Goreans, The Sims Online, BDSM
Date: January 21, 2004 03:35AM
1) characteristics of online communities - healthy vs unhealthy
Online communities, much like real life ones, can be healthy or unhealthy. I suspect it is the nature of relationships in general. Online communities provide access to a larger variety of people, and differing viewpoints, which i find can be very healthy. I have met wonderful people of diverse cultures and backgrounds online, and i am the richer for that. I have even made a few friends who i cherish, especially my german one (you know who you are). On the other hand, the temptation to completely escape into an online world is hard to resist for some. Some people find it easier to "live" online, where they can be anyone, than it is to live in the real world and be themselves. I find that unhealthy. Addiction, whether it be to online gaming, alcohol, drugs, food, relationships, etc., is never healthy in my opinion.
2) ways online communities COULD become vulnerable to cultic distortion & differences between addiction to an online game or community and an online community that is cultic--how that would happen, what it would look like to an observer
Addiction to online gaming i think has more to do with escaping ones real life. So, its not so much about an addiction to the online community. In these games, the online addict, may hop from community to community, from forum to forum, from game to game. They play one out, or immerse themselves in it until they have gotten tired of it, or no longer find it an escape. They tend to start over a lot, building new characters, i suppose looking for something. It seems to me, they escape their real lives, then have to escape the online one they have lived, and start over somewhere else.
3)whether the specific groups being discussed fit the catagories of cultic behavior
I am not really familiar with cults, never having been a member or even exposed to one in real life. I suppose online communities very well could have cultic qualities, much as real life communities can. We are, after all, the same people ... the online community is made up of real life people. BDSM, being the actions some people engage in sexually, is not cultic in my opinion. D/s or M/s, on the other hand, could be construed as cultic in several ways i guess, moreso in M/s than D/s. The slave in M/s does give herself to her Master completely, so He does control her and make her decisions. I can certainly see how that is a cultic aspect. In Gorean M/s, there is a language many learn, and certain rituals and dances, even religious leanings. I can see how that is a cultic aspect also. D/s is less so, since the submissive (rather than the slave) retains all of her rights and limits have been set by her. So, nothing is done to her without her consent. I know of several real life submissives, but no real life slaves. I'm sure some exist, but i believe they are rare.
The thing with online gaming, though, is that even the slave in M/s online, will disobey, leave a Master, delete a character, or whatever she chooses to do to get out of a M/s relationship. Long-term M/s (or D/s) relationships arent common. The longest one i am aware of is 8 months ... more commonly, they are less than 3 months. People get bored with an online character, either themselves or the one they are playing with. They move on. In that way, online D/s or M/s is not very cultlike, since they are so easily left behind. BDSM is not as common in online D/s or M/s as it seems people think. I believe the majority of Masters do not cyber, or do so rarely, or have already gotten bored with it and quit. When things are new, it's fun. But it's certainly not what D/s or M/s is about.