Law & Order: SVU aired their second episode of the season, titled Avatars, last night. The premise was a girl being kidnapped from her home, and through investigating, they discover that she is portraying a 14 year old girl in a virtual world called "Another YOUniverse". There are many similarities between this platform and Second Life.

We are given a tour of the world by a woman with the avatar name of Tawny Coppercuffs. She shows an avatar profile that has transaction history, images, video clips, and pictures of friends. It's something I actually wouldn't mind seeing implemented in Second Life itself. She is friends with the woman that disappeared and knows her by Vixy Platinum. They use AY to explore their sexual fantasies and charge money for their services. It is then revealed that Vixy is an ageplayer that has a large number of clients.

In the next scene, the detectives are explaining the virtual world to their boss. You can buy anything, including virtual real estate, food, and clothing. Just like in the real world. You pay for it in virtual cash, which can be exchanged for real money. At that point, it is time for them to get answers from Eric Winton, the creator of AY. Is it me, or does he look similar to Philip Rosedale, creator of Second Life, in hairstyle and manner of dress?

I won't spoil the ending for you, but I really feel that it portrays virtual worlds in a negative light. Those uninitiated will think that they are only about sex and roleplaying fantasies. While those are a large part of Second Life, we as residents know that there is so much more out there to be done. Did you see the episode? What were your thoughts on it?

What's cute, cuddly, and politically incorrect in every way? Tiny Tardimals! Kyro Kilian, the proprietor of Tardimals HQ, began creating these avatars as an alternative to the more traditional, healthier looking tinies. The initial response to them has been so overwhelming that he's even had to hire sales reps!

Kyro is constantly adding new Tardimals to the lineup, with his latest being a squirrel. He also sells accessories, such as bandanas, glasses, and costumes to wear with your avatar. As soon as they look up at you with their bug eyes and their tongue hanging out, you're hooked. You can find his store in Collins.

Well, no, because (a) your avatar doesn't need sleep or a place to do it in, and (b) you probably can't place the name ElectricArtists. To jog your memory, they were the folks who did Starwood Hotels in SL and all that. Lots of people scratched their heads about that, because, well ... avatars don't need places to sleep, and because the technologically imposed social space of an avatar is about the size of a tennis court (chat range, avatars don't have an inside voice), trying to put private rooms next to each-other doesn't seem like an workable idea. Well, CEO Marc Schiller, of ElectricArtists, had one or two things to say at the Advertising in Social Media Conference.

Unsurprisingly (or surprisingly, depending on how much of a student of human nature you are), one of them was - avatars don't need to sleep, therefore they don't need hotels. We needed some months of gathering resident feedback to figure that out? The rest of his point is well made though. If you're going to market through avatars, be relevant. Lord knows, we have all only been making that point for ages. Maybe people will listen to Schiller.

Avatar Expression is a coffee table book of photographs highlighting various beautiful avatars that Forseti Svarog has come across in-world. As he points out on his homepage: "I should also note that this book is not intended to be a "best of" or "top avatars" or any of that nonsense. There are innumerable brilliant and expressive avatars out there in Second Life; this group just happened to be some of the brilliant and expressive avatars I am lucky enough to know or have introduced to me."

You can get the virtual edition within SL, but Forseti's made a dead tree edition available through lulu.com! I'm dying to pick this up, alongside his other (pending? out of stock?) offering Great Builds of SL, Vol. 1. Please patronize this man, he does wonderful work!

Now this is some serious food for thought. Raph Koster, writer of 'A Theory of Fun For Game Design', and one of the designers of Ultima Online, has taken a stab at creating the virtual worlds' equivalent of the Bill of Rights (that's the first 10 amendments to the Constitution of the United States, for those not in the know). Why has he done this? As one of the leading, or at least most visible architects of the burgeoning online game-playing community, Raph has seen many discussions in which the term 'rights' has been bandied about. For lack of another source to consult (considering that there really is no other source at this stage of MMO development), he's created this: A Declaration of the Rights of Avatars.

Now, I'm certain this document will generate all manner of... interesting discussion. Let's all keep in mind that this document, by its very nature, is merely the first step in the attempt to define a system of rights for the average avatar. It is not meant to be a binding document in any sense. It's merely a stepping-off point -- and a good one, I think. Look it over, or read it through; just make sure you leave yourself a lot of time in which to do it... it's dense.

We know that there are men in Second Life who play as women avatars, and women who play as men. I have never had the urge to be anything other than my own gender; it is what I'm comfortable with, and I doubt my acting ability is strong enough to carry out true female roleplaying. Yet it does happen, though I'd venture to guess that the practice takes on a greater depth and meaning in SL than in, say, World of Warcraft, where it's been written that players choose opposite gendered avatars simply to admire them visually.

In Second Life, with its goal-less play, the vicissitudes of the need for interaction virtually demand a deeper involvement in one's avatar. It's not merely a stand-in for oneself; it's the idealized extension of one's being. How, then, does one play the opposite gender? Is it mere whimsy at first, then a gradual revealing of a hidden nature, heretofore unsuspected? Does one find that, the longer one plays against true, the more comfortable one becomes? Can Second Life be a functional test-run for gender-reassignment ideation?

A flurry of discussion on the forums is prompted by a long essay on the effect that our choices in SL may have upon us as people.

It is an interesting question. I thought that I had got over that initial new-to-online stuff, before I joined SL, because I had already been playing online for about eight months in  Uru. I found that the culture shock i experienced transferring from Uru to Second Life was almost as great as the initial shock I received from joining an online game and seeing another person's avatar for the first time.

In Uru, there were games and quests, and things which held everyone together.  UruLive was still in beta when it ceased operation, and so the people who were in that world all liked Cyan games and were interested in the puzzles and quests that form an integral part of all of them.  SL seemed so vast by comparison -- although a twentieth of the size of the world today, and the number of avatars -- and so open-ended. It required different things from me, and confused me terribly for a while.

Gradually I realized that I needed to find out who I was in this online place. People who have posted to the thread on the forums have pointed out that SL is not real life, and you are faced with possibilities which you are unlikely to face in real life. You can fly. You can kill people. You can become a three-headed dragon.

In the end, though, you are faced with some play/pretend choices: shall I be a tiny mouse today? And you are faced with real choices: shall I ripoff another person's work? Steal textures? Lie about my real life? Seduce that new person? Buy them a car? Wear red clothes and enter a club contest?

The choices have varying levels of risk and reward. Whether we consider ourselves to be role-playing, or playing ourselves, our choices may nevertheless tell us something about ourselves and who we are. The information we gain may be welcome, or may tell us about areas of our lives we don't visit often, intentionally.

Of course, it is possible to buy a tiny avatar, be a mouse, play and mouse and learn nothing about yourself in the process.  But that's very difficult to do. I would say most avatars learn something about themselves ... and I feel I have learned a great deal.