Things To Do

I joined SL this weekend after reading a few articles about it. It sounded really exciting. I explored Help Island for a while with a friend and was thrilled. We flew around with flames on and tried on different bodies and got stuck in a treehouse on a bike and various things I've never done before. There were lots of people and it felt alive.

Then I left Help Island and found myself surrounded by empty sex shops. I've visited a few places from a Guide I picked up, like the e-life project, which was very beautiful. But where are all the people? Everywhere I go I'm all alone and it's mostly just empty stores.

I've used the search function to find pet stores because I wanted a little cat to follow me around, but all the cats I found were just static pics that might meow if you touch them, but nothing else.

So then I searched for popular places, but they were all sex and gambling-related, and I don't want any more of that just now.

Where do people go? What do people do? Are there any really busy places, or to most people form groups and set up their own houses and hang out together.

And anyone know where to get a relatively smart pet SL cat?

Thanks.

Hi Thistle,

welcome to SL.

Yes there are bits that are visually stunning, but socially barren. The good news is that it's always changing. I'm afraid I can't help you out on the cat issue, but as far as places to find people who are friendly and sociable, please come visit us in Caledon, the Victorian/Steampunk/Alternate Historical Reality group of sims (7 at this point). The concept might not be your particular cup of tea, but the folks are pretty nice

I know what you mean. It is a shock after leaving Help Island. The truth is that even the most popular stores have only a few people in at one time. It's not like the real world in that respect. I wanted to learn how to make stuff so didn't care much about meeting other people. I suppose you have to decide what kind of resident you want to be and what you want to do. You'll find stuff you like just wandering about though. Then you can think about whether you want your own bit of land.

Albion

Welcome to SL, Thistle! As far as cats go, I'm not sure whether there are any that follow you. However, Damanios Thetan makes a scripted cat which will roam around a preset area, meow and purr now and then, play with a little ball, come (or not) when you call it, and drop off to sleep at random times. It's pretty cute. You can see it at his island/shop complex, Damania.

welcome to the reality of SL.

The most users online at one time was somewhere beetween 9000 and 10K. So don't be surprised if anywhere you go you are mostly alone.

The most popular activities are sex related or money related. Some roleplay areas have a number of regulars, like the themed sims (gorean, furries, goths, vampires...)

Stick around for a few weeks, explore, use the search tool. then when you get over the shock of the waste of time that SL is, you may want to change things for the better and try to build something nice. After a while, you may realize that you are not made of money and that it costs so much just to get enough land to have the prim numbers to build anything worthwhile that you will give up and sell everything for not even half what you paid for.

save yourself the pain. SL isn't what you have read about. Real fun is rare, most people are trying to make a buck. Sure they start out by having fun doing whatever they do. But how long will that last with open registration and the deluge of griefers and asshats...

Just fed up.. don't pay any attention to me. You will learn in time.

I would suggest heading for The Shelter (Do a search for it). There is usually someone there and they are friendly, non sex/gambling oriented, and specialise in New Residents.

Also, you might try Isle of Wyrms, if you happen to like dragons. Usually there are people there who are nice, friendly folks. The Shelter is also a great place to meet new people in a non-sex driven enviroment.

The things at the top of the list when you search for a place are usually the most popular. I know, even the Sandbox Island seems pretty popular, but I avoid them when I really want social interaction.

Dearly Darling.


I agrees With N. Thunders...The Shelter is a great place to start. Teazer's has some great classes. Join a few real groups...not just the casino silly stuff.. I suggest the "Cult of Tateru." As the Forums are closing..peek on the internet there are some nice options SL Forums Secondlives...just do a quick search. As for Mentoring, I suggest Lord Sullivan. If you need any help from me...just bark in my general direction.

Mrs. Showdog Tiger

Cool! I'm going to buy myself a cat!

But, right now, the dogs are winning! D&D Dogs make some awesome script puppies which do a lot of neat little things.

But dammit, I want a cat!

So.....

I went and bought a cat!

They're perfect!

Now, I have a half dozen felines running around my Shop!

I love them!

