Second Life
Second Life is an online role-playing game launched by Linden Labs in June 2008. Players (called residents) use client programs (called viewers) to enter a virtual world and perform real-life and fictional actions. These actions may include interacting with other users to play activities and exchange items. There are almost one million users currently using Second Life.
History
| Year | Important Historical Event in Second Life. |
| 1999 | Philip Rosedale formed Linden Lab. |
| 2008 | Residents spent a total of 28,274,505 hours "inworld". |
| 2008 | Second life honored at 59th Annual Technology and Engineering Emmy Awards. |
| 2009 | Residents total spent hours drops to 62,000. |
| 2010 | Residents total spent hours drops again to 54,000. This is due to new rules
implemented by Linden Labs, decreasing the numbers of campers and bots. |
| 2010 | Linden Labs laid off 30% of its workforce. |
Program Overview
Ethical Issues
There are many ethical issues present in Second Life. One major ethical concern on Second Life is crime. Larry Dignan at the Tera Nova State of Play conference said, "virtual worlds are virgin territory for law." Although the crimes are committed in the virtual world, accountability for these crimes is imperative for the world to exist. Crimes such as virtual rape not only affect the avatar, but also the controller. Lawmakers, Linden Labs and the residents of Second Life need to agree on a feasible system to deal with the crimes committed on the site.
Linden Labs controls the Second Life site, thus owning the property and avatars. Linden Labs have their own terms of service among other policies. Currently, if a avatar is not happy with the way Second Life is run, there is not way to change policies, or even leave the system, because Linden Labs owns their property. According to Edward H. Spence, avatars have rights to freedom and well-being. [1]
Currently, it is not clear how local community criteria will handle the situation if someone got cheated because another group of people illegally got money through deception. Lawmakers and Linden Labs themselves are currently attempting to settle on a deal with the CopyBot, a program used to copy objects that other people have made. The issue is, no one really knows how to deal with the ample amounts of copying that go on in Second Life or at what point the government should get involved with Second Life affairs.
Another ethical issue present in Second Life is not showing up in the game, but affect's a person's life in the real world. Even though the vast usage of Second Life would not hinder students of attending classes in the virtual world, it could develops students to be addicted to the Internet. Massive multi-player on-line role-playing games that are analogous to Second Life generally are some of the most addictive features of the Internet due to the system of goals that are found in the game. If Internet addiction happens, it could lead to poor academic achievement in school, lack of socializing with others, and ignoring many other real world possibilities.
Lawsuits
See Also
- Information Ethics
- Online Cheating
- Virtual Reality and Computer Simulations
- Virtual Rape
- Virtual Community
References
- ↑ Spence, E., “Meta Ethics for the Metaverse: The Ethics of Virtual Worlds,” in Current Issues in Computing and Philosophy, edited by A. Briggle, K. Waelbers and P.A.E. Brey. Amsterdam: IOS (2008).
