MM 490 in Second Life

2007-03-01T08:15:00.000-08:00

Introduction

Imagine a world where you could be anything you wanted. What if you could fly around to visit strange lands and new people? What if there was a place where you could simply hang out with friends, or go shopping. A place where your imagination was the only limit as to what you could be.

Such a place does exist. It is called Second Life, an interactive online game produced by Linden Labs. Second Life is an entire virtual world where the users create the content to fill it. Every building, piece of furniture, car, and article of clothing in this game was created by a user. Beyond creating the content, a user can completely control and define who they are as a person. The user has complete control of their “second life”. This is a perfect environment for role playing groups to live out their fantasies. It is no surprise that in this virtual world there is a very large population of anthropomorphic animals. These users are a part of Furry Fandom.

Furry Fandom is a subculture in the real world of people who enjoy animals with human characteristics such as speech, facial expressions, walking on two legs, and the wearing of clothes. These people often do fan art, read and write fictional stories, and even dress up in animal suits. There are conventions all across the world where Furs, as they are commonly known, can meet and talk about this hobby. Many Furs have used the internet in order to create anthropomorphic animal characters for the purpose of role playing. With Second Life, this type of role playing takes on a whole new dimension.

Almost all role playing before was done in MUDs and internet forums. These were text based and offered only a limited amount of interaction between users. Second Life allows role players to take on the appearance of their character and interact in real time with others. Since there is no objective to Second Life, users can do what they want as the please. It truly is living out a second life in a virtual world.

Furs take full advantage of this. There are large areas of virtual land in Second Life that belongs completely to Furs. They have their own malls, bars, and even dance clubs. With all this freedom, being a Fur has taken on a whole new dimension. So what is a Fur in Second Life? How can they be defined? What do they do with their virtual lives? This research was conducted to find out what social interactions occur in Second Life and how this affects Furry Fandom. This was accomplished by going into Furry areas and observing behavior and interaction. This analysis of the research begins with a detailed site map of interactions between users inside of the area used for the study. It also includes a brief summary of observational methods used to specifically study Furs in Second Life. A definition of a Fur will be established. During the research, the help of an inside informant was used, and his help and knowledge will be reviewed. The main findings of this study are based on important categories that were discovered during the research.

Mapping

Furs are very common in Second Life, however, they tend to stick to themselves. It is easiest to observe Furs socializing at a place where the typically meet. It is relatively simple to find these places using the search function included in Second Life. There are entire sims (large grid areas) run by and dedicated to Furry Fandom. For this research, a smaller location would be more ideal. It is much easier to receive consent for a single building than it is for an entire sim. The primary location for this research was a medium sized Inn and bar which will be referred to as The Tavern. It is primarily used by adult, homo/bisexual men. The surrounding area included a small mall across the street. Both building shared a spot in between the two where users would teleport in if they had the location landmarked. The following image shows a detailed view of how traffic typically worked between the two buildings.

The Tavern itself consisted of three main sections. The first was the bar. This area was where a vast majority of people visited and stayed to socialize throughout the study. The next area was the second floor above the bar. This area included a large set a freebie objects. A small portion of traffic at The Tavern was completely from this. However, the second floor received very little traffic as compared to the bar. The third area was an Inn section where users could check out private rooms to stay in. This area was not used at all during the time of research, but it did get the occasional curious person who would wonder through looking at the rooms. A layout of The Tavern is included below with indicators of most commonly used areas and paths.

Methods

Furs primarily stay to themselves. In an area of all Fur avatars, it is easy to stand out. Using a Fur avatar is a simple and effective way to avoid this. Fur avatars are fairly simple to find. Linden Labs includes a set of male and female avatars, but like the others Linden Labs provides, they are very basic. Use of these avatars will help you blend a bit more with the Furs, but you will make you stick out as a noobie. It is more effective to use a user created avatar. These avatars are made with a greater level of detail and are much more customizable. User created avatars are available at most Fur shopping malls, but there are also a great deal available for free. You can find them at freebie warehouses, or by using the search function. Although user created freebie avatars are better than the Linden Labs ones, there are a wide selection of them, and you still might stand out as a noobie. If the resources are available, and purchasable avatar works the best for blending in.

