Abstract
That bodily, social, geographical or financial constraints play a less important role in virtual worlds like Second Life (SL) than in real life (RL) does not imply, as many of SL’s inhabitants seem to assume implicitly, that it is a place much like RL only without any burdening constraints whatsoever. The simple transposition of everyday objects (car, house, etc.) and actions (driving a car, making love, etc.) from an RL to an SL context ignores the fact that every digital world has its own “affordances” and “constraints” (cf. Norman, Latour). I argue that acting upon the specific affordances and constraints which govern one’s environment, whether it is in RL or SL, allows for a more mature and enlightened way of living. As an inspiring example of such an enlightened way of relating to one’s digitally simulated environment the work of code-performer Gazira Babeli is presented. Moreover I argue that a heightened awareness of the affordances and constraints could also be useful from a legal perspective for two reasons. Firstly, because this heightened awareness allows one to go beyond the idea of simple transposition and move towards more accurate and productive ways of legally qualifying those behaviors within digital worlds which are perceived (at least by some) as being unethical or obnoxious (so-called “virtual” theft or murder, consensual role-play rape in SL, etc.). Secondly, a law which is created in order to regulate the life of enlightened inhabitants, that is inhabitants who are aware of the affordances and constraints of their digital environment, will differ from a law that is aimed at users who merely live their digital lives based on the surface level.
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- 1.
A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). See <http://www.worldofwarcraft.com> (last visited June 3, 2010).
- 2.
This massively multiplayer online (MMO) management game does no longer exist. Electronic Arts, the publisher of Sims Online, closed the game down in 2008.
- 3.
A MMO social game. See <http://secondlife.com> (last visited June 3, 2010).
- 4.
Ivan Andreevich Krylov, “The Monkey and the Spectacles,” In The Russian Fabulist Krilof and His Fables, ed. William Ralston Shedden Ralston (London: Strahan and co., 1869), 121.
- 5.
Ibid., 122.
- 6.
As one of the anonymous reviewers of this paper kindly pointed out, the term “virtual” is rather confusing in this context. Even though it is very common to use the expression “virtual worlds” in order to oppose it to the “real world”, all the interactions, interactions and events which are performed, entertained or happening in this so-called “virtual” world are no less real than their counterparts in the “real” world. Thus, the philosopher Deleuze famously argued that the “real” and the “virtual” are no opposing concepts – only the “actual” and the “virtual” are. See e.g. Gilles Deleuze, “L’actuel Et Le Virtuel,” In Dialogues, ed. Gilles Deleuze and Claire Parnet (Paris: Flammarion, 1996), Gilles Deleuze, Bergsonism (New York: Zone, 1991). Nevertheless, both the actual and the virtual belong to the realm of the real. In order to avoid too many conceptual complications I try to stick as much as possible to the word “digital”, instead of the more equivocal “virtual”. However, the adjective virtual has become so commonplace with regard to certain phenomena that in certain instances (e.g. “virtual goods” or “virtual rape”) it was impossible to circumvent it.
- 7.
Langdon Winner, “Do Artifacts Have Politics?,” In The Whale and the Reactor: A Search for Limits in an Age of High Technology, ed. Langdon Winner (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1986), 28–29. The chapter is a reprint from: Langdon Winner, “Do Artifacts Have Politics?,” Daedelus 109, 1 (1980).
- 8.
Bruno Latour, “Where Are the Missing Masses? The Sociology of a Few Mundane Artifacts,” In Shaping Technology/Building Society: Studies in Sociotechnical Change, ed. Wiebe E. Bijker and John Law (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1992), 232.
- 9.
Donald A. Norman, The Design of Everyday Things (New York, NY: Doubleday/Currency, 1990).
- 10.
Donald A. Norman, The Invisible Computer: Why Good Products Can Fail, the Personal Computer Is So Complex, and Information Appliances Are the Solution (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998), 123.
- 11.
Ibid.
- 12.
Ibid.
- 13.
Ibid.
- 14.
Ibid., 124.
- 15.
Miguel Sicart, The Ethics of Computer Games (Cambridge, MA; London: MIT, 2009), 102.
- 16.
Latour, “Where Are the Missing Masses? The Sociology of a Few Mundane Artifacts,” 232.
- 17.
Madeleine Akrich and Bruno Latour, “A Summary of a Convenient Vocabulary for the Semiotics of Human an Nonhuman Assemblies,” In Shaping Technology/Building Society: Studies in Sociotechnical Change, ed. Wiebe E. Bijker and John Law (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1992), 261.
- 18.
Julian Dibbell, “Introduction,” In Alter Ego. Avatars and Their Creators., edited by Robbie Cooper (London: Chris Boot, 2007).
- 19.
Maartje Bakker and Martine Peters van Ton, “Ilja Pfeijffer: Tussen Kunst En Kritiek,” ANS-Online (Website of the “Algemeen Nijmeegs Studentenblad”) (2007, May), http://www.ans-online.nl.
- 20.
