حبيبي
The habibi club
The advantage of a world such as Second Life is that you can experience something that you normally would have no chance to do. Let's say you wanted to experience a harem during the Arabian nights. You may not be able to just take off and leave everything behind at a moments notice, but that's exactly what you can do in Second Life.
After arriving at the Habibi Club world, I was presented with this scene. I can only describe this is as how a Las Vegas showman would imagine an oasis. The revolving 'Habibi" sign was a nice touch, but I couldn't see it when I arrived. It took a few minutes of positioning my avatar before I could get it all in frame.
This is my biggest criticism of Second Life - it's not real. By that I mean it is unnatural. You don't arrive naturally at a place (there is a teleport function) and you cannot view the world naturally (there is a camera pan function). So you end up missing a lot of the details and the overall theatre of travelling to a place.
Habibi Club has rules including 'No nudity' and 'No pushing.'
There were all these strange, heavily-tattooed men standing around the world. I wonder if they were bouncers? They left me alone at any rate.
Most of this world is geared towards selling items to users rather than focusing on the hospitality aspect that Arab culture usually involves. Where are the people? Who is here to welcome me and make me feel at ease and relaxed?
Also, the majority of clothing is made for female users (even though the world is called 'habibi').
Some items are given away for free, but you must join the group first. A common enticement to gain new users, but again it doesn't feel natural to have this here.
I finally found some items available for men to purchase. These shops were tucked away in a corner of the world. It was quite a contrast to the saturation of scantily dressed women who were ostensibly marketing to female users to buy their wares.
I thought I had finally found the harem experience that I so commonly associate with an oasis. The belly-dancing girls putting on a show for their habibi. Alas, this site was selling clothes inventory for users' avatars. So perhaps if you wanted to try this at home, your virtual personification could do it for you.
One thing that I liked was the D.J. Lineup. You could log in and view some performances from some skilled DJs. It looks like there may be video as well to go with the show. The only problem was there were no performers online. I'm not sure what time zone that Second Life is in, but it is clear that I would have to wait some time for someone to come online.
I wonder if they could have uploaded some archive footage so there would be something there for the casual walk up user.
My overall impression is that Second Life still has a long way to go before it can compare with real life. Even when exploring an aspect where Second Life should excel, I was left desperately underwhelmed by the cheesy Las Vegas version of Arabian Nights.
The Habibi Club world can be accessed at the following link - http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Omanix/133/54/351
منجز
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