Second Life: Amsterdam Island

Prompted by a comment on an earlier SL post I made, I decided to search for Amsterdam Island within SL. After a bit of exploring, I found it and, to be honest, the creators have done a somewhat decent job of recreating parts of the real city.

The canals and boardwalks are represented and do hold a bit of the actual city's charm..


And we even find an homage to one of the many churches in a-dam...


Of course, it wouldn't be true re-creation without the red curtains and shady peeps of the Red Light District.


While I've been enjoying exploring Second Life, Alyson's post did get me thinking. It doesn't surprise me really, that crime finally popped up in this world. It's unfortunate though; I approached Second Life as a leisure activity, and (perhaps naively) didn't think about the other implications.

What does it say about us? Even in a world where, we don't have to eat, we don't have to sleep, we need literally nothing to be alive, there are still those among us that would choose to take what they don't own, to hurt those who don't deserve it, to corrupt a world that was once pure (relatively speaking)?

Not that I claim to be perfect by any means, but it just got me thinking. What sparked the need to steal, to be violent, to pollute this virtual world? Was Ghandi wrong? Are people not inherently good? Do we actually desire to hurt one another?

Though I still have great interest in expolring Second Life, its a trip to think that, what I approached as an opportunity to explore new media, others found it to be a way to steal from, hurt, and cheat other people. A damn shame.