Once dressed as a Fur, observation is fairly easy. Most of the time, Furs simply chat. Simply sitting or standing in close proximity to a group of chatting Furs will give you good results. Of course, at special locations other activities occur. If you go to a Furry dance club, there will be dancing. If you go to a Fury Mall, most of the people will be shopping. Overall though, no real special skills are required to fit in. Even at a dance club or a mall, there is usually a good area to sit or stand where you are close to the others, but not interfering with their actions. Since most of the interaction is simply hanging around and chatting, it is very helpful to have and understanding of common Fur terminology. While Furs are usually friendly and very open, they are suspicious of outsiders. Not drawing attention to yourself can be critical to getting natural behavior.

When observing Furs, there are several things to take note of. The main thing of course is what type of animal the user has chosen to represent them self with.. Also take note of the clothes (if any) the user chooses to wear over the avatar. Since most of the time Furs sit around and talk, it is important to keep an eye on all the actions that take place. In the case of The Tavern, another key element to keep track of was sexual orientation.

A very critical part of the research was to keep subjects protected. Personal information is doubled in this type of online environment. Not only must the researcher protect his subjects real names and identities, but the researcher must also take care in protecting the subjects online identity as well. Before any data was collected, all involved subjects and land owners were contacted and informed of the research. This was done fairly simply through the use of “note cards”. Second Life includes a note card system which is rather like email. A user is able to create note cards and save them with the recorded information. Then, the user can dispense as many copies as they like to anybody who is willing to accept. After being given a note card, the subject was then talked through it and informed what the research entailed. If the subject understood and agreed, they told this to the researcher, and data could begin to be collected.

Membership

In second life, changing from a human to an animal is as simple as changing clothes. As a matter of fact, it is done with the exact same procedure, and a person can change at any time. A group based strictly on the appearance of a person’s avatar would be very problematic. So when you wear a Furry avatar, are you a Furry? What does it take to be a part of Furry Fandom in Second Life?

People who consider themselves Furs almost always wear a Fur avatar; many wear exclusively Fur avatars. Are anthropomorphic avatars exclusive to Furs? Not at all. There is no restriction on who can wear them. You do not have to be in a group, or earn the privilege in any way to representing yourself with one of these avatars. Linden Labs even includes both a male and female Fur avatars in their basic library sets. It is not the avatar worn that defines a person as a Fur.

Second Life has a system of making social groups. There is, however, no single group which you have to be a part of in order to be considered a Fur. Furry Fandom a very large sub culture in Second Life, and it is not defined by a single group. There are hundreds of groups for Furs. These groups are usually just a statement of Fandom, such as Furry Alliance, and are open to anyone who wishes to join. Some groups are exclusive. Most establishments in Second Life, such as dance clubs and bars, have a group associated with them, commonly known as the VIP group. Furry establishments have these as well. In order to gain access to one of the groups, a person usually has to frequent the establishment and become friends with the owner or staff. Some of the groups hold special privileges. Inclusion in The Tavern’s VIP group allows the member to use the private back rooms. In order to join The Tavern’s VIP group you have to be a Fury, a friend of the owner or staff, and have an interest in yiffing. There are also other exclusive groups that do not have association with establishments. One such group is dedicated to Furs who consider themselves “pets” to other people in the game. Still, a person can be a Fur without having any group association.

In order to be a member of Furry Fandom in Second Life, a person simply must believe they are a fur. Furdom is a way of representing oneself. This can be done the wearing of a Fur avatar, or by joining a Furry group. Nearly all Furs in Second Life do both of these.

Findings

All the observations that were taken while in the field have been categorized by the content that they contain. There are four main categories of content; entering and exiting, location, avatars, and conversation.

Entering and Exiting

A great deal of information can be learned by the way subjects enter and exit a given area. The Tavern had three areas of entry: a front door, a back door, and a roof entrance to the second floor. Almost all traffic through The Tavern came in through the front door. The primary reason for this probably is because the front door is very close to the teleport spot for the area. All users who either have The Tavern landmarked or have found it using the search will almost always enter this way. This observation, however, is one that can be applied to all of Second Life, and no just Furs. This shows people generally teleport to get around, instead of flying.

