event.
Second Life is a very rich and modifiable environment. I come from a tradition of making things up, mental pictures and events, because I got my start in Uru. Here, as an example, if you want pizza for a party, you invent the pizza, and the ovens, and the cranky guy making the pizza, and anyone else is free to add their own details.
In Second life, someone has already made these things as 3-D models. If someone brings pizza to a party, there's an actual pizza model on an actual table model.
The theme of last night's dance was "Oktoberfest." A few minutes before it was due to start I told people in public chat that we had a caterer coming, with sausange, beer, potato salad, and other items. Having a foot in each world, I sort of forgot. When we (Music Night people) reached the dance venue, I continued the set description... and it bombed. One guy got rather miffed that I didn't set out an actual tray of virtual sausages, and found his own sausages somewhere. You can find anything in SL...
This isn't to say that one way is better than another. I will, however, say that I really enjoy the flexibility and imagination of Uru players. I would ask that, no matter how rich future virtual worlds become, please don't give up on imagination. Leave some room for it in everything that's built. 
A tip of the hat to Tai, who first brought this phenomenon to my attention.
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