Japan's Third Life

Japan chooses not to takeover, this time. The Japanese are purportedly not that happy with the free-spirited environment of Second Life and would much rather prefer a more predictable and secure virtual environment where there is no pornography, profanity and no death (due to guns). "Meet-me," an online interactive virtual Tokyo, is set to open in the near future to provide Japanese with a virtual world that is much closer to their real world and culture. In "meet me", the avatars, or computer-generated alter-egos, are rounder and softer, much like anime characters. The avatars also ride trains or other vehicles or walk or run to get around a city whose streets and buildings look much like real Tokyo's. The sun rises and sets in Tokyo time. The creators of "meet me" are probably counting on drawing the Japanese patrons of Second Life who comprise about 8 percent of the 561,000 active users.

It's ironic that while the internet is supposed to make a person's world bigger with access to different cultures, peoples and places, some struggle to make it smaller by restricting it to the confines of their comfort zones.