Intimacy In Virtual Worlds
JenzZa Misfit’s RDV tool recently got an upgrade to make it Havok 4 compatible. (I have it on good authority that a lot of vehicle makers are about to be completely blindsided by how much less backwards-compatible Havok 4 is than Linden Lab says.)
JenzZa just came out with a new version that’s for “just friends”, rather than “couples”. Neither involves any sexual content at all, but there’s definitely a difference. To illustrate:
How do you feel about this?
Compare your gut feeling on that picture to this one:
There’s an obvious difference. For us Westerners at least, holding hands is a pretty intimate thing. Try it in a virtual world sometime. You can’t help but feel a real connection to the person you’re with.
The benefits of the RDV system are huge. I wrote about it awhile ago on Metaversed, but to summarize: it’s an easy-to-use tool that let’s you walk, fly and swim with another person. The tool keeps your avatars physically together and synchronizes the animations to make everything go smoothly.
If you’ve ever tried to tour a sim with a friend or a client you’ll understand how critical this is. It’s way too easy to end up 200m away from someone and completely lose them before you know it. It’s the social aspects of virtual worlds that make them important, and the runaway sales of the RDV tool prove that others think so too. She’s sold over 3000 units now.
A “just friends” version was necessary, though. Every time I look at that picture of my avatar with JenzZa holding hands I feel like I’m betraying my wife somehow. It’s too intimate. The “just friends” one is just… well… more fun. I can relax and not worry about it. We can even take turns with the controls… after all, people don’t just walk in Second Life:
The RDV system is pretty potent – it’s bringing people together in a very real way. I wonder if the next version, supporting up to 8 avatars, will be as impactful.