The Alphaville Herald has done it again, featured an article on sionChickens. This time it’s based on a talk called “On Chickens” by a scholarly chap named Patrick Davison. More a perfomance piece than a conclusive study, the talk somehow comes to the conclusion that sionChickens explain the possible meaning of second Life.
In the ‘On Chickens’ talk (given that the Alphaville Herald doesn’t actually state where and why such a talk took place) we are taken from a rudimentary presentation of the sionChicken economy within Second Life to a conclusion that Second Life is about – um, people fighting other people. In between there is a bypass into another text-only metaculture where a group of college students forced deviant sexual acts upon some other game users (had nobody heard of the ‘off’ button at that point?).
sionChickens to a past sexual deviancy to the meaning of life, all in one fell swoop. It’s the kind of talk I wish I really could have gone to, just for the sheer performance and entertainment value.It’s also one that doesn’t take itself too seriously, but the topic does bring up some interesting thoughts.
Accompanied helpfully by quite a few Alphaville inserted images for the talk, as much as it appears to be about sionChickens, I would basically maintain that you could take any sub-economy or sub-culture in Second Life, and make of it any conclusions you want. It’s not just for sionChickens. It’s not just for Christmas.
Second Life is full of people from real life (take away the ‘bots, that is). In fact Second Life is full of people twice, three times or several times over if you were to count their alt avatars also.
You can come up with the meaning – or objectives – of particular groups in first life just as easily, and most of us spend a lot of time doing that. Sometimes even over the neighbourhood fence, or while spending time in the bathroom, or is that just me? So why would it be any different for any of us moving into second life?
Is SL about people fighting other people because we all have differing objectives in the usage of the game or certain elements of it? Yes, of course. Is SL about a lot more than that? Yes, of course. Take away the term ‘Second’ and you simply have ‘Life’. Try to explain the meaning of life, then. Unless it’s ‘49’, that is.
Alphaville perhaps needs to get off the sionChicken spiel a little, though, in my opinion. The Breedable world has moved on a lot since sionChicken-Gate or whatever. In fact, the sionChicken game within Second Life is incredibly quiet at the moment, as presumably Sion Zaius goes about his ambitious new project of programming for the sionLife brand.
There is much more fodder to be had with people fighting other people (or disagreeing, complaining, getting bored with, selling up, cursing, getting into, buying up, supporting, analysing, chatting about, building entire stores and brands and secondary products for, and – oh, testing) in all of the other Breedable markets than remaining focussed on the first and pioneering breedables that happen to be chickens. And I’ve not even started to mention the sheer volume of learnings we could take away from all the breedables about economics, marketing and business, both good and bad examples of all of that.
With Petable Turtle farmers busying themselves with complaints the secondary market isn’t sustainable (in some factions only) yet more and more Breedable markets are opening and advertising for renters, and then you have customers chomping at the bit for the final versions of both HunnyBunny and Ozimals bunnies. Yes, the Breedable world is an interesting place to watch and indeed live amongst at this moment. Any section of it could well do with an analysis of the group and individual dynamics at play.
It’s also bloody fun.
So, read the Alphaville’s post of Patrick Davison’s ‘On Chickens’ talk, and then read the comments below the Alphaville article. I’m with the commenter who suggests they have a dream to write a PhD on the subject of sionChickens. Now, if I could get away with it, I’d love to get a degree in philosophy (or is it psychology? or group forensic psychology? or is it simply technology?) based on a concise case study on a virtual animal and the economic and socio-dynamic markets my case study sits within. That would also be bloody fun.
URL : Alphaville Herald – Egghead Studies Second Life Chickens – Clucks to Shocking Conclusion!!!
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