Real V Second Life

Virtual World, Second Life, Digital Characters, and Avatars give us all a digital experience of another reality from such games as the Sims, World of War craft and Second life. Games like this are a 3D environment where they can interact with others in a lifelike and social space. Second life especially is not considered a game as there is no main objective.  Players of such games create a real avatar which is meant to be a representation of themselves or what they wish they looked like; it gives these people another reality to adhere to. Second life is taken very seriously and can even be considered as some first life as they spend more time online in their virtual world then they do in reality. You get connected to your avatar as it is seen as your representation in the virtual world and when things happen to it, the creator can feel distraught as they feel their actual reality has been hurt. People who play second life also take it very seriously as they can spend real money to create their avatar the best they can possibly make it, of course the base model is free. Second life has also become a way of making a living for some people as they create items such as houses and on the game and then sell it outside the virtual world for real money.  A number of commercial, Government and educational organisations have set up a form of presence in second life .Second life the Game has even joined the social media context with its own Facebook and Twitter Websites.

http://webpages.scu.edu/ftp/jmlynch/Second%20Life.htm

linked here is an article about a Lady who earns Real money from her Second life. 

As mentioned earlier people take second life extremely serious , as it is a means to becoming social and meeting people, some of what can be seen as extremes are that people get married, have babies and they even have a ‘real’ online wedding.

  http://janeysplace.wordpress.com/2008/08/

Although they do all these things I wonder if it has ever crossed their mind that who they are interacting with is really! Who they say they are…

World of War Craft is along the same lines of Second life where it is an online place where people get together and interact except a key difference is that it is considered a game as there is a major quest to complete. World of War Craft has become that addictive in real life that some people even seek counselling and other remedies as this game has become their reality.

People use second life and such other games to discover their identity, and trial new things, they can also use these mediums as a was of expressing themselves.

" the screen becomes a hyperreal vehicle for travelling across a simulated world. ( Nunes, 1995, p. 315)

 so I ask Do people use second life as a means to escape their real life or is it just a release and a way of expression?