[Permission Granted by Whirly Fizzle to include her name and this entire interview in the class wiki]

 

Interview with avatar Whirly Fizzle:

I met Whirly at a well populated welcome area in Second Life. She then teleported me to her house so that we could interact

at a location that had less lag. I decided to change Deklin's race for this interview to begin my research on changing my avatar's

gender or race. Deklin is the African American avatar with the afro in my pictures.

Whirly Fizzle: You want to go somewhere less laggy?

Whirly Fizzle: I see you as a cloud

Whirly Fizzle: lol

Deklin Windlow: yes that sounds great

Whirly Fizzle: Ok...Wanna come to my house?

Deklin Windlow: sure

Whirly Fizzle: Ok...Ill TP you

Deklin Windlow: ok

Deklin Windlow: is that better?

Whirly Fizzle: Yes...I see you now

Deklin Windlow: ok good

Deklin Windlow: you have a very nice house by the way

Whirly Fizzle: Whats your project?

Whirly Fizzle: Oh Thanks

Whirly Fizzle: This is a great place to live

Deklin Windlow: well just some background. i'm a student at the university of richmond and am taking an english course based on second life

Whirly Fizzle: Still some places left to rent if you are looking

Whirly Fizzle: Oh cool

Deklin Windlow: we have been interacting with avatars, and experiencing second life. and then we write about our findings

Whirly Fizzle: Oh what a great thing to study!

Deklin Windlow: the course is centralized around making claims and supporting them

Whirly Fizzle: Were you on SL before this project?

Deklin Windlow: not before the semester

Deklin Windlow: i've been a member for about 2 months now

Whirly Fizzle: You like it?

Whirly Fizzle: Lets sit down 

 

(Deklin and Whirly conversing in Whirly's house)

 

Deklin Windlow: it's fascinating

Deklin Windlow: ok sounds good

We then proceed to Whirly’s living room and sit on a couch

Deklin Windlow: ok thats better

Whirly Fizzle: :o)

Deklin Windlow: so my assignment is to interview an avatar about an aspect or aspects of second life

Deklin Windlow: so i decided to go to a relatively populated area and you were the first avatar to accept my request

Whirly Fizzle: Ok

Whirly Fizzle: lol

Whirly Fizzle: How long were you trying?

Deklin Windlow: i'd been searching for someone to interview for about 15 min before i found you

Whirly Fizzle: Oh...not too bad then

Deklin Windlow: not all that bad

Deklin Windlow: haha some people made fun of me

Whirly Fizzle: Oh...Theres some twats in SL!!!! Dont worry about it!

Whirly Fizzle: lol

Deklin Windlow: that's what my professor has told me

Whirly Fizzle: ha ha

Deklin Windlow: he calls them 'griefers'

Whirly Fizzle: Did he tell you to beware of the vampires?

Whirly Fizzle giggles

Deklin Windlow: no he did not

Deklin Windlow: why's that?

Whirly Fizzle: Oh yeah....Griefers are a pest

Whirly Fizzle: Cos Im one

Whirly Fizzle: We go round biteing people

Whirly Fizzle: lol

Whirly Fizzle: Its a game within SL

Whirly Fizzle: Called Bloodlines

Whirly Fizzle: But we arnt Griefers

Whirly Fizzle: They just wanna ruin SL for everybody

Whirly Fizzle: They have illegal weapons that force you to crash & relog

Deklin Windlow: wow that's awful

Whirly Fizzle: By illegal I mean against the TOS

Deklin Windlow: right

Whirly Fizzle: Terms of service

Whirly Fizzle: Am I talking too much?

Whirly Fizzle: lol

Deklin Windlow: haha no you're fine

Deklin Windlow: so just to get started how long have you been involved with second life?

Whirly Fizzle: I was "born" on 10/21/2007

Whirly Fizzle: So I was a year old yesterday

Whirly Fizzle: Thats called your rez day

Deklin Windlow: yes i was about to say happy birthday

Whirly Fizzle: Ty

Deklin Windlow: or happy rez day

Whirly Fizzle: lol

Deklin Windlow: was it exciting?

Deklin Windlow: did you celebrate at all?

Whirly Fizzle: Not yet

Whirly Fizzle: Im having a rez party on Friday

Whirly Fizzle: Thats the best day for everyone to come

Deklin Windlow: make's sense

Whirly Fizzle: Making it a Hallowen party too

Deklin Windlow: fun

Deklin Windlow: what attracted you to this virtual world?

