Ever since I heard about Second Life or CSI or Law or Order I’ve been waiting to run an episode about online phenomena. When SVU aired on Tuesday, October 2, with an episode that touched on money, sex, the internet and avatars, it wasn’t far off what was happening in Second Life.
From the people who play there, the hits and more, Second Life actually offers a system where people are accused of sex on the Internet with avatars, and Second Life money can be exchanged for real money. So, in all honesty, it’s a situation that the petitioner has to use in a drama-related crime.
As we watched the story unfold, I had to wonder if the owners of Second Life were crying because of an event within the game (called Another Universe in the episode) in real life.
I’ll be honest now. I went to Second Life almost twice. My laptop can’t handle the graphics and it didn’t hold any real interest for me. I’m an old player rpg player, and if I’m going to do online rpg’s it will be text based HTML chat ones, or message boards It depends because, quite frankly, it’s more interesting to me. But what little I saw in Second Life made it clear that another Universe was heavily based on that system. It can be downloaded to include your custom avatar, virtual world and gender. I wrote another article for AC also with the name of a woman, the elections in the Netherlands are running this year, I asked for sex for votes, or rather oral sex for votes, and one of the options for that role I got through the second life.
Before anyone jumps on me for this, we are well aware that Second Life has tried to prevent minors from entering the game/system where adults trade by using credit cards, passports and other means of checking age. . However, this does not prevent the fact that the actual event was depicted in SVU. No, I don’t mean a real life rapture. Avatar I say is a 14 old girl, selling herself for sex in an online sex club
Am I the only one who was put off as the kidnapped girl’s boyfriend explained what they were doing and rejected it because it didn’t hurt? Before anyone says ‘hey what about the age of the story age’ you can see the difference between the age of the story in real life, first hand, that a person pretending to be 14, or 16, is really older. You know, there is no doubt that there is no faith in the virtual world I call the rules more about the trap.
It’s a warning storyline, as many of SVU’s and Law and Order have been in the past. And, as a whole, it was a compelling story, as it was written to the horrors and attacks of the Guardians, as can be done on the net. It worked well, for me, and this with a woman who has been chatting on the net since 1998 and does have a html chat site which is actually coming back online.
Will it make you stop and think about some of the characters you line up in games like Second Life? Alas, I doubt it. The people themselves were so affected by this story that it was unimaginable to look at the matter from the beginning. So although it was an interesting and well thought out episode, if the creators of SVU were looking for more social impact (which they have been known to do in the past) I’m sorry to say that this missed the mark. The best has a few in arms. Some, like myself, were sitting there cracking and shaking our heads, and others were going, “What’s up, it’s a game.”
