Participatory Culture in Second Life: Avatar Building

Participatory culture, “is more open-ended, less under the control of media producers, and more under the control of media consumers” (Jenkins, 2006, p. 133). Participatory culture in Second Life utilizes the collaborationist approach in Avatar building. Second Life users who want to custom build, and personalize Avatars can follow DIY tutorials from the Second Life community forum. Those with more knowledge of Avatar building point newer Avatar builders in the right direction by telling them what skills they need in order to create Avatars. This draws on another concept of participatory culture. Jenkins (2006) notes, “In a participatory culture, the entire community takes on some responsibility for helping newbies find their way” (p. 178). Where this takes on the role of being more under the control of media consumers (i.e. Second Life users) is in their ability to customize Avatars with no restrictions, with third party software available to create custom Avatar modelling, and texturing.

Second Life’s participatory culture extends to the social media platforms that users share their Avatars on. On the official Second Life Instagram page, user built Avatars, and photography are regularly featured as the “Pic of the Day.” Second Life’s Avatar building community brings to mind Jenkins’ discussion on modding in Convergence Culture. Jenkins (2006) writes, “We might see modding as a special case where participatory culture seeks to reprogram the code as to enable new kinds of interactions with the game” (p. 162). The new kinds of interactions in Second Life are encouraged, and contribute to different elements of Second Life's culture, in particular the different celebrations, and events that are an active part of Second Life’s niche, and broader communities.




 Avatars from the Second Life Instagram Page 

Cyberpunk Avatar from Misat Ushimawa Flickr search

Avatar from the Second Life Instagram Page 


References

Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence culture: Where old and new media collide. New York, NY:

New York University Press.




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