The illusion of immersion, and people’s notions of Khamon’s voice pattern, gender, and race, aren’t concerns for me. If they were, I’d not attend SLCC or reference my real life email address in these types of posts.

But I’ll bet you a box of unglazed chocolate frosted doughnuts that I get lumped into the singular category of panic and trepidation that somebody might hear me. It seems to be the only reason anyone can comprehend for not using voice. God I hate these binary wars that require we all fit exactly the same mold according the “side” we’ve chosen to support.

Fiend, some cool ideas here. I’m all for comparing and contrasting the completely immersive aspects of the SL experience with the ritualistic nature of religious belief systems. In fact it appears many people already approach SL with a religious fervour. This is both scary and reassuring (and to be honest, I’m a born-again atheist in RL).

From your chat with Pixeleen .. “..when you mix real life in [to SL] it ruins the immersion? The Lindens are falling all over themselves to ruin immersion, [for example] that ‘voice’ mistake they want to make – this is more of that.’ ‘Do you think Tenshi Vielle was trying making that point, though?’ I asked. ‘Yes.’ Pix said. At least one commenter agrees with her..”

I should clarify a couple of things (no big deal as I may have misinterpreted your application of “agree”); Pixeleen may well have seen immersion as a core issue but I don’t think Tenshi had this in mind when posting her article. It certainly didn’t sound like that in the entries posted to explain/defend her position.

I guess in my post I was trying to present both sides of the immersion/augmentation reaction to Voice, and the parallels evident in the reaction to Tenshi’s article. However I’m not convinced that LL are necessarily trying to ruin “immersion”. I think it’s fair to take their slogan “Your World. Your Imagination.” at face value, that we as residents can decide what our SL experience is. LL is adding a tool for the augmentation crowd, but the immersion crowd can choose to keep using the tools they already have.

But yes I do agree that for many users the mix of RL that say Voice represents, will ruin the immersive structure they have fashioned around their SL presence. This need not be the case, however: they don’t have to resist or purge Voice, all they need to do is find a way to let it coexist in parallel with their presence. It won’t be as hard as some people think. In the same way, the ideas of a young SL journalist can coexist with those of a successful SL fashion guru. Perhaps each has different ideas about the source of integrity and honesty, but in the end these things come from the same place. All we need to do is remember that we have the tools at our disposal to make this virtuality what we want it to be.

Yours truly

… and my second analogy here would be to examine SMS vs. voice use in mobile phones

I embrace SL fully as something different to a lot of the new tools for old jobs stuff where people use chatrooms and social networking like MySpace to connect their real self to more real people. I want to come on SL to not be me and I want to relate to people not as their RL selves but as dynamic transient figments born in the world of imagination and fantasy. I quite like a place where you aren’t constrained by all the tradition and ritual of the real world, I’m not looking for any kind of fixed relationships or friendships and all the fuss, hang ups and commitments that come along with that.

In SL I can change in an instant and look and act like a completely different person lets make the most of that aspect of the Cyberworld rather than trying to recreate an arena for RL interaction. Voice is a really bad idea and could well kill what SL represented for many people.

SL ought to be a world where things come into creation in an instant and can disappear just as quickly tied by little or no physical rules. In other words not an extension of our physical selves but an extension of our imagination. You see that’s what worlds like SL really represent a place where people can for the first time inhabit each others creative imaginings and I for one love that.

HHAHAHAHHAHAHHA! Forgot to laugh at that part. Seriously, she can’t foresee a worth of shit. What she really saying…

She screwed up, but decided to play cover up, pretending crap on crap. Stop trying to fool me, that’s just much as calling people, your own readers a retard.

Fiend Ludwig, it’s best not to stink your “image” with them as deep shit they are in. ….oh, never mind.

You should pay attention to Op/Ed post The New Priests in Second Life Herald. It is a nice analytical view on RL/SL relationship. One comment on the other post summarizes it:
The way many residents feel about SL is that its an *extension* of RL,…