Deklin Windlow: or virtual worlds in general

Whirly Fizzle: Id never heard about it till I read an article in computer active magazine about virtual worlds

Whirly Fizzle: I was never a big gamer but I thought it sounded like fun

Whirly Fizzle: So I joined up and absolutely love it

Deklin Windlow: my professor argues that it's completely different from gaming

Whirly Fizzle: I wasnt on much at first...it took me a while to really appreciate what you can do here

Whirly Fizzle: Yes...I always got bored quickly of games

Whirly Fizzle: This is a game but its so totally immersive

Whirly Fizzle: And you get to know people really well here

Deklin Windlow: right

Deklin Windlow: what would you say that your main purpose for using second life is?

Whirly Fizzle: My friends & I all chat on voice a lot

Whirly Fizzle: For fun

Deklin Windlow: i don't have voice capability

Whirly Fizzle: Im here because I enjoy it

Whirly Fizzle: Its what I do now on a night instead of watching tv

Deklin Windlow: do you find it to be a completely seperate aspect of your real life?

Deklin Windlow: or rather an extenstion of your reality

Whirly Fizzle: Im interested in the technical side of it too..how it all works

Deklin Windlow: it is unbelievable what can be created

Whirly Fizzle: I consider it seperate

Whirly Fizzle: But the lines do get blurred

Whirly Fizzle: Because you form friendships here

Deklin Windlow: right..so you find that you have your real world friends and your second life friends and you like to

keep them seperate?

Whirly Fizzle: Well, Id love it if my RL friends came on too

Whirly Fizzle: I have one friend that plays

Whirly Fizzle: From RL

Whirly Fizzle: Thats good fun

Deklin Windlow: i've found that many of the resident's i've interacted with use it for reasons such as business,

education, sex, etc...its nice to meet someone who uses second life primarly for the sake of enjoyment

Whirly Fizzle: So I dont WANT to keep them seperate, it just is

Deklin Windlow: right thats understandable

Whirly Fizzle: Well, I guess Ive used it for those reasons too...thats all part of the enjoyment

Whirly Fizzle: Ive been thinking of ways to make real money here

Whirly Fizzle: But in a fun way

Whirly Fizzle: Not seriously

Whirly Fizzle: I help the landowner here sell property

Whirly Fizzle: Ive made about £30 in real money from that

Whirly Fizzle: Which is a bonus

Deklin Windlow: if you don't mind me asking roughly how many dollars is that?

Whirly Fizzle: And I enjoy learning how to build & script so I guess thats the educational side

Whirly Fizzle: About $60 I think

Deklin Windlow: i am unfamiliar with the linden:dollar ratio

Whirly Fizzle: Give or take $10 each way

Deklin Windlow: ok

Whirly Fizzle: Oh...hang on..I can tell you that

Whirly Fizzle: L$1000 will cost you $4.09 on the Lindex exchange

Whirly Fizzle: Ive tried the sex stuff too but It gets boring very quickly

Whirly Fizzle: Absolutely hilarious though!!!

Deklin Windlow: i can only imagine

Deklin Windlow: we did an entire project exploring the business aspect of second life

Whirly Fizzle: Cool

Whirly Fizzle: Oh...people have made a lot of money here

Deklin Windlow: everyone in the class was assigned 2 companies. one of which was a company that existed only

in second life and the other in both real and virtual worlds. I had IBM and the electric sheep company. we then

explored each of these locations and through exploration, interaction, and research, we were to determine how each

company markets to its customers. and which proves more effective

Whirly Fizzle: What did you discover?

Deklin Windlow: i claimed that the way ESC marketed in world was more affective than IBM because ESC was more

familiar with its intended audience

Deklin Windlow: ESC is there for the soul benefit of second life and its residents

Deklin Windlow: whereas IBM uses second life as a means of enhansing their coorporation in the real world

Deklin Windlow: they use second life to attract a different group of clients etc

Deklin Windlow: it was very interesting

Whirly Fizzle: Sounds it

Deklin Windlow: what are your views of second life as a social utility?

Whirly Fizzle: As in using it for making friends & meeting partners?

Deklin Windlow: right

Deklin Windlow: sorry i'm being vague

Whirly Fizzle: Well, I didnt come here to meet people as such, but I formed a few good friendships along the way

Whirly Fizzle: I know people that are here to find boyfriends/girlfriends in RL though

Deklin Windlow: wow

Deklin Windlow: how would you compare your relationships with individuals in second life and in real life?

