Tags: News

At the Future is Now conference, there were approximately 55 people in attendance for this session. It was one of the most fascinating because its subject, the Gorean Community, is interestingly weird by almost anyone’s standards. The Gorean Community is a closed community within Second Life whose members engage in master/slave role-playing.  By itself, that fact might not seem strange or interesting, but according to the presenter, Sara J. Martin (SL: Rocksie Slade), participation in the community is extremely popular and land occupation has grown to the point where it now spans approximately four sim islands. In addition, it seems to be more popular with women who are often cast in the slave roles than it does with men who are most often free to enjoy the pleasures of their slaves at whim. And yes, sexual performance is one of the, um,“chores” that a slave might be requested to supply.

Rocksie speculates that the complexity of rules for role-play adds to the popularity of the community. For instance, there is traditionally poetry recitation involved in answering the call to one’s master. The better the slave performs, the greater the chance that the master will be kind and/or reward the slave. Among free men and free women, there is a chess-like game called Kaissa that is popular. Masters of the game are highly renowned for their prowess. Dance, as well, is subject to great intricacy. Combat, while based on medieval themes, is another form of game play with its own set of complicated rituals.

Why should librarians know about this community? Four hundred servers engage in some sort of Gorean role-play. Some 15,137 people from Second Life have been active in the community. Approximately 9300 woman are involved, which means that there are more women than men. Most women choose to role-play as slaves rather than as independent women. With numbers such as these, and because people often ask about Second Life matters as much as anything else at in-world libraries, librarians need to know at least a little about the community.