One very important observation that involves entering is the way people are greeted and treated when they enter. Most of the users at The Tavern sit on a set of couches or at a bar very near to the front door. When ever someone enters or exits, they are in plain view of everyone in the room. When ever a regular to The Tavern enters, for example, they are almost always greeted and asked how they are doing or what is up. A very strong linkage between the welcome a user gets and the avatar that they are wearing became evident. When a user is not a regular and is wearing a Fur avatar, they are almost always greeted with a hello, but little more. When a user that is not a regular enters in a normal human avatar they are generally ignored by the people inside. According to the informant, this is simply because non-Fur users usually do not stay long, and never return. There is no use greeting them since they will more than likely never return. If a human avatar user does stay, and talks, they are treated with just as much respect as any Fur would be. This shows that the Furs are not limited to socializing exclusively with other Furs.

Location

Once a person has entered the building, what they do next can tell a great deal about the person. At The Tavern, there was a very large difference between people who regularly visit and those showing up for the first time. The regulars always went straight to the couches, or stood for a short while, then sat at the couches. New visitors would usually walk around the place, including the second floor, and when they sat, it was typically at the bar. This trend seems to be one of familiarity with the environment, and not one that is exclusive to Furs.

Trends also appeared when it came to using The Tavern’s different entertainments, such as the pool table, dart board and dancing poles. New visitors seemed to be the only ones that used the pool table, many found it cool and interesting. When it came to the dancing poles the regulars where the only ones who ever danced on the bar. This seems to show the entertainment value of objects in the room. Fancy and elaborate objects such as the pool table are interesting to people who have not seen one before. But the regulars were not impressed by it at all, and preferred to sit and talk, or dance for their friends. I think this trend applies much more to Second Life as a whole than to Furs.

Avatars

To the Furs, avatar selection is paramount. All the Furs put a great deal of thought into the selection of animal they use for their avatar. Many have done role playing before in other environments, such as MUDs, and they already have a persona that they use, commonly referred to as their animal or true form. While avatar selection is very important, it means different things to different users. Some users believe that they have a deep spiritual connection with the avatar. They base this on the belief that in a former life they were that animal. Others are not quite so spiritual about it. Some people select the animal that represents there qualities, such as a Clydesdale for strength and reliability. Some simply base their avatar on their favorite animals.

Some important linkage can be seen between what avatar people choose to represent themselves with and how they act in conversation. A fair amount of users (perhaps 30-40%) stay in character during most of their time in game. Characters are largely based on the type of animal the person is using to represent themselves. Foxes, for example, were the most common anthropomorphic avatar seen during observation. Of those foxes, the ones who chose to stay in character often described themselves as mischievous and flirtations. These are traits that are directly associated by Furs with foxes. Other traits that are associated with animals include wolves being loners, cats being curious, and bears being big but friendly.

Another intesting observation that only came up twice during the research was Furs using human avatars. These two instances involved dedicated Furs who voluntarily chose to go around wearing a human avatar. This shows that while Furs can be very dedicated to the Fandom, they also do, on occasion, like to be human as well. Both instances of this that were witnessed during the research involved a human event that the people wanted to attend, that a Fur avatar would not really appropriate for.

Conversation

At The Tavern, the most common activity between users was simply sitting around and chatting. The subject of conversations was always fairly diverse depending on who was connected. One common topic was items and objects different users had. When someone was wearing an interesting article of clothing or accessory, it was often complimented on by the other users. This seems to be a frequent occurrence throughout Second Life and not just to Furs.

One quality of conversations could be witnessed quite frequently at The Tavern, and that was flirting or sexually oriented conversations. Almost all of the flirting text was done between regulars, and it was almost always in a playful or joking context. A key linkage was established though between who was involved in these conversations and where they were placed in the room. These comments were almost always made while or shortly before avatars would cuddle with each other. They did this by sitting in special seats that moved the avatars close together. While yiffing (virtual sex acts) was mentioned on several different occasions, none of the people at The Tavern engaged in it. For information gained in interviews with several Furs, this is a strong contrary to what usually occurs in Second Life. Yiffing is often directly associated with Furs in Second Life.

