Website lampoons virtual Second Life
"To their enormous credit, they sent me what I can only describe as a ‘proceed and permitted’ instead of ‘cease and desist’ letter," Darren Barefoot explained in an online message.
The Vancouver, Canada-based Barefoot described his satirical www.getafirstlife.com as a "project du jour" inspired by Second Life’s status as a media darling.
The parody webpage used Second Life’s layout and trademarked symbols.
A banner atop the mocking website informs visitors "Your world – sorry about that" and advised them to "Go outside" where "membership is free".
Mirroring a demographics box on the Second Life website, the parody lists First Life population as slightly more than 6.5 billion residents, 364,936 of which were born that day.
A First Life help box offers to answer user questions such as "Are five senses enough?" and "What’s this body thing, and what do I do with the dangly bits?"
And, shunning the notion of virtual sex with animated "avatar" proxies in Second Life, the parody website suggests users should "fornicate using your actual genitalia."
Instead of a threatening letter from Linden lawyers, Barefoot got a message from Linden saying the folks at the company had been enlightened and "know parody when they see it."
Barefoot said his site was also inspired by his belief that a lot of work was still needed to make it easier to manoeuver avatars in the virtual realm.
"I am not a Second Life hater," Barefoot’s blog contended.
"That said, I’ve been bemused by the amount of hype and attention the game, virtual world thingee has received…and, let’s be honest, the game isn’t good enough yet. It’s too hard to play."
As of last week, Second Life had nearly three million "residents" and an economy that did more than a million real dollars’ worth of business daily, according to Linden Labs.
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