A Trip To A ‘Pet’ Sim

A trip to a ‘pet’ sim.

What is the appeal of virtual worlds like ‘Second Life?’. One would be forgiven for thinking it had to have something to do with being able to experience or do things which are not possible in everyday life. SL residents can fly, teleport, make objects appear from nowhere and turn them into an endless variety of things.

However, not everybody comes to Second Life in order to gain superpowers. What some are looking for, it seems, is limitations. One example of such people are ‘pets’, so called because they seek to be treated like, well, another avatar’s pet.

The creatives of Second Life cater to this group by making clothes, scripts and so on that serve to restrict one’s freedom. The clothes restrict movement and are often designed in such a way as to make the wearer look a bit like an animal. One’s speech can be restricted as well, so that instead of speaking in a human language, the pet meows like a cat, barks like a dog or neighs like a horse.

The appeal seems not to be not so much in loss of control, but rather in relinquishing control to somebody else. For where there are ‘pets’ there are also ‘owners’. As you can imagine, a great deal of trust has to be placed on the ‘owner’ if one is to fully embrace the ‘pet’ experience, because it demands giving up the autonomy that most of us take for granted and placing oneself under somebody else’s control.

Personally I cannot say much more about the appeal of this way of life or the psychology of those who seek it out. My sweetheart, Jamie, could probably say more about this because she herself owns a pet.

Not long ago, Jamie, her pet ‘Toffee’ and I took a trip to a sim for pets. One of the things this place had was a track where you could ride a pony and trap. I was a passenger, Jamie took charge of the reigns, and Toffee was the ‘pony’. At the time I was just enjoying the sights and chatting away to Jamie, but thinking back on it I wonder who, between Jamie and Toffee, was doing what. As ‘pony’ Toffee was pulling us along, and as driver, I presume Jamie was steering us. But to what extent could Toffee decide which way we went, or if we went at all? How much control was she relinquishing to Jamie?

Perhaps in the future I will know the answers to such questions. For now, though, all I can say is that I enjoyed our little trip out and found the other residents to be very welcoming.