CNET News reports the denisons of the virtual world Second Life are getting together in real life at the second Second Life Community Conference. Even as it seems that people meeting online are getting together offline with increasing frequency, I’m always reminded of the line from Ghostbusters about not crossing the streams. In this case, the streams being your real life with the virtual one. In retrospect, I suppose these meetups are inevitable. A recent study done at the University of Illinois showed that playing some online games may increase the player’s sociability. Second Life is more of a virtual world than a game in the traditional sense, so the sociability enhancement factor would probably be greater relative to other MMOGs. I wonder if people will cosplay as their online avatars?
Custom avatars aside, I really don’t believe that a person’s online personality can differ too much from their offline one. The virtual world can allow unprecedented freedom of expression, which unfortunately some manifest in a negative way. But generally people act from their inner core personality. Maintaining a convincing alternate personality requires a lot of work, so observed over time the online personality is probably indicative of the offline one in most cases. I’ve crossed the streams a few times this year and the world hasn’t blown up just yet!