Fear of The Other

It really has been a huge learning experience for me in a lot of ways. I walked into the virtual world so oblivious and so surprised by so much. I couldn't understand why there was this unbelievably deep-seated and violent hatred of furries, for example. I've since discovered, as I mentioned in my "Fear of the Other" forum discussion, that it transcends any one virtual world. There are entire websites and online communities devoted to the hatred of furries everywhere. And for me, in my naivete, I just thought, "what's the big deal? Someone chose an anthropomorphic fox with a hat, eyeglass and vest for his avatar in a fantasy world. It's like Disney or Pixar or any number of fantasy books or comics. He looks cute to me. I don't get it." And I wanted to. So I got inquisitive. And holy cow. I'm still riding that train of curious thought.


I didn't get the vampire hatred either, but then my experience with vampires was that someone would approach me in a store, ask if I wanted to be bitten, I'd say, 'no, thank you,' the vamp would say, 'not a problem, enjoy your shopping,' and that would be the end of it, so I had no idea what the fuss was about. I'm telling ya, I've learned a lot over the last 2 or 3 years. Virtual worlds are an amazing recreation of real worlds in the human interpersonal dynamic aspect. People do the strangest things. But then I guess that's what makes them interesting, right?


 Originally Posted by LeeHere Absent
Nature abhors a vacuum. Virtual worlds crave division. Jets vs. sharks. Bloods vs. crips. Furries vs. humans. The dead vs. the living. Texters vs. voicers. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet and an "other" by any other name would smell as foul. Speaking of smell, has anyone seen, or heard for that matter, HarryPalmer.SecretSpy lately?


Reposts. LeeHere Absent, Feb 17, 2011 http://gotvirtual.net/community/threads/thats-what-she-said.772/page-7#post-24524  http://gotvirtual.net/community/threads/thats-what-she-said.772/page-7#post-24526   LeeHere Absent, Feb 18, 2011http://gotvirtual.net/community/threads/thats-what-she-said.772/page-8#post-24691

Virtual World Tribes

I gave it some thought and began building a list of what I perceived to be the "tribes" of virtual worlds:


The Tribes


✣ Oldbies vs. Newbies
✣ Paid accounts vs. "free" accounts 
✣ Bloodlines (vampires, werewolves, etc.) vs. non-bloodlines (live humans)
✣ Open Source vs. non
✣ Copy botters vs. designers and merchants 
✣ Faeries and tiny people vs. standard or tall avatars
✣ Furries vs. humans
✣ Bestiality enthusiasts and zoophiliacs vs. "animal lovers" and others
✣ BDSM & Gor vs. non.
✣ Texters vs. voicers.
✣ Child avis vs. adult avis.
✣ Fantasy-based players vs. reality-based players.
✣ Forum whores vs. people just looking for answers to platform questions.
✣ Democrats vs. Republicans vs. Socialists vs. Communists vs. Randians, etc. 
✣ Players vs. residents
✣ Extroverts vs. introverts
✣ Gesture users vs. gesture haters
✣ Rude and careless vs. considerate and thoughtful
✣ Beggars and spammers vs. everyone else
✣ Griefers, trolls and hackers vs. non-griefers, etc.
✣ Bistros vs. Bars


Eternally under construction.


Repost. LeeHere Absent, Feb 17, 2011 http://gotvirtual.net/community/threads/thats-what-she-said.772/page-6#post-24480