[May 26, 2009] The Draft of Our Final Project Survey

Personal Information of each Interviewer:
Name:
Age:
Sex: 口male 口female
Data:
How long have you played Second Life?
How often do you play it?

Question:
1)How do you get the information about having sex in sl?
2)How often do you visit these places?Please recommend the top 5 places you like most.
3) Which one do you think is easier to find a mate in sl, male or female? Why?
4)How do you choose your mate when you want to have sex?
5)Do you inquire the real sex of you mate before you decide to have sex with him/her? Why or why not?
6)If the sex of you mate doesn’t match the avartar’s, would you mind? Why or why not?
7)Have you ever tried the commercial sex in sl? Why or why not?
8)Where do you find the commercial sex?Please recommend 1 to 5 places you often visit.
9)What kind of service would you like to pay the highest?
10)Which one do you think cost more money? Toy boy or prostitute?
11)Does the sex experience in second life influence your real life?

Revise "Money Trees, the Gospel For the Newbies?"

        Like the other online games, Second Life provides a platform for the players to buy and sell goods. The currency in SL is called "Linden", which is derived from the name of the platform, Linden lab. In order to have a good time in SL, the players have to earn lindens to buy, such as clothes, houses, lands, etc. Normally, there are three main ways to gain lindens: One is to exchange real money for lindens, which is the major choice among players for the convenience; another is to work in SL as shop owners or employees; and the last is to play games or to participate in some activities of certain festivals like searching rabbit eggs on Easter Sunday. Here is an exception only accessed to the newbies in SL, that is by money trees. It seems to be a gospel to the newbies, doesn't it? Still, there are some problems with usage of money trees.
        From my observation, money trees have two forms, one are the trees for newbies only, but the other are the trees available for everyone. Money trees in the first form have some limitations, for example, some require those who enter Sl below 30 days, yet the other may be available to  those who are under 60 days. People who are qualified tp these conditions can gain some lindens from the donation in these trees, and the prizes are depended on how much people donated in these trees, yet usually it is less than you have expected. The second form of trees require people to fill surveys in two pages, which are labeled by different nationalities. Through this regional segmentation,  players' IP addresses are bound with the nationality division, so they can't fill the surveys of other nations. I found it unfair and annoying for players like me whose nationalities are not listed in the surveys. Furthermore, there is only one international version can be chosen (which links to a porn website) . Hence, by these limitations, I find money trees don't help a lot for the newbies.

Money Trees, the gospel for the newbies?

        Like the other online games, Second Life provides a platform for the players to buy and sell goods. The currency in SL is called "Linden", which is derived from the name of the platform, Linden lab. In order to have a good time in SL, the players have to earn lindens to buy, such as clothes, houses, lands, etc. Normally, there are three main ways to gain lindens: One is to exchange real money for lindens, which is the major choice among player for the convenience; another is to work in SL as shop owners or employees; and the last is to play games or to participate in some activities of certain festivals like searching rabbit eggs on Easter Sunday. Here is an exception only accessed to the newbies in SL, that is by money trees. It seems to be a gospel to the newbies, doesn't it! Still, there are some problems with usage of money trees.
        From my observation, money trees have two forms, one are the trees for newbies only, but the other are the trees available for everyone. Money trees in the first form has some limitations, some require those who enter Sl below 30 days, yet the other require those who are under 60 days. People who satisfy these conditions can gain some lindens from the donation in these trees. Thus, the prize is depended on how much people donated in this tree, and usually it is less than you have expected. The second form of trees require people to fill surveys in two pages, which are labeled by different nationalities. Through this regional segmentation, the IP of the players are fixed to the nationality division, so they can't fill the surveys of other nations. I found it unfair and annoying for players like me whose nationalities are not listed in the surveys. Furthermore, there is only one international version can be chosen (which links to a porn website) . Hence, by these limitations, I find money trees don't help a lot for the newbies.

Revise "The Fascination of Virtual Sex in Second Life"

        Why do people want virtual sex in Second Life?

        In reality, people used to think sex as something more private that when it comes to the discussion of sex in public, it often relates to morality and social relationship. So when a person is talking about sex or his/her sexual experience in public, he/she may be at the risk of his/her reputation or even the political life, if he/she carelessly talks about it. However, thanks to the advance of technology, people can talk it more freely in Internet's world without worrying about the things above. In Second Life's world, the residents not only talk, insult by words of sexual implications but they even display sex in public by avatars. It seems that the world itself is projected into SL's world except that the force of social restraint lessens in the virtual world, thus people can do whatever they want without being known by their families and friends in reality. By this, SL acts as a medium for intimate communication to satisfy people's needs and desires.

