Virta-Flaneurazine (VF)

Second Life, otherwise known as SL, is a three-dimensional virtual reality, which was developed in 2003, by Linden Lab, which is an American Internet company. Second Life is a client program, which is free to the public via the Internet. In Second Life, users communicate with one another via avatars and live virtually realistic lives alongside them. It is similar to the Sims, with which you may travel to different locations, get a job, make friends, etc.

Virta-Flanuerazine, or otherwise known as VF, is a psychotropic drug, which affects a person's sense of awareness and wanderment. It causes the person to feel dream-like vibrations, and to find his or herself aimlessly roaming without the slightest clue as to where he or she is. It is as if though you are in a dream, with scenes and environments transitioning seemingly infinitely before you.

This drug is being used for an experiment regarding the virtual world, Second Life. Scientists would like to know how users of Second Life react and behave to the Virta-Flaneurazine, through the points of view of their avatars. Those who volunteers to the experiment must be at least eighteen years of age, must have had previous experience with drug testing, and also basic experience on how to play Second Life. The experiment will take place in an exam room, where the person will be seated on a chair and with a wall projection of the user's avatar for the public to behold and study the user's actions.

I personally had a lot of trouble understanding this experiment, probably because I have never had experience with any three-dimensional, virtual reality games before. The only games I've ever played were with a controller or a keyboard, but I've never actually immersed my entire being, so to speak, into a digital world. Testing the VF on a person while he or she is immersed in a virtual reality world is interesting, and must truly change Second Life's gaming experience drastically. Some of the volunteers claimed to feel out of body experiences, and feelings of aimlessly floating.

This experiment was conducted by Doctors WD Pappenheimer and JC Freeman. Pappenheimer is a media artist and is currently an assistant professor at Pace University in New York.