I remember back in my early days of noob’lier innocence or as many of us remember, our first day in Second Life, we came to the very basic question; “Okay, I’ve learned to walk. Now where in the hell do I go to get rid of this horrid hair!” As with any new intelligent being brought to life we realize the basic need to acquire stuff early on. Now not that I’m professing that everyone that logs into Second Life is intelligent, I wouldn’t even begin to believe that. I can say that we love to have ‘stuff’.
I listen to other people while I make my way around the sims. Yes, I actually do while flashing my ass and pouring any word that finds itself in my brain out through my mouth with little to no regard. In doing so I’ve learned that people love to amass just about anything. And that is not just something we do here in Second Life. Think about it, what do you collect in your real life, or in Second Life? Or, in your World of Warcraft life, or your Eve Online life, or your Lord of the Rings Online life or in Farmville or Cityville lives? Or in the countless other games and adventures we find ourselves involved in. Now I’m not a big fan of gaming but my son is and I can say that he has accumulated more crap in those games then Fred Sanford on a buying binge! It’s in our nature to do so. Face it, we shop because we love to collect… “stuff”.
So. I guess this article is over! Why do we shop? Because we like to collect crap and horde it away! I’ll see you next month!
Okay… that was just plain silly. But it’s really that simple. I’m sure when you read the title you were like, oh my god this dizzy bitch is going to put twenty-five hundred words down on why we shop? Oh hell no I’m not! So what is this rant really about then? When I thought about that it really took me some time to think it out. Let’s go back to my original premise about why we shop in general. People love to collect “things”. And in our western real life societies just about everything we are exposed to plays to us on that premise. Whether it’s buying a car or buying sneakers, whether it’s online or offline, and whether it’s in real life or Second Life we are constantly bombarded to get our fix for more stuff.
Earlier I remarked that in the online community we have plenty of outlets to find that needed fix. Even social media on the internet is all about it. Anyone that wants to sell you something is on Facebook. Every web site you go to, including many blogs has advertising. It’s pervasive and it’s everywhere. So, really the question I should have put the title of this opinion piece to is “Why do we Shop in Second Life?”
There are many reasons people come to Second Life but I don’t believe shopping is one them. I have never heard anyone say they came to Second Life to get that hottie dress or awesome Harley. Some come to find friends or some form of companionship. Some come to get a sexual high. Some come to find themselves and given the low cost of personal exposure, see just how far they would go in just about anything if they could shackle the bonds of “respectable culture and etiquette”. There are lots of reasons why we bring ourselves initially to Second Life, but I’m pretty sure shopping isn’t one of them.
So assuming that, why do we, once we get here, make it a key aspect of this simulated world and for many a central aspect of our avatars lives? Why does Linden Labs advertise Second Life as a great shopping experience? Why is the “fashion world” so big on Second Life? And yes, why are there more clothing stores then just about anything else, including which amazes me, places of sexual fantasy on the grid? I understand we like to acquire things. It’s in our nature and I’ve pretty much established my understanding of that. But why do we use Second Life so much to also fill that need? Especially when we can go anywhere and in any environment in our collective universe and fill it there too?
That is the basic question I’m asking. If you don’t believe my hypothesis that people massively horde in Second Life then take a look at the statistics. The amount of value of goods that changes hands every month in Second Life is approximately 1.4 million dollars! The technical infrastructure of storage to store our assets that Linden Labs publishes proves that I’m not the only person with a 40,000+ item inventory. Many people I know have significantly larger inventories. Many of us use Second Life for many reasons but we also acquire much in doing so. How come?
Have you ever gone shopping in your real life for something you know you cannot afford? A new car or home perhaps? Or maybe you go to that high end clothing store and “look around”? I know I have. I love to shop in real life. I especially love to shop for clothing. So of course Second Life also gives me that outlet. I’m an easy target here. But let me explain why I love shopping. I don’t get off buying expensive clothing to say I have expensive clothing, well sometimes I do. But many times I can’t afford what I want and I don’t purchase it. But getting dressed in what little high end clothing I have and then hitting those boutiques that cater to those who can, and being pampered there is a personal high for me. To put on something I know I can’t afford, to see myself in that wonderful flowing gown gives me a rush. It’s my way of building my own fantasy.
Can I have that same look that I see in those magazine? Can I be glamorous too? Going shopping and being able to put myself into those wonderful clothes and shoes, to try them on, to feel myself in them makes me feel better about myself, who I am, what I can be, and motivates me to get myself there. Tell me you don’t do the same thing! Whether you are shopping for a new car, a new home, or even a new spouse I’m sure you imagine yourself there with that new bobble or prize. We all do it in real life. However, many of us cannot either afford it, or in some other way, maybe due to our physical appearance, or time give ourselves the luxury for such endeavors thus we really never engage in such activity.
