1. I think half the reason 3d worlds are getting this kind of rap is that they are a new (comparitively) communication medium, and admittely one that looks a lot more like a game than say MSN or Yahoo chat. We've now many years with text based communications in the mainstream.... long enough for people to stop acting like idiot noobs and establish their online personne. In SL though (and other online worlds) most people are still in their early adopting phase, and yet to learn through repeated faux pas what their avatar is really about. Given time, when folks feel comfortable in that skin, they won't feel as comfortable hiding behind it. Remember when everyone you knew has some "cybering" horror story about reality meeting fantasy and them not meshing well - it's all fun and games till it starts to seem real, then people normalize.

Posted at 4:40AM on Aug 16th 2007 by Pavig Lok

2. I feel a little more bold in SL than in most of RL. I'm more likely to introduce myself to strangers, or to offer to help new people with questions.

However, we've all seen that some people take any opportunity, it seems, to channel their inner whiner. Nothing is right, everything is wrong, and they express it with as much unoriginal profanity as they can muster. This seems more prevalent in blog comments all over the web, which is really puzzling, because we've had years for web text feedback to "normalize," and it hasn't.

Posted at 6:18AM on Aug 16th 2007 by Cyn Vandeverre

3. "Anecdotally, these behavioural changes seem more common to augmentationists than immersionists..."
At the first moment I have red this I was surprised, but actually you are right. But, immersionists starts with completely different position. They create persona, so their humans don't lie, they play they role. OTOH, augumentationists don't have that priviledge.

Posted at 8:52AM on Aug 16th 2007 by dandellion Kimban

4. I don't think you're going to see "maturity" from people in SL until some level of anonymity is removed (not saying that's a good thing).

With most IM systems you're tied to your email address so people have SOME way of getting back to you. Sure you can put a fake address (sometimes) or just not read your email, but this ends up meaning there is some sort of RL consequences to your virtual actions.

With SL it all goes away when you log off.

Posted at 11:59AM on Aug 16th 2007 by SqueezeOne Pow

5. I think it ultimately relates to how one approaches SL. Some people approach SL as an extension of their RL, whereas others approach it as an alternative version of themselves. Although some people seem to approach SL as a graphically enhanced online communications medium between two RL persons, certainly the medium allows people to approach it otherwise if they choose to do so, apparently by design.

I certainly approach SL as an opportunity to do something *different* from my RL. I'm basically the same person (gender is the same, persona roughly the same), but yet what I choose to do with my time in SL is very different than what I (often must) choose to do with my time in RL. So certain aspects of my RL personality get higher billing in SL than they do in RL due to the lack of RL restraints and accountabilities. To me that's all positive, because of the way I personally approach SL. I like the fact that it's a world which, while subject to its own limitations, does not have the same limitations as RL. To me personally apporoaching it as an online alter ego of my RL would not be interesting to me -- I'd rather play "RL" then :).

Posted at 2:25PM on Aug 16th 2007 by Victorria Paine

6. I certainly get the impression that as one gets more invested in one's online identity one is more likely to behave the same online as off. There are always exceptions, of course, but that investment - and the consequences to it of your behavior seem to be important to moderating unwarranted extremes of persona presentation.

Posted at 2:34PM on Aug 16th 2007 by Tateru Nino