Cultural simulation through virtual worlds. The case of Second Life: an approach to the representation, narrative and rhetorical potential in the new media cultures

Abstract

Digital technologies developed in the past decade, have consented the birth of a virtual culture, which has transformed the way we communicate and perceive our world. An example of this, are the social networks and the virtual worlds. Between those, in the years 2003-2007, we can mention a plattform known as Second Life, intended to create a virtual place (metaverse) where you could literally live another life. However, this didn’t happen as its creators had planned, from 2008 it waned, and the critics (as their creators) alluded its fall was purely related to technological issues. This essay suggests the probability that the reproduction of outside social structures in Second Life influenced in its fall, even more than technological issues.