February 10, 2007

Using Second Life to treat agoraphobia. "Meet Roberto, quite an eye-catching avatar who is one of the more interesting characters that can be found frequenting random areas of the Second Life world...Roberto Salvatierra...is a medical student from San Jose, Costa Rica, who suffers from the fear of open places and being out in public that is known as agoraphobia...his main reason for making his avatar resemble his real-life image as closely as possible was to help him in curing his affliction."
posted by HawthorneWingo 17 years ago
  • It's nice to know that SL isn't just a complete waste of time for some people. It certainly was for me albeit a fascinating waste at that.
  • It could also serve as a way for people to overcome their fear of virtual prostitutes.
  • Cue "make your own avatar" site search...now.
  • None of that explained why his avatar is only wearing underwear.
  • So people from Agoraphobia don't have a good economy, Koko. That was just rude.
  • I do not feel that this man is sad for doing this - but it does reinforce my personal feelings on playing games like this. I have a difficult enough time handling my first life. I don't need a pretend one on top of that. But, if it's therapy, hey - you do what works for you to make your head better. I'm cool without this, but then again I'm not agoraphobic.
  • I actually think this is pretty cool. If he doesn't wind up using it to replace face-to-face interaction, but to test out interactions in a safe (to him) environment, I applaud it.
  • I imagine one day he will be able to leave the house unaided - and when he does, he'll wonder why so few people are dressed in oversized fox costumes.
  • Better that he's walking around a virtual world in his underwear than out here in the real one.
  • Agoraphobia and underwear aside, do any monkeys spend any time in Second Life? I've recently got into it for business, but if anyone wants to go round late at night with me and pick up some virtual hookers and digital blow, let me know and I'll friend ya!
  • I've recently got into it for business... How do you do that? Online advertising or market research or some such activity?
  • Essentially, yep. We're ah, still working out the details :)
  • Wow. Is it that significant of a market?
  • Well, there's been a lot of ink spilt around the topic of "it's the new new thing!" "no, it's a worthless toy!" We have a futurist come in twice a year to discuss trends, and he is very much pro-SL (which was why we considered it in the first place); my research suggests there is some marketing possibilities there, and honestly? The things people say about Second Life now are VERY similar to the things people were saying about internet business in 1994 - it's a toy, no commercial application, it's all about porn and gambling, it'll never catch on, etc. And you see how that whole internet thing turned out, commercially speaking. The way I figure it, the lows costs to enter supercede the currently dubious ROI. And there are some significant plusses - the cachet of being one of the (very) few firms of our kind to have a presence there, the growing nature of the platform itself, the potential for consulting ON Second Life, as opposed to materially using SL itself, and probably most importantly, preparing ourselves technically and culturally for whatever comes next. There will be a next, and people and companies that garner experience now will have an edge later when the questions of how? and when? and through what process? are answered.
  • That's really an amazing and interesting venture! Good luck!