Ethnography Report

[Ethan of Light]

Rituals and Symbols

It may be simple for one looking at the Matasoga’s Lovelies guild to find it void of symbols or rituals (as I myself had previously posited). Upon closer inspection, however, it indeed becomes apparent that the guild is laden with a plethora of both symbols and rituals that may not quite equate with the normal imagery associated with the terms.
The rituals are more often to be simple matters of function and maintenance than to be any sort of matters of superstition or hidden significance. It is similar to the case of a bar or a restaurant, where there is a strong reason to return, as all people must eat to live. It is the familiarity with such locales that draws the patrons back time and time again, as well as the promise of food. Of course, prices, ambience, company, and location all play a part.
In an internet guild, there can be no location. No part of their survival draws them back. Prices play no factor, and ambience, in many parts of the guilds’ design, is impossible to manipulate. The only thing that one can do to bring people back for conversation is to keep things fresh, as it were. If things stagnate, members may quickly lose interest and never be seen again. While rituals are things done repeatedly, they often are closely linked with the very type of change that draws members back again and again.
One thread features a discussion of animated feature films. Hosted by tinuviel_nyx, this thread has a weekly poll that can be voted upon by any member. The poll always pertains to some facet of animation. The act of deleting the old poll each week, typing up new questions and answers, or the act of voting itself could all be viewed as a sort of ritual.
A thread called “Another 1,000” is one created by Matasoga. It is posted in regularly. So far as I can tell, its entire function is to pat himself and the Lovelies on the back upon reaching another 1,000 posts in the guild and to alert them when they are approaching the next 1000, likely in an attempt to further activity. When asked about this thread, Torzeh and Krissi-Chaos both expressed pride in their post count. “…Counting down to each thousand seems to bring the Lovelies together, even if only in a small way,” added Torzeh. The guild presently stands at over 13,000 posts.
Rather recently a movie night was introduced, utilizing an area on Gaia where all of the Lovelies’ avatars appear in a room where a movie is on a screen. The movie is hosted on You-Tube, but plays in a Gaia window while they all watch. So far it is uncertain if this will become an event that can truly be considered ritualistic, as it has only happened once. It was planned as a weekly occurrence, but last week it was reported that everyone was too busy (including Matasoga himself) and the week before there was a movie gathering, but the purpose of the gathering was to discuss what movie would be hosted. The first successful meet-up has yet to occur.
“Top Lovely Elites” was another bid on Matasoga’s part to increase activity. By creating the rank known as “Elite” for those who had made 100 or more posts (with a few additional stipulations) Matasoga laid the groundwork for a place that may foster a bit of a competitive nature. This was furthered by creating a thread that listed, in order from highest to lowest post count all those who had made over 100 posts. This is updated each time the order changes and the post count of one Lovely overtakes that of another. Some Lovelies took to the idea and competed for the highest post count.
”I like seeing my name move up. I know, it's a pretty narcisstic (sic) thing, but it's true. As I've said, I'm pretty proud of my post count - I tell my RL friends everytime (sic) I move up a place,” said Krissi-Chaos (“RL” standing for “real life” and demonstrating a common way of speaking of friends made off of the internet). Others were less competitive.
“We’ve Been Had! The Gaia Items Contest” is a thread that receives posts with regularity, but only after a specific event. Gaia has been known to, on occasion, hold a contest that allows its users to design an item that they will render as a virtual item for the avatars and put up for sale in the shops whereupon it can be purchased for virtual currency and equipped to an avatar. The creator of the winning item gets one million of the virtual currency (known as gold). Gaia collects the entries, chooses several that are put to a vote, and creates the winner, putting the item in the store as promised.
Matasoga was happy enough with the engagement. The problem came when Gaia, some time after the contest, made what is thought to be the single biggest update of new items to the shops. Reportedly, the items that they created in the shops were claimed to have been kept in a storeroom of items that they had been meaning to create for a long time. Matasoga did not believe it, nor did the others. He shared his outrage at what he perceived as Gaia stealing the submitted ideas and not rewarding or even crediting the original creators. The response was minimal, but he left the thread up in the hopes that others would come to know what he felt had happened.
Eventually Gaia had another design-you-own item contest. Sure enough, a massive shop update followed not far behind. This time the response was more significant and more were willing to share in his outrage. We are now moving towards the end of yet another item design contest and very soon we will see if it happens again. Either way, it is difficult to imagine observance of the thread not being given. In the respect that it is visited in syncopation with a larger event it can, in this respect, be called a ritual of sorts.
