Alter Ego

Alter Ego is a documentary about virtual worlds on the internet, but ironically it’s really a story about people.

Mind you, these are not just any people. You could call them eccentric. The more callous, when pressed, would say they were odd. But in each case we meet real people dealing with real challenges in an unconventional way – online in a virtual reality world called Second Life where their alter ego takes precedent.

Our first Second Lifer is 37-year-old Melbourne man Andy, a frustrated musician and self-confessed “bum.” If there’s a rebellious, alternative path to take in life, Andy’s will take it. His cousin Pearlie, whom we also meet, describes Andy’s music as “fiercely non-commercial.” And she’s not wrong. I can’t understand the appeal of his songs where the guitar and vocals are set to different rhythms. But Andy’s happy.

And so we watch as Andy joins Second Life, arguably the world’s most popular virtual world, and enters a new dimension. Virtual worlds, to the uninitiated, are online environments where real people assume an alter ego in the form of an avatar. It’s an imperfect picture, but you could think of it as vaguely similar to a multiplayer video game but without formal structure or a clear objective beyond “living”.

These avatars go wherever and do whatever they like. They might get a tattoo, hang out in a club, or visit a church. Avatars also can engage in virtual sex, a point not lost on Senator Stephen Conroy who was rumoured to be considering Second Life’s addition to the notorious black list of banned websites.

Back to Andy. The appeal of Second Life is its connection to his real life. He dreams of finding an audience for his music, and thanks to cousin Pearlie successfully hosts a gig in Second Life attended by avatars from all over the world. Mission accomplished.

Then we meet Wolfie, a popular avatar in Second Life who literally believes his wolf-like avatar is a true reflection of his identity. Wolfie, another ordinary man from the Australian suburbs who has battled cancer for two years, confides that when he’s drifting off to sleep he can feel himself morphing into a werewolf. “I can feel pads on my feet,” he says. And when he’s out walking his real life dog, which unsurprisingly looks like a wolf, Wolfie feels that he leaves canine footprints behind. The bottom line for Wolfie? You get the impression Second Life is escapism from life’s trials.

Then we have another eccentric man, a friend of Wolfie in Second Life who likes to wear a rat suit in the real world. We watch as he gently strokes the rat suit’s hair and he confides: “When I am wearing Rattus, I am not just me.” Rattus is part of his real world identity, someone who is “cute and fuzzy and big.” Odd?

Then comes Angela, a slightly overweight single mother of three children from three separate husbands who lives in the American mid west. Her very attractive avatar “Déjà Jericho” runs a tattoo parlour in Second Life. She has a virtual husband she married in a Second Life wedding followed by a sexually explicit Second Life honeymoon. The happy online couple has two virtual children who are in fact adults in child avatars.

Angela admits she’s a computer junkie. Her real world kids were put in foster care at one point by welfare authorities because of her neglect. One of Angela’s children reveals she once played Second Life for three days without a break, leaving her eldest daughter to run the house.

But there might be an upside. Fay, one of Angela’s Second Life children, reveals she has found safety and nurture as one of Angela’s virtual children. Second Life is apparently helping her come to terms with being sexually abused a child. “The first time I was tucked into bed [in Second Life] I was emotionally overcome,” she says.

So what to make of all this? Alter Ego’s producers clearly decided it would make better television if they profiled Second Life’s more colourful identities. But in doing so they have left unanswered many questions and for my taste failed to adequately address a range of important issues that your correspondent has thought about over the years.

My long list of questions is thus: Is Second Life truly a haven for people with complex problems and difficult life issues? I thought a number of large businesses were using Second Life for marketing activities – why doesn’t that get airplay? There are conflicting stories about the decline of virtual world subscribers – is this true? What about all the other virtual worlds out there like Active Worlds, There and Entropia Universe – how are they different to Second Life?

And then there’s the biggie. Alter Ego’s narrator suggests these virtual worlds paint a picture of what’s to come for humanity as we blur the lines between what is real, and what’s virtual. It’s an intriguing thought, but one that needs more unpacking.

Maybe that’s what Alter Ego is missing – part two.