Whats the point of making a home?

I don't see why people make homes on this. Can someone elaborate why they make homes?

A place to 'hangout' with the friends you make on SL. Many people also play SL with real life friends also and like to have a meeting place. There are many reasons people build houses...

Because we can.

If you're like Sami and I, we're constantly on the run. So, taking a moment to just relax at home is very valuable for us -- but, like RL, we don't spend enough time there.

In addition, I'm a very modest Av and prefer to dress every morning in my own bedroom as opposed to heading into Appearance Mode whenever and where ever I happen to be.

As you start to do more things in SL you find that it's much more convienent and comfortable if you have a place you have control (for the most part) over to work in. Particularly building or scripting is much easier if you're at home as opposed to one of the sand boxes or someone elses land.

I do take the concept of "home" beyond that even. It is our groups home where newbe group members can have a "safe" place to return to if they ever get overwhelmed. SL can be daunting when you're new if you don't know what to expect.

I must admit that I haven't thought about building a home yet. I could see the value of having somewhere private to make things though, away from the shop. So perhaps I will build a home/studio at some point.

Albion

To have a place to change and retire for the night.

I also work on my inventory while there.

Because it's more socially comfortable to converse with friends while seated in comfy chairs around the fireplace in a living room, than to talk while standing in an open field of grass?

Because it's more socially acceptable to have intimate relations with someone in your own bedroom, away from the sight of others, rather than in the courtyard of a shopping mall as strangers walk past and gawk?

Because it's rude to hold a party on someone else's property?

If all you see SL as is a game, a place to shoot things and race fast cars and play SLingo, you probably see no use at all for a 'Home', or any reason to buy or own land.

But a lot of people who use SL use it as an interactive social environment, and use roleplay, and pose balls, and 3D props, as a means of making that environment as real as possible, so the experience is as close as they can get to having those encounters with their friends in real life.

My Japanese-themed home has a kitchen in it, with a detailed, wood-burning tile stove, and a table with kneeling cushions that friends can sit casually around. Why bother with a kitchen? Avatars don't need to eat! Ah... but the people who run those avatars still understand the social aspects of sharing a meal or drinks with friends. I'll sit in my kitchen with a friend, and offer them hot tea to drink, rezzing a tea set with animated cups of hot tea that they can sip from as we talk. I may offer food - going to the stove as if cooking on the Wok, and then producing a meal on the table in front of them, along with a pose ball that allows their avatar to eat that meal. It's my 'family room', for comfortable chatting with close friends.

We have another room that is much more formal in appearance and furnishings. It is suitable for anything from a reception for a Daimyo to a formal meeting to discuss business. This is our 'formal dining room', and the center of quite a bit of eleborate roleplay, complete with a staff of servants to attend on ourselves and our guests.

Upstairs, we have a bedroom, and there is a shower. No one gets dirty, but sharing a shower can be an intimate bonding experience, and is much more romantic than swimming together in a public lake.

Is any of that necessary? Of course not. But it is much more fun, to us, than just doing text chat. Why meet in a 3D environment at all, if you do nothing to experience it? Why not just chat on AOL?

I can only speak for myself and my partner... we have a home in sl for many reasons, one is to have a place we can hang out with each other in privacy, or what is called privacy when you have land.

The other is to have our friends over and hang out without the worry of griefers. Security systems around your home creates a safe haven for the most part.

And as mentioned before, it is easier to create when not being shot at or run over in a sandbox type envirornment. chuckles... happens too often.. just read the forums.

Happy house building.

I do the same as Kitty, a sort of "group" home, on Azure Islands, for friends new to the game, to stay as long as they like. Cause it is nice to have a retreat to call home.

coco

I need somewhere to put my porniture.

Pfft!! Well to go shopping and decorate it of course!!

I should also mention that one of the two homes that I own has a large 'guest room', specificly added for friends of mine who do not own a home of their own, intended for them to use as their safe and comfy 'home location'. For one couple, that is their only home in SL. For several other friends, it is a handy and private place to change clothes. Any of them may use that home to entertain guests as they choose.

Perhaps more to the point is why people put up security barriers that project you to the bottom of the sea without warning. At least give me the chance to get away from your home.

Albion

same reason people have houses in everquest 2, to have a nice looking quiet meeting place for friends

Me personally I like to have a home because being a land owner I get to decide who comes there and who doesnt. I get to choose the rules and have fun enforcing them. I dont have to put up with griefers, noobs, idiots, and the general unpleasant types that I like to keep away from me. If I want to make a large wooden box and say that everyone must wear a fish on thier head before entry is permitted I can do so, obviously I wont (could be fun though ) but I think you know what im getting at. With land comes power. Its not a lot of power but its worthwhile having it.

I'd like an invite on Fish Night please!

/me looks at his fish hat...

Awww... damn. Still no use.

Now all of this makes sense to me. Having just become part of SL, one of the things I miss, is a place of my own. It seems very odd just to log off and leave yourself 'wherever'. Somehow it's uncomfortable. Even if you log off in a pleasant woodland, it's still like being homeless. The same applies to changing appearance; somehow I think that should be a private thing. So even though I'm a newbie, I reckon I'm gonna have to hunt down that nice plot somewhere soon-as.
Any ideas for where to place my foundations are very welcome.

Have a good one. Cheers folks

Who knows maybe if I get bored enough ill host a fish hat night, I got a friend with a stream who can DJ, not a bad idea actually. Would be nice to have some interesting themed parties instead of the usual "get naked party at our club", although ill have to wait till I can get my account out of limbo first, payment issues and all that, I wont bore you with the details here lol

What is the point of doing anything in Second Life or First Life for that matter? You do it because you do it.

If you have to ask this, I'm not sure SL is for you. Maybe a FPS or MMORPG is more your style?

the home I have in SL is my dream house that I will probably never have in RL...I live vicarously through it.

Where else can you build a house, build the furniture, use it for a few months, tear it down and build a totally new house with totally new furniture without having to resort to international bank fraud???

I agree with you. Despite some of the comments you've gotten in this thread, you've got a good point, and I hope you stay in SL.

Why someone would want to come to a virtual world where people can gracefully fly (and yet walk like a duck with a broken leg), where people can magically manipulate matter directly into wonderous objects (and yet are unable to communicate except through clutzy text), where landscapes are beautiful (and quickly made indistinguishable from plywood-and-pink-plastic land-fills), and where the possibilities are endless (and often ended by lag) -

Why anyone would come to such a place and build a ski-chalet, or a perfect replica of a prefab suburban home, or a lovingly-reconstructed copy of the Palace of Versailles - is beyond me. You don't need stoves, refrigerators, and commodes because you don't eat - and yet there they are. You don't need dogs on the textured lawn nor babies in the lightly-primmed crib nor bodies buried beneath the basement cement - but there they are.

And what's really needed by residents of SL is unavailable - mostly because nobody's taken the time to figure out what's really needed by residents of SL.

Build homes and cars and modern what-not because we can? Sorry, no - it's because most of us can't think of anything else to do.

Keep asking questions, Adam.

they need someplace to get down with they ageplay without bustas looking on and being like "ohhhh whatta perv ahaha"

'cause they got they perverted asses thrown out the sandbox

now where they gon' drive they whips when they not perving out?