One Culture in Second Life
There are many different cultures in Second Life. One of the cultures that I was involved in was a group of people interested in alternative sexual lifestyles, specifically virtual BDSM. In this virtual culture, there were Masters and Mistresses, submissives, and slaves. In this culture of Dominance and submission (D/s), there were clubs and locations dedicated to these interests and virtual equipment of all types for role-playing. In one of these locations, a person who identified as a Master could find a person who identified as a slave and control them using a virtual scripted collar. Among the functions these scripted collars is ability of the Dominant avatar to put the submissive avatar into various obedient poses.
One way to learn if another person was Dominant or submissive in the virtual world of Second Life was to look at their profile. To see the profile of any Second Life user all that is needed is to right click on their avatar and from the pop-up menu select Profile. One critical piece of information displayed in every profile is the creation date of that avatar. In the culture of Second Life BDSM groups the older a person’s avatar is the higher their status is. At some point Linden Lab stopped issuing last names for avatars, and after that all new Second Life users had the same generic last name of Resident. When I last used Second Life most experienced Second Life users would not want to interact with users who had the last name of Resident.
Second Life users could have a higher status by providing more information in their profile about their experience and their interests. A person also had a higher status if their profile includes membership in several related Dominance and submission related groups in Second Life. The highest status a Dominant could have was a list of several submissives that they commanded shown on their profile. A submissive would have a higher status if they listed that they were the property of a well known Dominant. Profiles that had real life photos in them were more valued than one’s just containing text, and the ability to express attitude in your profile was highly prized. Predictably, developing a detailed profile required a lot of time in Second Life.
There is not a requirement to buy Lindens to use Second Life. Any user can sign up for a free account in Second Life, create a free generic avatar, and could visit almost every location in Second Life free of charge. However, like many real life cultures, the BDSM culture in Second Life expects users buy an attractive avatar shape and dress in expensive avatar clothing before other people will interact with you. Retrospectively, it seems like a bizarre part of the Second Life D/s culture that users were required to spend money that would ultimately end up in the hands of Linden Lab in order to be accepted as part the BDSM community.
After Dante Portland was murdered, the combination of my avatar not having enough age, and my not being willing to spend money that would go to Linden Lab caused many people to reject me in the locations that I used to visit. I was not welcomed using a new and generic avatar.