Otaku? Who, us?

Stumbling across a blog post about the socially ostracized life of a typical “otaku”, I couldn’t help but read. The obsessively otaku fanboy spends so much time in their own interests (and bedrooms), that they manage to cook up some pretty crazy fan-fueled goods for the equally maniacal.

But before the mother ship calls us home to reality (and we convince ourselves we’re not that bad) we have to recognize two important things about this kind of geek obsession.

1. Geek culture is not so wrong these days. Sure, it’s not the way, but it sure has its share of respect and honor in the modern pop culture setting.

2. Costume lovers are no more than a few degrees of separation away from being totally otaku, and only one away from geek sheik. We turn to Wired Magazine for more validation.

The Wired Magazine Geekipedia Tells All…

It turns out that costume fanboyism shows its face more than a couple of times in the Wired Geekipedia. This lovingly crafted tribute to the education of blatant nerdery really pins down the culture, and some of these words just may be familiar to a costume lover.

Cosplay - Wired says “Donning a costume offers shy geeks an anonymous mode of self-expression and fun.” It’s not all that inaccurate nor is it shameful in any way. Cosplayers have seen a huge boost in numbers since big events and imported anime films make their way westward.

Machinima - Some people are costume lovers of a different sort. They like to mount their alternative image in a virtual setting. Machinima is the practice of making films out of characters and animations extracted from video games and virtual worlds. Any Second Lifers know exactly what it is. Ultimately, it’s the practice of the virtual costume.

(weird, no?)

Manga - Manga is basically printed anime, and it’s also gaining attention in the western world. As a huge fuel for cosplayers, Manga is easy to recognize these days.

Otaku - If you have a tendency to be otaku, you already know it. Although, the connotation of the word in the English language denotes more of an obsessive love for something, it’s actually quite derogatory in Japanese. Watch who you call otaku, especially if the finger should be pointed at you. We all saw your sketches for your next costume…

True Otaku…

Social Networking - Yeah, this is a bit more geek sheik since, well.. you know… EVERYONE is doing it. Significance to a costumer? Well, have you ever signed up at a costume forum, joined a costume chat or group, or been on a social network specifically for costumes? Yeah, you know who you are.

Tokyo - It turns out a lot of the costume related entries in the Geekipedia surround the cosplay culture. That doesn’t mean other forms of costume love don’t belong. However, it would be silly to not mention Tokyo as a huge influence in the culture.

Viral - A great term that has become easy to grasp in the last few years. Denoting the spreading of a trend in a viral manner, this type of attention is nearly all costume lovers get. If you heard of a great DIY project, a fun costume event, or a clever party that you want to throw… it’s likely you didn’t find the information advertised in the newspaper. Word of mouth love sustains the community of costume lovers.

The best part about the list is that it’s just not done. They’re adding more every day. Should we submit DIY? Anyone??

Today, October 19th, marks the first beta release of VastPark’s new virtual world. Not a full release though, people who signed up for it will get access to their 3D modeling systems used to create the in-world objects.

VastPark so far looks to be the only real competitor to Second Life in terms of similar features that have been upgraded. They’re also communicating to businesses and organizations from the get-go, so you can be sure that they hope to develop a robust user generated economy. We have yet to see much as to what the client will look like, as the browser has yet to be released. There’s also speculation as to whether VastPark will run even a bit smoother than Second Life. If it does, Linden Labs sure has a handful of work to do.

So far, the beta of the creation tool is available to those who signed up early. As such I downloaded my client today and will be tinkering with it. However if you truly need to scratch the virtual creation itch you won’t have to wait long, as they will issue invites once the signed up individuals have been served.

Hop in and let us know what you think of these tools? Goodbye prims and third party 3D software? Hello, VastPark

Rendering like nothing that’s been seen before.Virtual World can typically have a hard time offering lifelike imagery with real performance and open creation tools. Even Playstation’s Home has limits with creation.

A look inside of a house in VastPark.

(images via VastPark website)

Second Life is altogether converging more and more towards a virtual version of your first life. In a mass effort to defeat the purpose to make a virtual getaway, is the trickling of reality permeating and polluting the Second Life experience?

