Roleplay & Lifestyle in Second Life... that Blurry Line

Recent events in second life have brought to my attention how confused the terms “Roleplay” and “lifestyle” usually are, so let’s pull resources to clarify once and for all which is which, hence avoiding confusion.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines role-playing as “the changing of one’s behaviour to fulfill a social role“, this is not who you are, this is who you are pretending to be while interacting with a community in SL, that being a roleplay society or group.

When I was about 2 months old in SL, I was part of the Versailles roleplay, which can be quite alluring -pretending to be a historical figure and such-, I was The Italian Count of Cagliostro while at the sim; I was NOT the count 24 / 7, just whenever I felt like roleplaying at Versailles or when an event was held there.

Lifestyle is a term to describe the way a person lives, which was originally coined by Austrian psychologist Alfred Adler in 1929. A lifestyle is a characteristic bundle of behaviors that makes sense to both others and oneself in a given time and place, including social relations, consumption, entertainment, and dress. The behaviors and practices within lifestyles are a mixture of habits, conventional ways of doing things, and reasoned actions. So we’re basically the same person, but depending on what lifestyle we embrace and the interactions we are exposed to, our behavior varies slightly. The person who I am in RL and SL doesn’t vary much, I try to keep myself as real and grounded as possible, but in SL a series of events has led me to embrace the vampire lifestyle, our community does not roleplay being vampires or lycans or hybrids, we live as such while trying our best to staying true to who are.

These small but very obvious differences, which do not seem to be so by some, has caused a heated discussion in the currently held “Best of Vampire SL week”, both promoted and held by linden labs. So let’s make it clear, as I am aware that there is a large group of communities who roleplay being vampires, but live separate lives to their roleplay experience: I do not roleplay, myself like many out there in the Vampire / lycan community “live” in SL this lifestyle, this is who we are and is how we relate to others, We cannot “get out” of who we are and pretend we are someone else, that’d be changing your lifestyle, or adding a roleplay character to the person you have become in second life -also true for Real Life.

“Spike Clémenceau-Silent rezzed in Second Life on March 14, 2010, is The Eldest of the Genesis Order Horde, owner of SCS Designs, columnist for GayWorldsnews, SL DJ and father to Skylar Silent” This is who I am, I also happen to be gay and a hybrid.

https://www.facebook.com/spikecls