I would like to thank one of the anonymous reviewers for the helpful remark that, psychologically speaking, it is not surprising that people try to have their avatars look in a way that is similar to the way they represent themselves in the physical world: after all, recognition will be more gratifying if it resonates with the personality and characteristics that persons believe are theirs. However, a deeper investigation into the motives for modeling one’s avatar in accordance to one’s appearance in the physical world, falls beyond the scope of this paper.
- 21.
Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, Second Life: Verhalen En Reportages Uit Een Tweede Leven [Second Life: Stories and Reportages from a Second Life] (Amsterdam: De Arbeiderspers, 2007), 44.
- 22.
J. D. Velleman, “Bodies, Selves,” American Imago 65, 3 (2008): 408.
- 23.
Nevertheless one could argue that the mimicry of SL provokes a “ghostly” form of enjoyment, a phenomenon related to what Deleuze called the “technological production of ghosts”. Gilles Deleuze, “Course of 10–23 February 1982 - Two Transcriptions by Carine Baudry,” (1982), http://www.univ-paris8.fr/deleuze/article.php3?id_article=136. I would like to thank one of the anonymous reviewers for this useful reference.
- 24.
See e.g. the fierce discussion following the post “Future and virtual rapists” (December 15, 2006) at http://feministing.com/archives/006218.html
- 25.
- 26.
RuneScape, Gerechtshof Leeuwarden 10 november 2009, LJN: BK2773
- 27.
An adventurous MMORPG set in the Middle Ages. See <http://www.runescape.com/> (last visited June 3, 2010).
- 28.
Such a functional approach is not undisputed. For example, De Hert and Gutwirth argue that the notion of “virtual theft” overlooks the particularities of information which make it ill-suited to be the object of theft. Paul De Hert and Serge Gutwirth, “Informatie: Wel Beschermd, Doch Niet Vatbaar Voor Diefstal. Denkoefeningen over Het Juridisch Statuut Van Informatie Vanop Het Grensvlak Tussen Strafrecht En De Intellectuele Rechten [“Information: Protected, but Not Susceptible to Be the Object of Theft. Reflections from the Border between Criminal an Ip Law on the Legal Statute of Information”],” In Tendenzen in Het Economisch Recht [“Tendencies in Economical Law”], edited by K. Byttebier, E. De Batselier, and R Feltkamp (Antwerpen: Kluwer, 2006).
- 29.
Kerr, “Criminal Law in Virtual Worlds,” 416.
- 30.
A South-Korean MMORPG. See <http://www.maplestory.com/> (last visited June 3, 2010).
- 31.
Martin Kölling, “Virtuelle Gewalt Vor Gericht,” Technology Review (2008, 30 October), http://www.heise.de/tr/blog/artikel/Virtuelle-Gewalt-vor-Gericht-272014.html.
- 32.
Benjamin Duranske, “Reader Roundtable: “Virtual Rape” Claim Brings Belgian Police to Second Life,” Virtually Blind: Virtual Law & Legal Issues that Impact Virtual Worlds (2007, 24 April), http://virtuallyblind.com/2007/04/24/open-roundtable-allegations-of-virtual-rape-bring-belgian-police-to-second-life/.
- 33.
Michael Bugeja, “Avatar Rape,” Inside Higher Ed (2010, February 25), http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2010/02/25/bugeja.
- 34.
Some prefer to speak of “sexual griefing” instead of virtual rape Kimban, Dandellion [pseudonym], “Many Ways to Rape,” Living in the Metaverse. Gonzo phenomenology of virtual worlds (2007), http://metaverse.acidzen.org/2007/many-ways-to-rape.
- 35.
Julian Dibbell, “A Rape in Cyberspace. How an Evil Clown, a Haitian Trickster Spirit, Two Wizards, and a Cast of Dozens Turned a Database into a Society,” The Village Voice, no. (23 December 1993) (1993), http://www.villagevoice.com/2005-10-18/specials/a-rape-in-cyberspace/.
- 36.
Julian Dibbell, My Tiny Life: Crime and Passion in a Virtual World (London: Fourth Estate, 1999), 11, Dibbell, “A Rape in Cyberspace. How an Evil Clown, a Haitian Trickster Spirit, Two Wizards, and a Cast of Dozens Turned a Database into a Society.”
- 37.
Dibbell, “A Rape in Cyberspace. How an Evil Clown, a Haitian Trickster Spirit, Two Wizards, and a Cast of Dozens Turned a Database into a Society.”
- 38.
A post (20 October 2009) reacting at Duranske (“Reader Roundtable: “Virtual Rape” Claim Brings Belgian Police to Second Life”) recalls how one can be tricked into having virtual sex with a double: “It may seem impossible…and outlandish, but I actually experiences being raped in SL a few weeks ago by an avatar pretending to be an alt of someone I am very friendly with. I fell for the deception (stupidly). This individual posted videos some real some fake on two SL websites to hurt our reputation and Linden Labs is not able to do anything about these sites. I am still traumatized and upset by the whole incident and it has had terrible ripple effects into both of our real lives and our community in sl. If one looks as Second Life as just game of pixels with cartoon character who have sex sometimes or shoot each other…then rape does not exist. Some people see it as is just a game and that is their prerogative, that is the freedom of SL. They put in their profile sl = sl rl = rl for example. For others, their avatars in SL are surrogates for and extensions of their real life selves. It is these people who are vulnerable to all the joys and sorrow and even rape (unfortunately) of the “real world”. Many come to Second Life thinking that it is just a game and then discover as they grow “older” that there are real people behind the avis”.
