Sustainability; Everything You Know is False.

I was originally planning to write about the sustainability of virtual worlds but I have been thinking about the sustainability of avatars lately too. I will explore what that is and if they are even related. Many of us have been talking about how Second Life has been changing and It certainly hasn't been do to the technological improvements either. It has been more about the interests of its residents and the economic shifts related to that. If you look at the the number of people logged on at any one time it is usually between 50K and 60K compared to the mid 30Ks about a year ago. That would seriously imply that over all traffic is up and pretty stable from last year. The economic statistics seem to imply that Linden cash flow has made some recovery since the demize of casinos. Meanwhile, Stripping and Escort incomes have dropped substantially while Lazlo's has remained stable, cyclical but predictably stable. I think it comes back to the avatar. In the end that is what it is all about. care and feeding of the avatar. As the Second Life continues to grow at a more reasonable rate, avatars are maturing. Second Life is slipping ever closer to main stream.

Role playing of traditional RL roles have been replaced by more traditional social interactions, while outrageous thrill seeking aspects of role playing continue to thrive. The result is avatars are dividing into two camps with much fewer in the middle. They are either coupling in the more traditional romantic sense or going for the more "outrages" fetishes or free sex orgies. Stripping and Escorting become less attractive form of entertainment. I think there will always be a place and role for the sex worker in SL I think they will consolidate into fewer clubs. At this time stripping is really more of a social role play for the dancers rather than a viable business. I don't see any problem with stripping being another role play in SL as long as it is understood that the big money days will be much rarer than Galen's and Kerry's hay days of big bucks.So where is the money going? It goes back to care and feeding of the avatar. Clothes, hair, skins are still big money makers. Passive entertainment seems to be more about music and even then people seem to prefer to enjoy it dancing. It fits better with the couping aspect of SL.

Land continues to be a some what stable source of steady income. Lazlo may grumble but his projects have been mostly funded by his rental income. If he wasn't spending so many lindens investing in his various projects he would come closer to breaking even or even profit. It is his vision of an aesthetically pleasing island of creative cooperative people that has kept him from exploiting the potential of larger lindens. He is a he too much of an idealistic romantic to ever get rich. Twilight seems to have some level of stability in its base of tenants.Art is a whole other world in SL. I think it is an important part of Second Life. Its first function is of course is to provide expression for the artist. That is going to happen no matter what. The functions related to the patrons side are much more diverse. The educational aspect are for those that are just observers who appreciate or learn about art. Collector avatars who are buying to for their SL role play. Finally there are those that see the Second Life as an art form in itself. In the end I guess that becomes a mixture of both artist and patron and even educator. Maybe that is where Lazlo or even I am. Maybe Twilight is a virtual kinetic art experimient. For that matter maybe that is what strippers are. Gypsy is an excellent example of that as far a her Avatar goes. Kerry is also but much better on the textual side. She is a wonderful striptease artist. Second Life is only sustainable as long as the avatars are sustainable. As long as we can stay ahead of the the trends in Second Life business will be good. It will depend on if you can observe and adapt. One must fail quickly and recover quickly.

We are still at the beginning of virtual worlds. They are here to stay, but it is unclear what they will look like ten years from now. I am still a bit concerned that no one seems to be archiving or documenenting these early years except maybe in blogs. Virtual worlds with their compressed histories. In the end I still thinking trying to map real life into a virtual world can only partially work. (This is on a different level than Kerry's ideas about not expecting RL values in SL) We still need to incorporate what is and only is doable in VR. I think that is why the surrealism of AM Radio was so fascinating to me. It was the reminder that everything I know is false when it comes to virtual worlds.