By the end of may in 2008 I finished up on building the In For Life sim in Second Life. The purpose of In For Life was to provide immersive prison play through the judicial system that has been developed specifically for IFL.
We had a flying start in June 2008 where we at one point had 4 prisoners in at the same time. One of them, Cloud Bracken, spent a mind boggling 182 online hours inside the prison – Until we had to pull her out of there in order to maintain her sanity 
Then drama hit the fan, which apparently is a common thing in Second Life. Rumors started to spread that the play on In For Life was based on non-consensual participation and that we, for real, forced people into playing. Things were spread through the grape wine that we shaved people’s heads by force etc.
First of all; this was rumors that in all fairness was expressed by people who in general weren’t participating in the role play at all. Fair enough – I can understand that people on “the outside” don’t have a clue about what is going on in Instant Messages and private conversations. But no role play can take place in Second Life without consent. We are also very cautious to confirm in forms or in Instant Messages that the participants are enjoying the play and that they know what is going on. Then there is the element of surprise; No one is given a manuscript that tells them exactly what is going to happen to them, no role player wants that as far as I know.
Second of all; Think about it – Is it even possible to force someone into role play in Second Life? My opinion is a strong no, you always have the possibility log off, teleport away or turn off your computer. Why not use that possibility when things is outside your limitations?
Then real life hit me in August and there weren’t many things that was fun at that point in time. The dust gathered on In For Life as desolate winds was whipping the prison. It basically became a deserted sim, which leads me to another thing that I have always told people in Second Life: It doesn’t matter how well your sim is built, if you don’t have people there to fill the structures with purpose then it is done in vain.
We decided to re-market then prison in January 2009 and that went beyond all expectations! The prison is now full (currently 6 prisoners and 4 committed guards).
The main purpose with the prison was to strengthen the bonds between the dominant and the submissive as they went into the prison. The prison experience should give a more focused time together. As we re-marketed the prison we got a lot of requests from people without dominants, that wanted to become prisoners. This has led to the fact that we now have public guards that will cater for these public prisoners and that will also give us an interesting mix of inmates and guards.
All prisoners go through a trial session in order to get a sentence, and the latest trials have startled some real emotions. The trials are run by the decadent and bitter Supreme judge and his other judges. The Supreme judge has a distorted view on justice, and who wouldn’t, being left on a prison island for years. His distorted mind have almost reached an omnipotent level.
The trials are for this reason, in a sane person’s view a mockery of traditional justice – But the judge isn’t in any way traditional, he basically just want prisoners to torment and tease, preferably sluts.
The latest trials have for that reason created some real drama again, as some people are thinking that the trials should be carried out in a fair manner. Then read back on what I wrote here, the role play is based on BDSM and the supreme judge’s distorted mind and it has never been the intention that the trails on In For Life should be fair. The potential prisoner WANTS to go into the prison, so we are creating everything we can to make that happen.
On the other hand I like the fact that we are affecting peoples emotions, that means that the role play we are convincing and immersive. But if it gets to be too much, then always use the log off option or talk to the person you are role playing with – Communication is the king, even in Second Life.
See you all in prison!
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I for one along with My one (skarlett indigo), have enjoyed the trials at the prison. We were also fortunate enough to capture one of the slu..I mean fugitives from justice. The judge so far to me seems very fair….LOL