- 39.
A post (29 October 2008) reacting at the entry “Rape again” on the blog Living in the Metaverse. Gonzo phenomenology of virtual worlds, by Dandellion Kimban describes the sexual harassment that can occur to new and naïve inhabitants of SL: “[…] 2 h after I became a new resident of SL I went to see […] a huge desert setting of an ancient alien civilization. No one else was there. About 20 min after being there I suddenly had two [avatars] standing one foot away from me, a guy and a girl. The guy had voice chat and was commenting on my butt, saying how good in bed he was…it really freaked me out. I walked away as fast as I could and they followed. The girl (if it was a girl) said “oh how fun, follow the leader”. I finally realized I could teleport out (my second teleport ever). It shook me. I didn’t even know about the abuse button. It was attempted mental rape. They were getting their jollies from sexually harassing someone who was clearly new to SL, and the fact there were two of them made it even more scary. I will never forget it. I am not damaged by it because I am old enough to chalk it up to an experience, but it was unforgivable behavior. […] Some wouldn’t be able to handle it mentally as well as I did. In some circumstances I think it should be a crime.” Available at: http://metaverse.acidzen.org/2007/rape-again Victims of any kind of harassment in SL can report this (http://secondlife.com/policy/security/harassment.php) but how complaints are handled is not completely clear.
- 40.
Regina Lynn, “Virtual Rape Is Traumatic, but Is It a Crime?,” Wired, no. (5 April 2007) (2007), http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/commentary/sexdrive/2007/05/sexdrive_0504.
- 41.
Kerr, “Criminal Law in Virtual Worlds.”
- 42.
- 43.
Michel Foucault, “Le Triomphe Social Du Plaisir Sexuel: Une Conversation Avec Michel Foucault [“the Social Triumph of the Sexual Will: A Conversation with Michel Foucault”, Interview Held in 1981 and Originally Published In “Christopher Street”, 6, 4, May 1982, p. 36–41]” In Dits Et Écrits Ii, 1976–1988, ed. D. Defert and F. Ewald (Paris: Gallimard, 2001), 1150.
- 44.
Domenico Quaranta, “Gaz’, Queen of the Desert,” in Catalogue Text for the Exhibition Gazira Babeli – [Collateral Damage], Exhibita, Odyssey, Second Life, April 16 / June, 2007, Curated by Sugar Seville and Beavis Palowakski (2007).
- 45.
Information can be found at http://gazirababeli.com/ but of course it is better to experience Gazira’s works in SL in her gallery in the Locusolus region.
- 46.
Quaranta, “Gaz’, Queen of the Desert.”
- 47.
Domenico Quaranta, Gazira Babeli (Brescia: Fabio Paris Editions, 2008), 38–43.
- 48.
Ibid., 39.
- 49.
Plurabelle Posthorn, “Gazira Babeli at Exhibit A,” Virtual Artist Alliance. The official blog for the Virtual Artists Alliance group in You-Know-Where (2007, April 18), http://virtualartistsalliance.blogspot.com/2007/04/gazira-babeli-at-exhibit.html.
- 50.
Quaranta, Gazira Babeli, 11.
- 51.
Ibid., 67.
- 52.
Genesis 2:20, King James Bible.
- 53.
Immanuel Kant. “An Answer to the Question: ‘What Is Enlightenment?’” in Political Writings (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought), ed. H.S. Reiss (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 54
- 54.
Michel Foucault, “What Is Enlightenment?,” in The Foucault Reader, ed. Paul Rabinow (New York, NY: Pantheon, 1984).
- 55.
- 56.
Stiegler blames Foucault for only stressing the disciplining effect of educational systems (putting it at same level as prisons or mental clinics), while ignoring its enlightening effect. Stiegler, Prendre Soin De La Jeunesse Et Des Générations, 208 ff.
- 57.
Ibid., 11 ff.
- 58.
It is important to underline that I do not try to diminish the often astonishing capacities and creativity of children, or to deny the fact that minors (contrary to, for instance Krylov’s weak-sighted monkey) are citizens as much as adults. The distinction to which I refer, that is between responsible adults and minors, is in itself a legal, educational and societal invention and a rather recent one as well – only established after the French revolution. I thank one of the anonymous reviewers for pointing out that in attaching importance to this distinction I could easily be misunderstood as suffering from a pathological hatred of children in general (misopedia).
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de Vries, K. (2011). Avatars Out of Control: Gazira Babeli, Pose Balls and “Rape” in Second Life. In: Gutwirth, S., Poullet, Y., De Hert, P., Leenes, R. (eds) Computers, Privacy and Data Protection: an Element of Choice. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0641-5_11
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