According to this news article posted yesterday in Strategy Page, the US Army is taking advantage of Second Life for training purposes. In the wake of the severe push towards a greater online community they have even created their own tools on a separate and private Internet to effectually accomplish their civilian training exercises.

In an article we posted earlier, we highlighted the terrorist usage of worlds like Second Life as well. What does all this mean? First and foremost, it means effective tools for training at minimal cost. And that’s just what government and terrorists alike are looking for.

But this is just another step in the direction of making the real world and the virtual world blend on a deeper scale. Second Life has been a haven for educators, organizations, political movements, and prominently, businesses, to gather and accomplish their real world goals. Universities have also been known to construct virtual campuses for their students to partake in. What keeps people interested then, if everything is becoming a mimic of it’s natural self? Is it the curiosity factor? Is it the wow factor?

Major critics to Second Life tend to believe that the world will be short lived. Most of them claim that everyone is there to make money from each other, but few are there to spend it… and its getting worse. Second Life also has a large learning curve, clunky interface, and sluggish performance. It’s vast, creative, open world is what’s killing it’s experience for many.

With most visitors to SL going there for an escape the question is whether these real world mirror imaged organizations and movements are just clogging the virtual space, or whether they’re contributing to its growth and intrigue. Our position is that businesses help promote growth so long as their efforts and intentions stay in Second Life. But when companies use the virtual space to accomplish real world tasks primarily, it’s just suffocating the environment.

What about you? How much would you like to see Second Life cater to the imagination and unfolding of its own environment? Does Second Life suffer at the expense of the real world?

“there are three jihadi terrorists registered and two elite jihadist terrorist groups in Second Life and they use the site for recruiting and training. This is on top of the Second Life Liberation Army. “

In light of the Second Life comment I made earlier, I thought I’d address this current news story that’s abuzz in the virtual world space. According to articles located in Slashdot, P2Pnet, and other techie news sources these virtual worlds like Second Life are becoming a hotbed for terrorist groups to train and enable sympathetics to become recruited.

As opinions shoot back and forth, I have to wonder what the other groups think about this. By other groups I mean people who use Second Life for profit and positive interaction. The real world implications are vast, but is there any way for people to stop this kind of open, virtual world extremism? There has already been a case of “virtual terrorism” in Second Life recently in efforts to make a point. But what happens when these issues cross over into the real world?

Real World Control over A Fake Environment

I mean no harm in saying fake, but in comparison to what life really is, Second Life is an alternate reality. As such is the case, how do you police a virtual world? As it stands, the debate over Internet governance weighs so heavily in favor of total decentralization that it would mean the same thing. Having any kind of policing in a world like Second Life would indicate that some form of government would have to exist. Who would this government be? Is Linden Labs responsible for not only governing the technological implementation and advancement, but also the social behavior of its residents?

And that’s not the end of the problem either. At this point the biggest draw to Second Life has been its free and open format. It allows people to access and do whatever they want, within the technical limitations of the environment. This culture has developed so far that any truncation of “virtual rights” would alienate the users as a whole. How would Linden Labs or anyone else ever enforce restrictions? How true are these allegations anyway?

Behind a Virtual Mask

This isn’t the first time that things like this have popped up about terrorism on the Internet. Terrorist groups have been known to assemble on the Internet as a form of cheap and effective communication. We have such a hard time cracking down on kids taking the new Avril Lavigne song, so it makes sense that extremists see this crack in the armor as a chance to exploit and promote their ideals.

So what does this say about people using the Internet to mask who they are and be something else? The virtual community provides so much positive and forward thinking but also engenders some of these large problems? Does this anonymity lend more to negativity than it does to progress and positive global thinking?

It’s a shame that there are a few that ruin it for the whole, but issues like these don’t go unnoticed. As the electronic frontier gets pushed further into unrecognizable territory, opponents speak out more in defense to the electronic community. Yet, the modern rush doesn’t slow down. Government leaders all over are petitioning for a stranglehold on these technologies in order to regulate just how much of this extreme information gets tossed around. On the other hand, the people speak out against government in defense of their rights. Techies are typically afraid that ulterior motives propel governments to seize large scale communication rights for their own gain.

As for you and I, how do we maintain the right to participate and live anonymously with strangers? Is there ever going to be a way to facilitate positive global communication with strangers without the demons inside coming out of the small minority who want to use it for negative gain?