Role playing was also prevalent in chat. Although avatars come equipped with a variety of expressions, they were rarely used. Instead, many users chose to type out there actions. An example of this would be, “*I laugh quietly to myself*”. The avatar has a laughter expression that could easily be used, yet most Furs chose to type it out instead. This probably derives from the fact the most Furs come from old text based role playing environments. After years of typing out their actions, it simply comes more naturally than using the expressions included in the game.

Conclusion

Overall, the results of this research turned out very well. A great deal of information about the social interactions and identities of Furs was established through inferences drawn from observations and interviews. Given the short amount of time that the study was conducted over, it is really quite amazing how much was learned. There were small problems in the methods. The study was done almost exclusively in The Tavern, which is an extremely narrow view considering the size of the Fur population in the game. Also, The Tavern was a very specific sub group of Furs, homosexual/bisexual male adults. If research in this are could be continued, a much more diverse environment would be more ideal. Although the study was short and fairly limited, it still gave a great view into the virtual lives of Furs in second life. Given the increasing number of users in the game, and the steady growth of the Fury sub-culture in real life, Furry Fandom will continue to be a major part of Second Life

Additional Mapping

2007-01-22T16:27:00.000-08:00

Mapping of the exterior of the Tavern.

Informant Interview

2007-01-20T09:59:00.000-08:00

The interview with my informant gave me some insight on both Fur users in the Tavern as well as Furs in general. My informant, who I will refer to as Ivy, has been a Fur for more than 20 years in real life, and has been attending the Tavern for over a year and a half now.

When asked about the general atmosphere of the Tavern, Ivy replied that it is much more of a casual, social atmosphere. Throughout my research I have found that yiffing (virtual sex acts) seems to be one of the main motives for many Furs. Ivy said that these people do show up to the Tavern, but they are usually don’t stay long.

[Ivy: So friendlier for those looking for companionship rather than a quick yiff.]

[Ivy: The ones that are only into the quick yiff get bored.]

According to Ivy, most of the time users at the Tavern just sit around and chat. This definitely backs up what I have witnessed so far in my observations.

As for Furs in general, Ivy explained to me that most have come to SL from other online role-playing environments such as MUDs and MUCKs. When I asked if Furs participated in the Fandom outside of SL, he replied that most do. He went on to list nearly a dozen large Furry Fandom conventions all over the United States. Although many users are active Furs in real life, it is not a behaviour you randomly see on the street.

[Ivy: …most furs don't go around advertising to the general populace our furrydom.]

Ivy remarked that Furry Fandom is very large occurrence. Most Furs in SL are a very friendly community. But since the group is so large, there are many other sub-cultures within the group. This lead me to ask the obvious, “What, besides the avatar, would you say separates Furs from other users in SL?”

[Ivy: Hmm... that is a difficult one to answer.]

[Ivy: Because what it means to me to be a furry is different for someone else.]

[Ivy: Some it is a spiritual connection to the animal.]

This does seem to back up what I have learned from my observations and talks with different Furs so far. Everyone has their own reason for selecting the avatar that they use, but for Furs it usually has to do with a heart felt connection to their animal.

Basic Mapping

2007-01-15T16:13:00.000-08:00

This is the basic layout of the Tavern I use in my research. The room has a staircase on the right hand side, couches up against it, a bar in the middle, and a pool table on the left hand side of the room. The colored areas represent where people usually sit or walk. The back area has private rooms which can be checked out by members. I have yet to see anyone go back there. The front door is the area which almost everyone enters and exits. There are other objects in the room (a dart board, a poker table, and a few others), however, they have not been used since I began visiting the tavern. I excluded them from the mapping.

Researching has Commenced

2007-01-15T08:35:00.000-08:00

I have received permission from a land owner and from several subjects regarding my research. I have started taking field notes and things are going along very smoothly. Taking of field notes is the first step of the process. Later, the notes will be rendered to protect the subjects involved. I have also began to map the area of study. Mapping is a way for the researcher to see how people interact in a certain setting. If you see me in world, I will more than likely be wearing a "Researcher" tag. As stated in the HSP, this means I am currently collecting data. Things are going very well and I would like to thank everyone who has helped me so far. See you in world!

