Potential Groups of Study

Pro Wrestling

One of my interests in real life is professional wrestling. Finding this just before the class started, I thought this would be a fun group to study. They appear to be the biggest Second Life wrestling organization, set up with their own arena and the most active group of the few. The only downside, as discussed in class, would that we would need to roleplay in order to fully get involved as a member of the culture. I’ve never actually RP’d anything, so this adds a different element. Since I haven’t done it, I don’t know much about RPing, but my guess is that they take turns explaining what moves they perform on each other, or there are animations for them. I have yet to see a match from this particular organization.

To me, the interest lies in that actual wrestlers live second lives both as a performer and as a person, and the Second Life talent as avatars and humans. What I haven’t found is if avatars themselves live another life (a Third Life?) as a wrestler and an avatar, or just the avatar as the wrestler.

Music

Another interest lies in music, specifically heavy metal – none of that manufactured bull, but music with some good rock n’ roll aspects (southern rock n’ roll is a definite plus). I’ve discovered a few clubs I like that play some all right music, and the people I’ve run into seem friendly, overall. There’s a little discussion, but mostly the avatars hit a giant ball to mosh, or dance. Thankfully this moshing isn’t the dreaded push mosh, but instead a solo kind of dance-around-like-an-idiot type of mosh. I’d be interested to find out why avatars come together to listen to music.

Martial Arts

I have not found a single good karate group that seems to be active – in fact, there doesn’t appear to be much of an audience in Second Life for martial arts. But this other martial art's group I found has over 80 members and says it will create an actual dojo if the popularity is there. I have not received any notices from this, so I’m not sure of the activities. While I don’t have as much experience with this martial art as I do karate in real life, I have learned a number of techniques. The intrigue lies in the fact that martial arts, among other things, is a physical activity – why sit at a computer as your avatar does all the work? Or would a Second Life group focus on the non-physical sides of the martial arts?

Education

I’ve always been interested in education – I’m potentially going to grad school and I’m one of the chief instructors with my karate program. Someday I would like to be a teacher in some capacity. Anyway, I took a look at a few of the educational/learning areas in Second Life from The Professor’s notecard. None of them had anybody to talk to. The places I looked at were a healthcare spot, a group trying to raise funds for malaria in Africa, and a Second Life campus.

Religion

Again, as with education, the places I looked at from The Professor’s notecard were pretty barren, so I wasn’t inclined to stick around very long. One monastery did have some information in various places. I’m interested to look into various religions studying in Second Life and how they do what they do.