"The Drama"

Inspired by a blog article by my dear landlord Syx Toshi; I write this short post on drama. Or lets call it "The Drama". Reading Syx's entry, I checked my profile, if I mentioned anything about no drama in it...well, I'm over it, BUT I wrote I am happy to live on a peaceful drama free surf sim. Is it really this way? Am I happy or is it really drama free?

Let's check on the origins of the term drama to start. I post the most impressive statements about "The Drama" from wikipedia here and will discuss those related to an SL live.

Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance.

What we live in, in Second Life, is that fiction? Is it a story we write? Our story? Or is it a story our second life writes on its own? What's the mode we are in anyways? Escape mode, inventive mode, go with the flow mode or even drama mode?  Does being in a virtual reality life simulation mean we participate in a performative play?


The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" (Classical Greek: δρᾶμα, drama), which is derived from "to do" (Classical Greek: δράω, drao).

We could do nothing in Second Life. We could just hang, but even doing nothing is a statement and provokes reactions from others. Well, somedays, if people would not get used to other people being idle, which - speaking for me - simply sucks without busy message. And even then..isn't one lifes drama anough? Do I have to be "afk for cooking"? Do I really miss something, when being offline that time and simply "be real"? Maybe some drama?


The two masks associated with drama represent the traditional generic division between comedy and tragedy. 

Irony fills the gap between tragedy and comedy - well sometimes...I guess drama involves emotions and seldom Second Life works without emotions. Even a good (or as well bad) talk evolves emotions. Whatever those are or mean - those are real! So, is SL drama kinda RL(real life) substitute drama? Do we really need an extra portion of drama? My theory to this one is, we often search for what we lack in real life or sometimes wanna be one step ahead of RL. The most common example is the growing wedding market in SL. There even is a wedding expo. Make dreams come true? Good ones or bad ones in that case - as most SL partnerships don't last more than 4 month?


The use of "drama" in the narrow sense to designate a specific type of play dates from the 19th century. Drama in this sense refers to a play that is neither a comedy nor a tragedy

Play can be defined as play on stage, but as well can be play in the meaning of the Homo Ludens. Play is essential to human beings in this one. We can play with our identities, our lifes, our looks, our talents in Second Life. Some of this may cause drama as well. Is this good or its this bad? In upper case the drama can be a real life divorce after an SL marriage (pretty common already). But is this really a drama, as probably noone being happy in a RL relationship would end up in an serious SL marriage?


Drama is often combined with music and dance:

Nearly every SL "whatever" starts with a first date at a club. So there sure music and dancing is on. Music transports emotions and a dance is the harmless version of getting closer to another avatar. The beginning of a drama?


In improvisation, the drama does not pre-exist the moment of performance; performers devise a dramatic script spontaneously before an audience

Let's be spontaneous! Arn't we all members of a big performative play of life with our avatars? And drama is an essential of life. Sometimes we long for it, sometimes we sure'd like to miss parts of it. Sometimes we let ourselves drew into the drama, sometimes we might even throw ourselves into it, sometimes we flee from it and this is a drama itself. So can there technically be any Second Life without drama?

And to answer the questions, where I started my article at:

Am I happy? Mostly, but that includes not being involved in any organizational drama. As well as choosing, when to create drama around myself. But as in every life interaction with others may not turn out the way you wish - you never know!

Is the surf sim drama free? Definetly not, when you look behind the curtains or check on main beach rumors for a while. But it's managable to keep outa the worst one pretty good here.