Whirly Fizzle: Well here, its much more superficial

Whirly Fizzle: You generally dont chat about your RL problems here

Whirly Fizzle: People just tend to chat about aspects of SL

Whirly Fizzle: But depends how well you get to know someone

Deklin Windlow is Offline

Whirly Fizzle: My landowner is on SL to meet a RL partner & we chat a lot about all his different Girlfriends on here

& who he wants to meet in RL

Second Life: User not online - message will be stored and delivered later.

Whirly Fizzle: Oooops! You crashed!!!

My computer crashed at this point in the conversation so I had to restart. When I returned, I had  Whirly remind me where

we were in the conversation.

Second Life: User not online - message will be stored and delivered later.

Whirly Fizzle: Doncha just love SL!

Second Life: User not online - message will be stored and delivered later.

Deklin Windlow is Online

Whirly Fizzle: Welcome back!

Whirly Fizzle: lol

Whirly Fizzle: Crash?

Deklin Windlow: haha i'm really sorry

Deklin Windlow: yep just crashed on me

Whirly Fizzle: S'ok

Whirly Fizzle: One of the pains of SL!!!!

Deklin Windlow: there we go

Whirly Fizzle: Cool

Deklin Windlow: you don't by any chance have our conversation saved do you?

Whirly Fizzle: Yes

Whirly Fizzle: Well, I can do

Whirly Fizzle: You want me to send it to you?

Whirly Fizzle: Notecard?

Deklin Windlow: would you mind?

Whirly Fizzle: No probs

Deklin Windlow: can i copy and paste a notecard into a word doc?

Deklin Windlow: wow i am very laggy right now

Whirly Fizzle: I dont see why not

Deklin Windlow: ok i'd really appreaciate that

Whirly Fizzle: Just doing it now

Deklin Windlow: ok i'm sorry but once again how do you compare the friends on second life with your friends in the

real world?

Whirly Fizzle: Cool

Deklin Windlow: how would you compare your relationships with individuals in second life and in real life?

Whirly Fizzle: Well here, its much more superficial

Whirly Fizzle: My landowner is on SL to meet a RL partner & we chat a lot about all his different Girlfriends on here

& who he wants to meet in RL

Whirly Fizzle: I said that when youd crashed..lol

Whirly Fizzle: Dunno if thats ok answer

Deklin Windlow: no thats great

Deklin Windlow: interesting

Whirly Fizzle: He'd prob be ok with being interviewed if you need more people

Deklin Windlow: just 1 for the moment

Deklin Windlow: but maybe later though!

Deklin Windlow: i have my final major project due in a little over a month

Whirly Fizzle: Ouch!

Deklin Windlow: maybe i'll try to get in contact with you or him again then

Whirly Fizzle: Well, just IM me when you need to

Deklin Windlow: sure thing

Deklin Windlow: ok sorry just a few more questions and then i'll let you continue with your night

Whirly Fizzle: If im offline Ill get it when I log in

Whirly Fizzle: Yeah sure

Deklin Windlow: so you say that your relations with individuals are different on second life than real life. do you ever

think that second life could become one of the dominate means of communication between individuals?

Deklin Windlow: as in do you think it could replace email or facebook or even telephone?

Whirly Fizzle: I think its possible yes

Whirly Fizzle: But a lot of people would hate SL & not want to use it

Whirly Fizzle: But its free to chat here on voice to people all over the world

Whirly Fizzle: Ive thought about getting my cousins in Canada on so we can voice chat

Whirly Fizzle: Save on the phone bills...lol

Deklin Windlow: no kidding

Deklin Windlow: thats a good idea

Whirly Fizzle: It can be buggy though

Whirly Fizzle: Not as reliable as a phone line

Whirly Fizzle: But Im sure that will improve over time

Whirly Fizzle: But Im sure that will improve over time

Whirly Fizzle: Ive heard businesses already use it to hold meetings

Whirly Fizzle: RL ones I mean

Deklin Windlow: we've discussed that in class

Whirly Fizzle: Not really that diff from video conferencing

Deklin Windlow: people from all over the world can congregate in second life and hold conferences

Whirly Fizzle: Yup

Whirly Fizzle: I think its an amazing piece of technology

Whirly Fizzle: Whatever your reasons for coming here, whatever you interests, persuasion or perversion, you can

find it here

Whirly Fizzle: lol

Deklin Windlow: yep

Whirly Fizzle: And theres some WEIRD stuff here!!!!