Thanks everyone. This reminds me a lot of when I first read about the web. Everyone had really high hopes and then you start browsing and it's just people writing about their lives and making sites with animated rainbow bars and scrolling text, and playing slow loading music that you don't like. And lots of porn. It was tempting just to think "ick". But 10 or so years later, and I pay all my bills online, and do all my shopping, and keep in touch with family and friends, and have found all my jobs and started learning other languages, all online, and I can't imagine living any other way.

My friends mostly got discouraged after leaving Help Island and went back to playing FFXI (I know SL isn't a game, but new people see it that way, I think), but I don't want to give up so soon. I'll check out those places you suggested.

If any Lindens are reading this, the starter island was a really good idea. I'd also recommend teleporting people to the most popular PG place possible when they leave. It'd be great to have a few mentors there as well. It really is a huge and jarring change to go from Help Island to an empty industrial sex-shop district. I can see why 80% of people might stop right there and not log on again.

As for cats ... where!? I saw that ad earlier and the store was called Kittenz. But when I got to the store it was just a pic of a cat that sits there (on its side, but I'm sure there's a way to make it upright). Perhaps I couldn't find the real store. Where did you go?

Wow. Damani is really nice. And I met someone there who read this thread. But then I teleported away accidentally while we were talking. Sorry =/

Wow! Even the sound of walking down the marble steps is perfect!

I found the Shelter to be a waste of time unless you want to dance. The couple of times I asked questions there the helper continued dancing and referred me to live help in as few words as possible.

Albion

Welcome to SL Thistle Decatur unlike the comment above many of us love coming to SL. In the 6+ months i have been coming i have never been bored. There is a lot to do in SL and The Shelter is a great place and i have always found the people there to be helpful. i often help Noobs that come to the place i run and we often just sit around the fire and talk. Sure we get griefers and people that seem to want to be pushy but they soon have the door opened for their swift removal.
So my advice is look around use the search to find places that may interest you. But most of all have fun

Which comment above? I love coming to SL to and disagree with much of the negativity expressed here. It's just The Shelter I'm not fond of.

Albion

I'm sure everyone is tired of me pushing my stock reply, but here it comes again.

Thistle, you can use the many excellent search mechanisms discussed here, or you could open the map and drag it around looking for the green dots (which represent other logged-in residents). Finding people is likely to bump the answer and exploration factor, having someone to share the time with.

An alterntive is a list of over 800 places other residents like yourself contributed to help start my parcel browsing project. You can see all those places here:

http://slhandbook.com/parcelbrowse.asp

Welcome to SL, Thistle!

I, too, was nearly turned off during my first stint in world! I accidentally teleported out of Help Island, and was thrust into a trial by fire of sorts. Everywhere I turned, I seemed to run into sex shops, laggy clubs and casinos that would get irritated if you didn't give away everything you had won.

After a couple of days, however, I started to ignore the most popular places on the search, and just began randomly teleporting to different locations. I know it seems like a strange way of going about things, but I really found a lot of great places that I may not have found otherwise.

All of the places that have been mentioned in this post are great places to start. I would also suggest checking out the SL Explorers Sandbox and Rangeland. The folks there are super friendly, and more than willing to help you out with any questions you may have. In addition, it is one of the few sandboxes where you can learn to create things without being griefed. Just talk to Steve Crowley or Evo Commons. They are both really nice people, and have always taken the time out from what they are working on to answer my questions.

Hope this helps out a bit! Don't get discouraged! For all of the nasty, seedy places in SL, there are hundreds more filled with beautiful sights and great people!

-Veng

Hi Thistle. For the most part, SL is a social experience. Once you start making friends, your SL world opens up for you. If you're a loner, it will be much easier for you to adapt to SL because the initial loneliness you encounter as newbie wont affect you. But if you are a social butterfly, then meeting friends is essential. So just get out in the world and meet people. You will share experiences, have fun together, and everything will fall into place after that.

Whatever you do, when you hear someone saying things like the poster below, run as fast as you can in the other direction. They will surely ruin your experience and fun and you will find yourself quitting before even given it a chance. It does make one wonder though, why people with this perspective about SL are still around anyways, doesnt it. There is obviously something here if theyre still around