secondlife, second life, 2life, 2ndlife, news, newspaper,
Rawstorne seeks sleaze in Second Life
In last weeks Daily Mail (Friday 14th November, 2008), Tom Rawstorne authored a column titled: Living a Second Life, a fantasy world awash with sex and porn. An editorial that portrays Second Life as a pool of virtual sleaze and immorality.
As if taking up the baton from the late Mary Whitehouse, Rawstorne proclaims that Second Life is no more than a “computer arcade game and a hardcore porn film”. This he learns from the fact that he created an account with Linden Labs and from the minute he appeared in-world, where ever he went he was confronted with explicit material and avatars indulging in simulated sex.
Tomahawk Tomsen, the SL name Rawstorne elected for himself (/me wonders if Tomahawk is a euphemism), discovered what he surveyed as “most worrying” but, of course, deemed it necessary to nose around more. Well, he is a newsperson, a competent one at that, right?
So, how did it turn out that Rawstorne was presented with this disgusting material? Was it that Linden Labs created a special “Orgy Orientation Island” to greet him and then go on to set his default Home location to (an unheard-of) “Adult Ahern”? No, no, no. Rawstorne hit the Search button and eagerly pursued the content.
He makes claim that he came across a whole catalog of sex orientated places in a list of the top ten most favoured locations. I would assume from his acount that he is referring to the “Popular Places” tab in the Search window of the Second Life Viewer. But wait a second, that choice was discontinued months ago and succeded by “Showcase” which doesn't (supposedly) rely on avatar traffic numbers.
Looking on the same day as the publication, when I look at the list of places under the Showcase tab, I see the top 3 being in the "Education & Non-Profit" category (Stanford University, Princeton University and Harvard Law School, respectively). These places are followed by a large number of cultural, artistic, musical and fashionable sites - but nothing sex related.
Rawstorne intimates that he created a virtual persona to probe what he views as “deeply disturbing stuff” and to write his article. However, his reference to “Popular Places” meant that he had been on to the Second Life grid sometime ago and upon looking at his in-world profile you will see that he actually registered his alter ego on 30 January 2007. Which would suggest this story was probably just sitting on his hard drive and was dragged out to be concurrent with the other report the newspaper ran the sameday on a woman divorcing her husband because of his cheating in Second Life. Or it was maybe, as Crap Mariner tenders in his blog post, Signals, that Rawstorne had to quickly put together an article to cover up being caught in Second Life in office hours.
Either way his narrative of the virtual world has been written entirely for sensationalism, is out of date and fails to recognise the diversity of the environment or the residents. It’s akin to creating a headline “London, a city awash with sex and porn” and writing an article focusing on what goes on in SoHo. I am not saying there isn't any adult imagery in SL (anyone can upload an image file) but, in my observations, it is about as commonplace as sound governmental decision making!
In the circles of public relations, when a spin doctor becomes the story, it’s time to move on. Now that Rawstorne’s article has made him the focus of attention maybe the Daily Mail will use this as an excuse to remove him from Derry Street. As for a new career, perhaps he can either get himself an appointment with Linden Labs as Anti-sleaze Linden or get a freelance hack position with a pseudo SL newspaper - they love to blog self-involved, inadequately investigated, zero purpose, content free articles.
Oh and by the way Mr. Tom Tomahawk “Look at my Chopper” Tomsen Rawstorne, “transporting” in Second Life (and many other virtual worlds) is actually called “teleporting”. It maybe splitting hairs but it further shows your article to be inadequately thought out.
As if taking up the baton from the late Mary Whitehouse, Rawstorne proclaims that Second Life is no more than a “computer arcade game and a hardcore porn film”. This he learns from the fact that he created an account with Linden Labs and from the minute he appeared in-world, where ever he went he was confronted with explicit material and avatars indulging in simulated sex.
Tomahawk Tomsen, the SL name Rawstorne elected for himself (/me wonders if Tomahawk is a euphemism), discovered what he surveyed as “most worrying” but, of course, deemed it necessary to nose around more. Well, he is a newsperson, a competent one at that, right?
So, how did it turn out that Rawstorne was presented with this disgusting material? Was it that Linden Labs created a special “Orgy Orientation Island” to greet him and then go on to set his default Home location to (an unheard-of) “Adult Ahern”? No, no, no. Rawstorne hit the Search button and eagerly pursued the content.
He makes claim that he came across a whole catalog of sex orientated places in a list of the top ten most favoured locations. I would assume from his acount that he is referring to the “Popular Places” tab in the Search window of the Second Life Viewer. But wait a second, that choice was discontinued months ago and succeded by “Showcase” which doesn't (supposedly) rely on avatar traffic numbers.
Looking on the same day as the publication, when I look at the list of places under the Showcase tab, I see the top 3 being in the "Education & Non-Profit" category (Stanford University, Princeton University and Harvard Law School, respectively). These places are followed by a large number of cultural, artistic, musical and fashionable sites - but nothing sex related.
Rawstorne intimates that he created a virtual persona to probe what he views as “deeply disturbing stuff” and to write his article. However, his reference to “Popular Places” meant that he had been on to the Second Life grid sometime ago and upon looking at his in-world profile you will see that he actually registered his alter ego on 30 January 2007. Which would suggest this story was probably just sitting on his hard drive and was dragged out to be concurrent with the other report the newspaper ran the sameday on a woman divorcing her husband because of his cheating in Second Life. Or it was maybe, as Crap Mariner tenders in his blog post, Signals, that Rawstorne had to quickly put together an article to cover up being caught in Second Life in office hours.
Either way his narrative of the virtual world has been written entirely for sensationalism, is out of date and fails to recognise the diversity of the environment or the residents. It’s akin to creating a headline “London, a city awash with sex and porn” and writing an article focusing on what goes on in SoHo. I am not saying there isn't any adult imagery in SL (anyone can upload an image file) but, in my observations, it is about as commonplace as sound governmental decision making!
In the circles of public relations, when a spin doctor becomes the story, it’s time to move on. Now that Rawstorne’s article has made him the focus of attention maybe the Daily Mail will use this as an excuse to remove him from Derry Street. As for a new career, perhaps he can either get himself an appointment with Linden Labs as Anti-sleaze Linden or get a freelance hack position with a pseudo SL newspaper - they love to blog self-involved, inadequately investigated, zero purpose, content free articles.
Oh and by the way Mr. Tom Tomahawk “Look at my Chopper” Tomsen Rawstorne, “transporting” in Second Life (and many other virtual worlds) is actually called “teleporting”. It maybe splitting hairs but it further shows your article to be inadequately thought out.
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