        It is interesting that many people are fascinated by virtual sex in SL,because of the separation of reality. Without physical contact, virtual sex in some ways is alienated from real sex that it doesn't necessarily have love or sexual desire involved. On the contrary, people may do it for fun or merely by curiosity, or as an act of showing familiarity. Hence, sex industry in SL seems to be a kind of entertaining industry that deals with the desire of self-display (displaying sex in various ways in public) and the pursuit of visual impact more than the desire for physical contact.
        As an Asian girl, I am particularly curious about the influence of this type of virtual sex has on reality and the impact on the traditional value about woman's body. If someone is obsessed to have virtual sex in SL, while she must appear conservative in reality, does the virtual sex experiences have not change her value? In my own experience, I have met a person at Freebie Dove in SL, who invited me to come to his house and had sex with him. But I was too shock to answer him that I immediately ran away. Though it is so embarrassing, I was well aware that the sexual value in reality has affected me a lot so that I couldn't easily let it go even in SL. Thus, it seems that the traditional sexual value about women should value their virginity and not behave dissoluted repress my desire to be me and do whatever I want. Perhaps SL is an outlet for women, especially Asian women, to vent this kind of social pressures, which means they can have sex with others unkown in reality and without the social burdens.

Revise "Taiwan Stories 2: Taiwanese Need to be Awake!" on Apr. 13, 2009

        Nowadays, it is seen as a virtuous act that giving up one’s seat to the elder, pregnant and crippled on train and bus. Not only do the good citizens do it to show their respect for charity, but also the regional governments of Taiwan intend to promote it as a model of moral etiquette and civic-mindness. It seems that almost everyone take it for granted. But here, we have to ask a question. Do people’s deeds really agree with their thoughts? Does the governments’ promotion really succeed in cultivating civic virtue of Taiwan?
        According to DMR center’s research about the civic quality of Taiwan, one of these research questions is: “Do you think that giving up one’s seat to the elderly, women and children on bus and MRT is popular in Taiwan?” Unfortunately, 34.6% people approve it but there are still 37.8% disapprove, which shows the difficulty of this promotion. Moreover, the general disagreement for this issue among young generation (20-29 year-old) is specifically emphasized, which is at the rate of 39.1%. Besides the official statics, the most direct view of this failure of civic promotion can be seen from our daily lives. During my years of experience taking public transportation, I observe that those who give out their seats are mostly 25-45 year-olds, and yet the majority of them are females. It is rare to see the middle-age men give their seats to the pregnant women, or even people who are too old to stand straight. Sometimes students also give their seats to people who really need them, but normally lots of them just sit there and pretend to fall asleep. It is a sad thing though, this situation should be a warning to Taiwanese as well as the government to think more about our civic education!

Revise "Unconfortable Truth" on Apr. 13, 2009

        Since the subprime mortgage collapse occurred in the United States in 2007, the worldwide financial crisis has furiously stricken the major capital markets, especially the financial system of developed countries. It is no doubt that this global economic storm has brought a huge rise in the number of unemployment and challenged the social welfare policy of those countries. The story I am going to tell is exactly a simple instance in Taiwan which reflects the social agitation stirred by this adversity.

        Miss Liung is now in her early thirties. She has worked as a counselor in a department of Employment Services Center for one year. She always had passion whenever she helped her clients to find the jobs, and felt a sense of fulfillment. However, this situation has changed recently. During this year, the number of unemployment increasingly grows that brings her more clients to serve, so her work becomes heavier than ever, and the worst of all, the project she has engaged in is going to end and she finds no confidence to her future job. Will she be out of work after the contract ends? Or will it have a new project that is waiting for her? In weeks, she has suffered from this stress and still doesn’t know what to do.
        Like Miss Liung, many people are at the edge of unemployment in Taiwan, survive in today's battle, but probably fail in the next day. According to the statistics of the Directorate-General of Budget, the employment rate of January 2008 is 3.80%, but the rate violently rises up to 5.31% after one year. If it doesn't change, there will be more people lose their jobs, even those who work for the government agencies.

Taiwan Stories 2: Is It Popular in Taiwan?

        Nowadays, it is seen as a virtuous act that giving

up one’s seat to the elder, pregnant and crippled on train and bus. Not only do the good citizens do it to show their respect for charity, but also the regional governments of Taiwan intend to promote it as a model of moral etiquette and civic-mindness. It seems that almost everyone take it for granted. But here, we have to ask a question. Do people’s deeds really agree with their thoughts? Does the governments’ promotion really succeed in cultivating civic virtue of Taiwan?

        According to DMR center’s research about the civic quality of Taiwan, one of these research questions is: “Do you think that giving up one’s seat to the elderly, women and children on bus and MRT is popular in Taiwan?” Unfortunately, 34.6% people approve it but there are still 37.8% disapprove, which shows the difficulty of this promotion. Moreover, the general disagreement for this issue among young generation (20-29 year-old) is specifically emphasized, which is at the rate of 39.1%. Besides the official statics, the most direct view of this failure of civic promotion can be seen from our daily lives. During my years of experience taking public transportation, I observe that those who give out their seats are mostly 30-45 year-olds, and yet the majority of them are females. Sometimes students also give their seats to people who really need them, but normally lots of them just sit there and pretend to fall asleep. It is a sad thing though, this situation should be a warning to Taiwanese as well as the government to think more about our civic education!