WHERE DO BABIES COME FROM IN SECOND LIFE?

Well, we all know about babies in Real Life and the shenanigans that go in making them and then looking after them until they are old enough to look after themselves.

But how does it happen in Second Life? Does it happen on Second Life, you ask? Of course it does. But, hoe does it happen and why does it happen? Because we live in a non-biological world, we have to take a difference approach to having babies.

In fact it can be very much like the future predicted for RL.

A lady can go into a shop and buy an avatar with several stages of pregnancy, six, for instance. One where there is nothing showing - a normal avatar. Then there are five stages of pregnancy where there is a discernible bump, which grows according to a timetable set by the RL person to whom the avatar belongs.

There is a very advanced baby which can monitor conversations going on around it and can contribute with its own appropriate comments, an awareness which many people believe in, in RL, but not the talking, of course.

I went to several shops to find out how it all worked. In each place the ladies were very happy to talk to me about it and I learned a great deal.

Having a baby in SL can be a learning experience for some and a cathartic release for others. Every stage from conception (controlled by a HUD which even caters for a percentage success/failure rate until conception occurs) through labour to birth, is covered and, of course the delivery of the baby.

The choice of baby is very wide. You choose, girl, boy, colour of skin, hair and eyes. Babies develop in much the same way they do in RL, growing from newborn to nine years old in some cases.

One “baby shop” had a maternity wing with all the necessary facilities to simulate childbirth in an environment that was very much like a maternity ward in RL.

Never having been through the process (fatherhood in SL) myself, I cannot describe what happens but, like all of us with RL experience, I can be sure that it is very realistic.

One thing I am very sure of is that the ladies that I met were very serious about what they did and were very confident that their services were beneficial to many customers, helping mums to be the overcome fears they have of childbirth in RL. Several ladies in the shop at the same time as me were very kind and described how going through pregnancy and childbirth in SL helped them approach the process in RL with more confidence or get over the loss of a real child.

What could appear to many as inappropriate and sentimental came across to me, from what the services providers and past and current customers told me, as a very sincere and worthwhile virtual service and gave a range of experiences which satisfied the needs of the many different customers with their very different needs.

Kim Trefusis

There is a continuing supply of new free accounts in Second Life each expecting exciting new adventures. Which they will surely get, but how do they emulate the older residents with their cool clothes, beautiful hair, bodies and skins? Of course there are the ubiquitous freebies, hundreds of outlets and thousands of products, so many of them repeated in each yard sale or freebie mall and they soon find that everybody else has got the same hair, skirt or jeans. “You can spot a Newbie a mile off” with the plastic hair and unrealistic face.

Apparently there a three questions that new accounts ask: 1. How do I get money?

2. How do I get a job? 3. Where do I go for sex? There may be others but these are the favourites.

Well it would appear logical that if question 2 were answered, question 1 would be answered and there would be no need for begging. Problem solved! Ah, but how do you get a job? There’s the rub. So, I went looking for jobs.

Well camping seemed to be thought of as a job, so I had a go. There are different levels of activity in camping. Your avatar can do nothing, scrub the floor or clean the windows for, say, L$2 for 50 minutes. One camper I saw had achieved a level of over 1000 minutes. They must have left their computer on continuously for over 17 hours(I wonder how much that cost?). You can work in nightclubs as escorts, dancers or bouncers. These jobs apparently pay quite well. There are higher levels of pay but some I would rather not discuss how they are earned.

So, you can earn money by doing a “proper” job. So why beg, at all? I can only think it’s because it’s the first “real life” thing you learn in Second Life. Even before you register, you’re told about begging. It’s also naughty, therefore fun! Also it’s not REAL work.

But there are enough residents in Second Life who get upset about begging and believe that something ought to be done about it, for it to be taken seriously by “The Authorities”.

“Ban them “, I am told. “Kick them about a bit and THEN ban them” Phew; strong feelings! “How do they know that begging is wrong?” I ask “Common sense”, “It’s obvious”, “Of course, they should know, “everybody knows it’s wrong” come the replies.

There are two sides to this argument, The “Newbies” and their helpers. On the one side and those of us who are settled in and living and working in a real world, on the other. So, what can be done about it? I asked some residents... Without exception, they were strongly opposed to it and suggested strong action against it, from the residents and from Linden Lab, themselves. It is believed that beggars will go to dozens of groups with the same message and some residents respond by paying the L$1 required. Apparently this can mount up to enough money to buy a shape or a skin. A big prize; indeed.

There does seem to be a problem, but it is on one side, apparently. There is a great divide between “Newbies” and long-term settled residents, with homes and work or jobs and a history in Second Life. So where does the solution come from?

People will soon learn the etiquette of Second life and find work or dip into their RL pockets to fund their lives here, or leave. Very many have done that. There are job agencies in SL, there are valuable skills to be learned which will earn a good income, once mastered. For the individual who started off begging, then learned trade or started a business, found his or her funding, the problem is over. But a new wave join up and it starts all over again.

So, it is an SL-wide problem and will never go away unless tackled on that scale. Banning it, punishing the perpetrators as criminals, as some have suggested, is too totalitarian and leaving it to the offended resident to complain and ban or mute the offending party is too lax. Perhaps more emphasis should be put on teaching Second Life etiquette on the Help Island, making sure that the newcomers REALLY know not to beg and what to do so that they don’t need to beg. Also a more concerted effort in creating and finding jobs and opportunities for new residents and bringing it to their attention.

There ARE agencies out there but they are competing with each other and most offer very little. Several I have seen have huge walls covered with empty posters with a scattered few announcing camping or FREE MONEY. It is hardly enough to meet the reportedly huge demand from the daily influx of “Newbies”.

Perhaps there should be a Grid-wide network of Job Centres, financed and monitored by Linden Lab, sharing work and training information, to ensure that everyone, wherever they arrive or live in Second life has access to them. Or is that too much like Big Brother, too much like Real Life? Maybe begging is just something we can decide to accept or do something about, on an individual basis Second life is like that, isn’t ?

Kim Trefusis