While Gaia is a free site, every month it releases a series of items that can be purchased for $2.50 by all those who are interested. At the end of the month, the items are then retired and can only be purchased by those who are willing to sell them for Gaia gold, the currency that primarily powers Gaia. While buying the items in and of themselves may seem like a ritual, there is a way in which it pertains specifically to the Lovelies. There is a thread called “Monthly Collectables: Guesses/Opinions” where interested Lovelies may venture forth their guesses as to what the item may be. This thread has seen very little activity due to the fact that Gaia releases hints at the nature of the item much more rarely in recent times than it had previously.
Symbols are also present within the guild, though arguably less prominently. If one considers that Gaia is an avatar site, it becomes a bit more complicated. An avatar, in this instance, is an image of a human-like figure that is fully customizable, in terms of facial features, expression, race, and clothing. Every time a Lovely makes a post, her avatar is featured next to it. It could easily be said that one’s avatar is a symbol. Due to the frequency with which these avatars change (sometimes many times in a single day) it is impossible to even catalogue much less discuss what meaning they may carry.
Presently, the home page (found at http://www.gaiaonline.com/guilds/index.php?gmode=index&guild_id=27519) prominently bears a banner featuring Matasoga’s avatar in one of his most common outfits. He wears formal attire complete with cravat. A fedora, with a cartoonish toad seated atop it, tops his head, and he wears a leather duster. In one hand he carries a syrinx (more commonly called pan pipes) and the other holds a grimoire-like, black tome. Next to him, sporting a seductive smile and little else is a horned, violet skinned woman. She bears bat wings, red eyes, and dark purple hair and wears high-heeled, thigh high black boots, Widely thought to be Gaia’s most risqué item, she is a succubus that gives you the option of adding her (in various forms) accompanying your avatar.
The avatar is super-imposed upon a split background. Half is black and the other has an opaque photo of Matasoga’s user. He appears to be seated in a wooden-walled room, in front of a table, and the lighting is set to be very warm. By his account, it was a pirate exhibit at Ripley’s Believe it or Not Museum in South Carolina, where he once visited. A speech bubble leads from an unclear source (either Matasoga’s user or his avatar) and says “Matasoga’s Lovelies Guild.”
While the original creator of the banner could not be reached, Matasoga was easily reached for comment. He dressed the way he did because it most closely resembles the way he dresses in real life. Even his facial hair and glasses of his style were replicated. As for the other items, it seems that he simply enjoyed them. The pipes were held for reasons that pertained to Gaia mechanics, but the book represented knowledge. He also gives some indication that the book is implied to have something to do with the succubus, who is said to represent his hatred of censorship, but he does not attempt to deny the eye-candy aspect that the item provides.
Matasoga is not the only identifying symbol in the guild. All members have avatars and many avatars have some meaning to them and, as previously mentioned, nearly all avatars have some idea, theme, or message behind the assembly of items that they have chosen. It is the primary topic of discussion in the “Why'd you make your avi the way you did?” (sic) thread.
Some of the Lovelies have sacrificed making an avatar entirely of their own design to embrace to feeling of belonging and showing solidarity as one of Matasoga’s Lovelies, instead taking a suggestion that he posted pertaining to uniforms. The uniform ultimately consists of the Gaia items of a particular black cape, tailed coat, and fedora of the design once worn by Matasoga. He rarely wears those items now, but before suitable glasses, hairstyles, and facial hair were released as items, Matasoga had, for a long time, used an avatar whose appearance was less human and lent itself more to fantasy role-playing than to reality. Because of the fact that the items given are no longer deeply associated to him, he plans to revisit the uniform idea (as well as instituting several other changes) upon the second anniversary of the guild’s creation, in the coming months.
Another symbol to recently surface is the Guild Mascot, whose name is still pending. Up to three submissions from each Lovely interested in participating were collected, resulting in a turn out of nine entries submitted before the dead-line. Torzeh explained the mascot by saying, “Our mascot, to me, is something that the Lovelies have chosen using the recent voting thread, so it's the best thing we could have to represent us as a whole. I like the idea of that. I like to think that it's a symbol that means something different to each Lovely, but that overall stand for the friendship we have here.” What exactly Matasoga intends to do with the mascot and how or if it will be incorporated into the design remains to be seen.
In an event that may be seen as both a ritual and a symbol, there is one thread in which Matasoga takes exceptional pride. This thread is called “Signs for Matasoga.” Within, he urges the Lovelies to take pictures of themselves, or have pictures taken of them holding signs bearing the words “Matasoga has me right where he wants me.” While such an action may seem to many like a starkly transparent display of the most shameless type of vanity and narcissism, the response was significant. Over a dozen girls responded with the requested text (or slightly less ego-feeding substitutions thereof) and some went on to also make additional signs.
There are many signs and rituals in the guild, if you know where and how to look for them and by the sounds of things, many more to come. However many rituals and symbols there are now or in the future, there are sure to be almost as many interpretations as there are participants.