Assignment 4

2007-01-08T17:09:00.001-08:00

People sit around in a very casual setting. There are local authorities throughout the premise (a bartender and a manager.) There is a hookah in one part of the room which seems to be the main area to sit in. There is also a large couch in one corner which is also a spot were people sit. The crowd is mostly male, but there are one or two females. Many of the people in the room seem to know each other. I was greeted when I entered and was asked by the bartender if I would like a drink. Most of the conversations were very casual. Many seemed to revolve around game content the users had: this new outfits and accessories (such as a new tail and a new T-Shirt), new music and sound clips, and even a new drink item for the bar. Avatars used scripted gestures (like laughing and shrugging) casually through out the conversation. When I announced that I was leaving, a few of the avatars said goodbye and the proprietor told me to come back soon.

HSP Agreement

2007-01-05T18:59:00.000-08:00

My name is Anthony Amundson and I am an undergraduate student enrolled in a research methods class (Multimedia 490: Field Research In Second Life) at Bradley University in Peoria Il, USA, that is being conducted in Second Life.

Our projects feature observation of a “community of practice,” that is, a group of people doing similar things in a cultural setting. I am observing anthropomorphic avatar groups at this time.

My observations are merely descriptive: I’ll take notes about what I see and I may summarize those notes in my paper, in class presentations to my classmates, or on my web-blog about this research. The blog is found at: <> >.

I will not record or publish either the SL or RL name of any avatar/person. Any observations about avatars or recording of their talk transcripts would take place only after having obtained the explicit permission of that avatar/person and would only happen after the name of the avatar had been changed via secret coding scheme. I will ask you if I can have your permission to use your talk as research data. Any pictures taken in SL, that serve as explanatory data and which might include avatars, will be modified so that avatar names and identifying characteristics are blurred/blocked unless you give me explicit permission to use your avatar likeness without modification.

We will also interview informants about the communities of practice that we are studying.
These conversations are, again, voluntary and only with the informed permission of the avatar/person/informant. To avoid linking you personally to your responses with a written consent your completing the interview (survey) will imply consent. We may copy out the chat transcript from our conversations/interviews. When we do, we will change/code your name so that there is no recorded connection between you/your avatar and the data.

You may choose to withdraw from any aspect of this study, at any time, without penalty by simply telling me you wish to stop.

This study has been certified as exempt for full committee review by the chair of the Bradley University Committee on the Use of Human Subjects in Research (CUHSR) and has been cleared by signed agreement with Linden Lab (via their “research procedures” ). Documentation for both is on file and available on request.

You may follow the progress of all of the studies in the class, including this one at:
. Presentation of the findings from the study serve as our gift to the communities of practice who share time and knowledge with us; perhaps our perspectives will help residents more fully understand and appreciate their activities.

If you have questions regarding the study, you can contact the Chairperson of CUHSR at 309 677-2550 or me, in world or our of world via email at , or my teacher, Professor Beliveau in world or out of world as Ed Lamoureux at ell@bradley.edu, 309-677-2378.

Do you have any questions?
Do you agree that I may
-use your conversation in my study?
-Use your avatar likeness without modification (other than the coding of your avatar’s name)?
-publish a transcript of talk that includes words associated with your avatar (using
the coded name)?

Mapping

2007-01-04T15:32:00.000-08:00

Here are shots of a typical Furry Bar.

Exterior:

Interior:

Assignment 1

2007-01-04T14:50:00.000-08:00

I plan be observing people who use anthropomorphic avatars, commonly known as furries. They have have a very substantial population in Second Life. Since the population is so big, I plan to narrow down the numbers a bit by sticking to a particular group.

My observations would be done in both public areas and private. My groups of study tend to stick together and away from others. There are many public bars and clubs.

There are people in these areas during most the day, but they are more populated during the evening and night.

Most public meetings are social activities; and mostly consist of hanging out, talking, and dancing.