Pregnant in the Metaverse

[Free]

Pregnant in the Metaverse: Why Virtual Pregnancy Matters

With a Meta Quest 2 headset strapped on my head, I drew a boundary in the virtual realm to keep me from colliding into objects in the one I was leaving behind. Next up was creating an avatar. My small upturned nose, brown eyes and hair, and square jaw were easily rendered in cyberspace. From the different pear-shaped options available to me I chose a medium-sized body, and gave myself a rad haircut. Meta (née Facebook) boasts that the “metaverse will help take learning and discovery to a new level.” For me, in that moment, this amounted to discovering what I might look like with bangs.

But of all of the available avatar customizations—eyes, hair, clothes, ear piercings—I found no way to select a big ol’ pregnant belly. This was a letdown. Being virtually pregnant was why I was interloping in Horizon Worlds in the first place.

See, I am 33 years old, an age I am coming to understand is defined by every person I have ever met being pregnant. My Instagram feed is half ads for something called a “Snoo,” half photos of baby shoes, not yet worn, beside a panting labradoodle, captioned, “Milo is going to be a big sister.” I’m thinking about pregnancy a lot these days, to the point it’s fundamentally shifted my worldview. Riding the B train, at my office, in line at the bodega… Who of the people around me are pregnant? Who just had a baby and is grateful to no longer be wearing mesh diapers? Who desperately wants to be pregnant and can’t be? Every single person I talk to, roll my eyes at, or have a crush on came from a pregnant person. I feel the urge to adapt my obsession into a children’s book: Everyone Seems Pregnant. More than I am baby crazy, I’m perhaps a little bit pregnancy crazy.

Which is why I found myself wondering how I could experience pregnancy, without, you know, making a life-altering decision. I just wanted to be pregnant for the afternoon—to try it on for size, if you will. Dipping in and out of alternative realities? My curiosity seemed perfectly suited to the metaverse I’d been hearing so much about.

Second Life gets a few nods, and is described as “the most comprehensive kind of pregnancy experience in a video game that I’ve come across.”

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Second Life gets a few nods, and is described as “the most comprehensive kind of pregnancy experience in a video game that I’ve come across.”

Oh no - quick, someone tell her that babies can't talk from inside the womb before it's too late!

 

[Free]

Oh no - quick, someone tell her that babies can't talk from inside the womb before it's too late!

People can't teleport, either.

 

[GoblinCampFollower]

SL is the prefect pregnancy experience.... the kid just vanishes after and I can forget about them!

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

People can't teleport, either.

Maybe YOU can't, but

 

[Caete]

Oh no - quick, someone tell her that babies can't talk from inside the womb before it's too late!

Wait, are you saying Look Who's Talking isn't a documentary?

 

[Rose Karuna]

Maybe YOU can't, but

Cat's can, mine's been trying to teach me how but she's been unsuccessful to date. Can you offer any tips?

All I have to say about virtual pregnancy is "stop to put babies in boxes".

Anyone that's been around a few years will remember Andi.

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

"You'll believe a man can fly."

 

[Noodles]

SL is the prefect pregnancy experience.... the kid just vanishes after and I can forget about them!

I mean, you can keep them around if you want, but why would you. It costs so many lindens.

 

[Essence Lumin]

Anyone that's been around a few years will remember Andi.

Quite a few years. The written inflection. "Please to stop putting babies in a box" as I recall.

 

[WolfEyes]

There are those exceptions...

 

[Caete]

I had a lawn sculpture in SL called Prim Babies Ate My Dingo but seems I don't have a pic of it so have this instead

 

[Noodles]

FWIW, back on the original topic, Pregnancy in Second Life is pretty robuts with lots of options depending on how much interaction you want and how much you want to spend. There aren't really any "tummy talkers" anymore, because everyone hates those. If they do have things like that there is generally a "private message only" mode.

 

[Ellie]

There aren't really any "tummy talkers" anymore, because everyone hates those. If they do have things like that there is generally a "private message only" mode.

/me heaves huge sigh of relief

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

There aren't really any "tummy talkers" anymore, because everyone hates those. If they do have things like that there is generally a "private message only" mode.

I get WHY they existed, though. There's like a kind of symbiosis in pregnancy right? It's nothing as straightforward as like hearing the baby thinking in actual sentences or anything like that obviously, but there's moments when a mom will definitely be like "uh oh, kid's hungry, time to eat". I suppose a tummy talker, as imperfect an analogy as it is, is probably the closest you could ever come to simulating that part of the whole pregnancy experience. It's just unfortunate that it's so easy to make fun of, lol. Owner-only chats would solve the problem.

 

[Noodles]

Owner only chats definitely solve the problem.
Also, if you are really ambitious, you can get another avatar to "be" the baby, using RLV and other tools. If you really want some RP and symbiosis.

 

[Rose Karuna]

I had a lawn sculpture in SL called Prim Babies Ate My Dingo but seems I don't have a pic of it so have this instead

OMG I first read this as "A baby ate my ding dong". Not sure why, just a strange brain.

 

[Caete]

OMG I first read this as "A baby ate my ding dong". Not sure why, just a strange brain.

 

[WolfEyes]