As someone who's never taken the dive into second life I find the entire idea absurd. Here I read about people meeting in virtual coffee shops, having virtual conversations, going to virtual parties and I can help but as myself the obvious question. Why?
Why not physically leave your house, meet at physical coffee shops, have physical conversation and go physically to parties?
It's too simple to merely dismiss it that way. There are people that spend their time (and money) investing in this virtual world. I guess the appeal of an alternate (second?) life could be a draw, to be anyone, to go anywhere, to do anything.
But that immediately brings back, because when push comes to shove you weren't anyone, you went nowhere and did nothing.
I find it interesting in the first article that the Author concludes by talking about logging off and eating dinner with his wife. He could have left it at the virtual cocktail party, typed a period, and closed his laptop, but he chose to add an extra paragraph about returning to the real world, cooking dinner and spending the evening with the woman he loves.
No second life could, or should, ever take the place of your first.
With anonymity comes the moral hazard. The author of the second article talks about the surreality of his surroundings, going to strip clubs, and on more than one occasion having to turn his avatar's virtual eyes away.
The virtual world, in my opinion, incorporates most of the bad and none of the good of real life. There are no smells, tastes, or sensations other than what can be stimulated by sight and sound, transmitted through miles of wire in Ones and Zeros.
I think I'll stay in the real world.
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