And really, there is hardly another medium which combines so many ways of expressing yourself: Change your appearance as you like, do photography, tell stories (role-plays, machinimas, book-readings, comics...), perform music, build whatever weird thing you want to build - virtual worlds consisting of user-generated content are the definite way to create and publish your ideas in the digital age.
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| Live your dream - with cheese and bacon! |
However, having this thought in mind, I am sometimes quite surprised how much SL tries to copy reality, where it doesn't really have to. Of course, there are some really exciting Sims around, which create their own crazy worlds: Insilico, The Wastelands, Forgotten City, Flotsam and New Babbage for example. Each of them is a pure joy to explore, but they are just (partly in a very literal way) islands in an ocean of reality-mimicry. Most of the things you will find in SL are copies of what we know and see in real-life.
I don't say that is bad, but real-life designs are usually a compromise. They have to be designed to be mass-produced, follow limitations in costs and safety-regulations and pesky laws of physics.
The nice thing with building in SL on the other hand is that you can let go. You don't have to bother too much about the laws of physics, or safety regulations or whatever. As long it looks good and plausible enough, it works.
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| A big part of being creative is to put rather common things into a new context. It is also fun ;-) |
As a builder of creations which are usually not based on real-life examples, I enjoy the freedom to not have to worry too much if that thing I just put together would really fly (or even fly well), but I try to make it at least look believable ("it could fly, you know...").
On the other hand it is of course helpful to look at real-life creations and take elements from them - fair enough. You don't have to invent the wheel again - its more fun to put it in a new context and create exciting new things!
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