Simulacra and Habbo Hotel

I remember, the first online replication of society that I participated in was Habbo Hotel, back in 2003, when I was  10. At the time, I did not think in depth about the fact that it was a representation of reality, I just got involved because it was a fun, social networking game.

Habbo Hotel Avatar

This week, we learned about the game Second Life. I found it quite easy to wrap my head around the concepts because the the game is similar to Habbo Hotel in that is is a multi-user, online platform that is built of virtual commodities (Lehdonvirta 2009).  After reading ‘The Roles of Social Worlds and the Rules of Game Worlds’ (Meadows 2008), it got me thinking about consumerism culture in the virtual context. Habbo Hotel asks its users to pay real money to the website in order to buy virtual commodities, such as couches and bars, which increase the character’s popularity and social status. Could virtual consumption become a replacement for materialism and consumerism in years to come? If the naivety of users and popularity of such programs such as the Sims, Second Life and Habbo Hotel continue to grow, I think ‘yes’, unfortunately.

Baudrillard, the French philosopher, theorised that there was, no longer, right or wrong representations of reality, only simulations (Mann, 1900). Thus, the people experiencing hyperreality in programs like Second Life are neither accurate or inaccurate representations of themselves, rather, they are simply simulations. I feel this allows for more freedom when analysing the concepts of hyperreality.

My Netflix Avatar

The other main topic that was discussed this week was Avatars - digital representations of ourselves. One of my favourite media philosophers, Howard Rheingold, theorised that meeting people online would make prejudice impossible because one can not see another’s face (Rheingold 2008 p. 03). Whilst this is mostly true for online relationships, I do wonder, will virtual prejudice become common practice? If I have an ‘unfashionable’ avatar, will I give off the wrong impression?  Read more about Rheingold in my previous blog post.

Image of Netflix avatar

TELL ME: Do you think that virtual prejudice will become ‘a thing’? Have you already experienced it?

BACK CHECK: Last week I said I would elaborate on my opinion about Julian Assange and Wikileaks after watching the documentary ‘We Steal Secrets’. My opinion? Still on the fence, but slighty for Assange. His ideals of freedom of information are revolutionary and very inspiring. However I do feel uncomfortable with his willingness to hurt innocents with the information.

References

Lehdonvirta, Vili, Terhi-Anna Wilska, and Mikael Johnson. "Virtual consumerism: Case habbo hotel." Information, communication & society 12.7 (2009) p. 1059

Mann, D. 2007. Jean Baudrillard: A Very Short Introduction. [online] Available at: http://publish.uwo.ca/~dmann/baudrillard1.htm [Accessed: 7 Jan 2014].

Meadows, M. 2014. I, Avatar: The Culture and Consequences of Having a Second Life. [e-book] Berkeley: Pearson Education. Available through: Swinburne Online Learning Materials http://proquest.safaribooksonline.com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/book/web-applications-and-services/9780321550231/copyright/copyrightpg#X2ludGVybmFsX0J2ZGVwRmxhc2hSZWFkZXI/eG1saWQ9OTc4MDMyMTU1MDIzMS8y [Accessed: 7 Jan 2014].

Rheingold, H. 2008. Virtual communities - exchanging ideas through computer bulletin boards. Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, 1 Available at: http://jvwr-ojs-utexas.tdl.org/jvwr/index.php/jvwr/article/viewFile/293/247 [Accessed: 13 Nov 2013].Watts, M. (2003). Interlude: A Conversation with Howard Rheingold, Founder of the Well, an Online Community.New Directions For Teaching And Learning, (94), 69-74