I don't know why, but I still read the Second Life Herald from time to time. When I saw an article about sims that try to replicate Upper East Side NYC connected to a TV series I'd never heard of, called Gossip Girl, I was idly curious, and went to take a look. (The article mentioned something about some kind of HUD for reading and spreading gossip about residents; that set my teeth on edge, but I saw no evidence of it in my short exploration.)
It seemed nice enough, though one spot that had a facade that proved just to be a door in front of a wall (sort of like the old parody ad about "Great Book Spines of the Western World") was a little disappointing. Eventually I came across a couple of people.
One asked me what I was thinking. I told her I'd read about the sims in the SL Herald and thought I'd come take a look. The other asked if I could wear something "a bit more PG".
"More PG than a sweater?" I asked, having on a turtleneck sweater and jeans. I went on my way, not wanting to interrupt the conversation.
Eventually I came upon a clothing store. The clothing was OK, but the signs used a truly wretched all-caps font suggestive of the Victorian era (how is it that a time with such lovely clothing and architecture could have been the utter cesspool of typography that it was.... the worst around until the "grunge" typography of the late 20th century. Even if one doesn't share my opinion of the type of that era, it was totally wrong for the clothing they were selling).
UPDATE: The font is called "Algerian".
Shortly someone approached and told me that this was a PG sim, and asked that I remove prim body parts. I thanked her for letting me know, and teleported home.
Consulting imdb.com turned up that the series is based on a (cheesy sounding, but that's just me, perhaps) series of books for teens.
It's their sim, and they can set the rules. I don't object to that, but I wonder whether they could do such a thing in RL.
UPDATE: Actually, more vile than cheesy, judging by Naomi Wolf's article in the NY Times about the Gossip Girl books and similar series targeting teenage girls.
1 comment:
(Sigh) they can. And they have. Or at least they tried. It's one thing to wear an outrageous body in SL but totally another to have one in RL. It's been mentioned before, SL is all about a virtual world where anything is possible. Folks have brought their narrow mindset from the real world into the virtual realm and tried to make others conform. It's a touchy area when one determines what is acceptable in a given sim as YOUR definition of PG may not match mine. I think most folks can agree that being fully clothed matches "PG". So what to do when even a heavy coat doesn't hide your curves? I've had many strangers approach me and tell me to "do something about those things" yet in 30 years not one has offered any practical suggestions. Get a life people! And some tolerance to go along with it. Virtual communities have shrunk the globe one step further, bringing us closer than any medium so far. We need to accept each other as we are not as we think others shoud be.
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