Whirly Fizzle: lol

Deklin Windlow: haha yes

Deklin Windlow: i've already had some creepy guy make sexual advances on me

Whirly Fizzle: Whats the weirdest thing you've seen?

Whirly Fizzle: lol

Whirly Fizzle: Yup

Whirly Fizzle: Lots of pervs here....lol

Deklin Windlow: ok last serious question....what do you think the views are on race and gender in second life?

Deklin Windlow: do you find there to be discrimination/racism based on race and gender?

Whirly Fizzle: Well...You never know who is behind most avatars!

Whirly Fizzle: The av could be a guy but its a girl in RL

Whirly Fizzle: You never know

Whirly Fizzle: Unless you speak on voice

Whirly Fizzle: A lot of people are being something in SL they arnt in RL

Whirly Fizzle: You can be what you want

Deklin Windlow: do you find that avatars will discriminate or make rude remarks towards avatars who are minorities?

Whirly Fizzle: I read that 80% of all AVS in SL are female but of those 80%....50% are guys in RL!!!!

Whirly Fizzle: No...I find that doesnt happen

Whirly Fizzle: There arnt really minorities here

Deklin Windlow: in a sense a utopia?

Deklin Windlow: is that what you're getting at?

Whirly Fizzle: Wel, I mean...someone with a "different" AV is more likely to get positive attention

Deklin Windlow: right

Whirly Fizzle: Because they stand out

Whirly Fizzle: Yes, in a way I guess

Deklin Windlow: i have an interesting article for you if i can find it

Whirly Fizzle: Most people dont care who you are in RL

Whirly Fizzle: But Ill tell you one thing myself & others have noticed...

Deklin Windlow: nevermind my internet isn't working with second life open. and i don't want to crash

Whirly Fizzle: There are hardly any coloured AVs here

Whirly Fizzle: I find that strange

Whirly Fizzle: You noticed that?

Deklin Windlow: yes

Deklin Windlow: here's why i ask.....

Deklin Windlow: fyi in real world i am a caucasion male

Whirly Fizzle: I wondered that actually...If you had just chosen a coloured AV cos of the projects nature

Whirly Fizzle: I think its really weird...why arnt there any!

Deklin Windlow: it actually has to do with my next mini project for class

Deklin Windlow: as of 2 hours ago i had a white male avatar

Deklin Windlow: our assignment is to either change our avatar's gender or race and see how they are treated any

differently in second life

Whirly Fizzle: You notice any difference in the way you got treated?

Whirly Fizzle: Ah!

Whirly Fizzle: Hopefully you werent treated differently

Deklin Windlow: i haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary

Deklin Windlow: you passed

Whirly Fizzle: WhoooHoooo

Whirly Fizzle: Actually, when I first saw you I thought...thank God...someone has a black AV!!!

Whirly Fizzle: lol

Deklin Windlow: although i would like to know the reason why the other avatars declined my request to be

interviewed

Deklin Windlow: was it because they were busy? or because i had a black avatar?

Whirly Fizzle: Nah...I really dont think it was cos of the black AV

Whirly Fizzle: I hope not anyway

Deklin Windlow: when you get a chance check this out...   http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2006/02/the_skin_your_.html

Deklin Windlow: i hope i typed it in correctly

Deklin Windlow: well that was my last question

 

Something happened at this point in the conversation and my IM screen said that Whirly was typing but nothing ever

came through. I think that either she or I had frozen. It was getting late so I decided to go back into the real world for

the rest of the night.

 

 

Another snapshot of Deklin and Whirly on the couch. (I was going to get a snapshot from a different location but my computer

had frozen and I was unable to move my avatar)

 

My interview with Whirly could not have gone any better! She was very friendly and willing to talk with me. In fact we ended up talking for over an hour. It was about 2 in the morning when Second Life crashed for the second time that our conversation abruptly ended. I started asking Whirly very broad questions: how long she had been involved with Second Life, why she chose to join Second Life, the main purpose for which she used Second Life, etc. My questions eventually became more detailed and elaborate. I'd say that my main focus of my interview was her opinion of the social aspects of Second Life and how she compared her relationships and interactions with others in world with those in the real world. Her responses were quite interesting, as shown in the above conversation.

 

Bibliography

Fizzle, Whirly. "Interview With Avatar Whirly Fizzle." Online interview. 22 Oct. 2008.

 

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