Its true! In an effort to bring the world into alignment with mainstream culture, no one in the entire virtual world is required in any way to participate in any activities they don't care to be involved in! This is considered a milestone in virtual world development.
Oddly, no press release was involved in this sea change concept. In fact, no software was changed, or even the license agreements for using the software. In fact, the only thing that changed was the mentality of the users. In an incredible leap forward, Second Life citizens are taking control of their own lives, and simply saying "no" to doing things they didn't want to do in the first place.
In fact, recently uncovered documentation reveals that participating in sexual activities in Second Life actually involves spending money to buy sexy clothing, body parts and sexual aids to facilitate such activities. "This is a lot of work" exclaimed one customer overheard while shopping. "And expensive!" he went on to say, while entering his credit card information. Many potential virtual world users, when made aware of this were shocked.
"I always thought sex was like, well you know, required in Second Life" said Joe Dunderhead, a recent citizen in the world. "I mean, all the people that I talked to that never even had memberships in Second Life said it was required, so I just, you know, believed them. I've been looking since I got here, and haven't seen any yet!"
This has actually come as a complete shock to many fundamental religious groups that had soundly condemned Second Life for what they believed were its policies, even though they had never actively investigated those policies themselves.
"We're having to rethink things" stated Jeffery Falwell of the "'Jesus never had sex' Church" in Minnesota. "I mean, up until now, everyone thought that aberrant behavior was being forced on virtual world users. Now to find out that its an act of will - that users have to actually make a conscious decision and vigorously pursue having sex in the virtual world, well this changes everything". Mr. Falwell went on to explain that the founding principles of Christian religion are based on free choice, which apparently Second Life has now embraced fully. "With 'free choice', people are free to do - or not do - whatever they like. This has profound implications."
Oddly, not all virtual worlds have embraced such a concept. Many have taken the route of preventing users from performing many activities, and been touted as taking the high ground. Steve Smith from the Center for Doing What I Damn Well Please insisted that this is a landmark approach to software development. "For many years, Microsoft has influenced us all into believing that everyone should do things one way - that there was only one right way to do things. This literally opens up a world of possibilities where people make the software do what they want, instead of the other way around."
There have still been many cries of "foul" from religious groups. "This is unnatural!" was the headline in a recent fundamental religious tabloid. "The idea that people are given choice in their lives is ridiculous. We don't have control over taxes. We don't have control over healthcare or our government. Why should we have control over our software?"
Linden Labs officials were not available for comment, but it is widely believed that the idea of making software answer to its users actually predates the virtual world, and goes back to the beginning of time itself.
In an off-camera interview a citizen was quoted as saying "Do what you want? Kind of seems... natural".
No comments:
Post a Comment