But now we have Second Life! We have an environment where we can be exactly who and how we want to be! How we look, how we act, our gender and now for many of us, the ability to afford those wonderful things we so covet in our real lives. Whether it’s a big home, a new car, that awesome ride, or those incredible boots we now have the ability to completely fulfill that fantasy and do so without a huge investment. It’s not so much our gender or our sexual preference that drives us to shop. Those attributes may dictate what we shop for but the feeling we get when we see our avatar, our personification of ourselves, enacting out a real life fantasy gives us a similar rush, just as if we had done so in real life. Whether that fantasy is sexual or materialistic in nature, fulfilling it gives us that good feeling inside of ourselves.
Can it get better?
One of the fascinating things I love about technology in general is that it’s always getting better. In my short life I’ve seen technology vastly change how we communicate and how we entertain ourselves. In many ways it has made some of the mundane go away. Second Life is no different. While many profess that many of the recent changes in Second Life is a bane to their existence I am not one of those people. I have invested in my own personal infrastructure to take advantage of improving technology, including improvements in Second Life. I don’t profess to be crazy tech-head silly about it, but every few years I invest a little into something newer to make my experience a better one and to keep up. Many of the developments of the new viewer base code that Linden Labs opens up has provided significant improvements on how I use Second Life to keep my “stuff” organized and to have a more realistic look. Namely;
• Outfits: The ability to store links to items in our inventory has completely removed the need for a copy of an item for each outfit. In the past we stored outfits in folders and needed a copy of the specific items in those folders to make up outfits. Now we have links and can manage our inventory much better based not on now how we wear or use items, but on what those items attributes specifically are that identify them. I see a future article on how to leverage outfits and organize your clothing inventory coming soon.
• Multiple prim attachments to a single attachment point: Before multiple attachments if you wanted to wear many rings or earrings or piercings you were stuck with one item per attachment point. No more. Now we can “add” multiple items to any attachment point we wish. We can now “load up” on jewelry or fashion accessories.
• Multiple attachments to a specific clothing layer: How many times did you have both a bra and top that only had undershirt layers? You had to choose another item for an outer layer or go without. No longer are we saddled with that limitation.
• The tattoo layer: Adding this new layer and being able to attach up to five different articles has opened up a whole new world to how we present ourselves. Not only does it free up a layer for more clothing options, it releases us from having to by a huge amount of skins for each makeup look. Now we can buy that standard un-made look and then find makeup choices from other artists. It totally changes how we can present our naked selves to the world.
• The alpha layer: In the past we used “invisi-prims” to hide specific parts of our avatar that got in the way. Shoes used these heavily. Now we can add multiple alpha layer “items” just like tattoos. This has a better effect on our visual appearance as you no longer have the invisi-block showing that plagues us when we are rendered over another texture with some form of transparency.
• Mesh: While my good friend Gudrun is not a proponent of mesh because of incapable backward compatibility, I am a big fan of mesh. Yes there are limitations to it but the final presence that mesh provides is a magnitude better than anything else up to this point. Also due to the technology and how it’s implemented I now can try something on before I buy it. No more guessing how that item will look on me instead of the picture. My online shopping experience is now very similar to my real life experience. This is a wonderful technology and will improve and I for one am excited to see that happen.
The visual and modeling technology of Second Life has seen some dramatic and exciting improvements. However, what hasn’t improved significantly over the years is how the shopping experience that Linden Labs provides in its simulations happens. Today, as in the days when I first started we still have basically three options for everything we create; copy, transfer & modify. Based on the enhancements we have seen which I noted earlier these three options are sorely outdated. In next month’s rant I’ll discuss some of my ideas about how our shopping experiences could be even better with some thoughts about how to improve the viewer to make that happen.
If you have read any of my past articles you may have come to realize a common thesis to my opinions about Second Life and why we are here. We are sexual creatures by nature. Most of our early adult lives are all about acquiring a mate for one night or even for life. Shopping is no different. While many times we shop because we have to for food and necessities, when leisure time is involved our shopping usually drives us to enhance our personification of ourselves to the world around us. And in most cases to bring attention to ourselves. All of us have that primal need for sexual gratification even in small doses and in many ways we don’t consider sexual in nature. We shop to provide that need. Second Life gives us the ability to do so in our own way, and without the limitations we deal with in our real lives.
Many may come to Second Life for sexual pleasure, most don’t realize that they get fulfillment here through shopping. But I’m sure Linden Labs does.
