Do soft drugs enhance the SL experience?

Holy shit Michael, I'm actually agree with you on something.

/me passes Micheal the peace pipe.

I've said myself very often in RL that I don't necessarily smoke pot to 'get high' but to keep myself from killing other people. Works towards the same purpose in SL as well.

Tex honey, there's been a forum poster named Pie for 4 years now... or have you been too stoned to notice?

lol, you sound like one of the dudes down at Rasta beach.

I use at least one soft drug fairly frequently (COFFEE!) ...and have been known to abuse it during events, parties, dances and the like, because it does seem to enhance the experience for me.

Otoh, things affecting hand-eye coordination seem like a bad combo with keyboards. Others may simply handle their liquor better than I do, but 1/4th a bottle of hard cider is enough for me personally to start having navigational difficulties, and if I've taken an antihistamine or colds meds or anything... I will not be typing coherently for the next several hours. ^^

Coffee, otoh, makes everything better, yesh.

That explains everything!
LOL! j/k
Honestly….I miss pot. Not sure now what I would do if it were legal.
But Im at a point where I have way too much to lose, and could not even consider that an option.

You should visit Stargazer in Mikailovic when you're high. Woo!

TBH Michael I am quite surprised on one level that you take a toke now and then. Nothing nasty meant, just didn't fit in with the view I have formed of you. Mind you, it fits with most game-y people I know rl and otherwise.

Personally I don't use it. I can giggle, appreciate music, get hungry and fall asleep ALL too easily without neurochemical enhancement For which you can read, I'd be asleep and mumbling about cake. Even if the cake is a lie (oh yes I know that's now old hat!).

Interesting thread.

I never did a dam thing until I passed 30..... I wasn't even much of a drinker. But, now, as a responsible *cough* adult.... I occasionally have a little ganja and yeah, it does kind of add to the experience....and it tends to make me super focused on what ever creative project I might be undertaking. I enjoy a good buzz once in a while.... and I now finally understand why my brother (a very gifted musician & artist) has been smoking it for years and claiming it 'enlightens' him. LMAO I get it now bro.

I know you don't mean me Lindal. I rarely drink and when I do I am such a happy little tinker. Maybe it's the champers.

(Note to self to recreate in world the cocktail I saw being made at 4am on TV ... a flute with a crystallised violet, a measure of Parfait D'Amour topped up with bubbly ... now if that isn't a celebration then I dunno what is!).

That's a very very interesting thought indeed... Ciggies cost me approx. 55 Euro's per week, so that would be 220 Euros per month, so I think that would make it 2640 Euro's per year ( might be slightly incorrect since I'm sh*te at maths. If there was ever an incentive for me to quit the habit, that's it right there!!! But do I want an Island more than I need to smoke?? I'm not too sure on that one

Again as someone else said in their post... I probably could have answered this particular question in more depth a few years ago. I gave up alchohol about two years ago...just couldn't take the hangovers anymore...I've smoked the odd whacky backy ciggie on occasion but I definitely couldn't do SL without a ciggie and a big enormous mug of coffee.

I actually had a conversation with an SL neighbour the other day.. I was looking out of my window and I saw smoke coming from the ground... Went outside and discovered two joints lying on the grass... well I was very very curious. Anyway, I found out that they belonged to my neighbour... He came out and we happened to start chatting about the very topic of this post. The subject moved onto Amsterdam and all of it's 'amenities'..lol I remarked to him that if one was in SL and also stoned, that it'd probably seem to take prims much longer to rezz.. He replied ' well then, not much different than being stoned in RL Amsterdam then'.... which kinda sorta makes sense..

Anyway, for me it's:

Nicotine + Caffeine + SL = MY HAPPY PLACE

Shold have created a poll on this one...

And I never checked to see if drugs enhance SL...maybey 30 years ago I would have...but SL didn't exsist back then...
Graph smiles and goes back to answering emails from rich clients...

I've found that any version of scotch does indeed enhance the immersion aspect, but tends to start having performance issues the longer I run it in conjunction with SL.

Forming a judgment about someone based on their marijuana habits is the same as forming a judgment based on any other 'recreational' chemical. The only difference is, is that marijuana is currently illegal. But let's be honest, personal recreation is far from criminal...I don't sell, I'm not a burn-out...I just enjoy it on a personal level.

I can have plenty of fun sober too...however, being 'high' brings the individuals mental-state to a different plane...this plane is pleasant and singular.

Judge by character and action...not by the chemicals someone puts into their body.

As long as I'm not pushing chemicals on other people...it is a truly victimless crime. Would you judge an American Indian for their use of marijuana?

Anyway...it's relatively harmless. And to be honest, in my experience, more people smoke it than do not.

I like a glass of wine while in SL.

But I think if I were to light up a nice little blunt while in-world my typing would get so mixed up that any attempt at conversation and other things would end in horrible failure.

That said, there are some sims, like the space ones, where such a state of mind combined with the graphics and music must be investigated! As long as I don't have to type, things should work fine

I have drank wine in the evenings for a while now, even when not in SL. Not sure that it really adds anything to the experience - except maybe on the weekends when I might be on the second or third bottle.

heh...

/me desperately tries to avoid the obvious joke and just decides to buy Cherry a few drinks to see what she really means by this statement.

I didn't know we were lumping caffiene in with recreational drugs. If that's the case, I'm high right now. Ahhhh...sweet sweet coffee. How it kills the pain.

Usually, the worst I do is a couple drinks, since I'm on SL in the evenings and caffiene isn't the greatest idea for me in the evenings. I find if I start to drink too much, my already poor typing skills degrade very rapidly and I have trouble following conversations if there are more than one going on at a time. I can't multitask sober, why would I be able to do it drunk? I don't get obnoxious, so I'm pretty sure I haven't offended Lindal, but I just sit there like a lump, trying to figure out what people are saying and formulate a response quick enough for it to make sense.

I guess that means I'm usually sober, despite joking about being hammered.

Since the subject has come up, even though I never use weed, I'm in firm agreement with Michael. It should be legalized. So should a lot of consensual crimes. If you aren't hurting other people or interfering with their enjoyment of life, you should be able to do whatever the hell you want, even if others think it's not good for you.

What does this even mean?

Well think of the drugs that make you think you can fly off a building, or the ones that make you peel your arm like an orange (yes both of these are true stories). They make you feel like all of a sudden you have a new superpower - i.e. enhancement - like flying or looking like an orange. But neither of these really are enhancements - you are still going to drop faster than a rock, and peeling your arm is sooo not gonna be good for you.
Yes I know these are the extreme end of the scale, but the point is still the same I think.

But I agree with a few people in this thread, I do believe that as long as you cause no harm to others you shouldn't be punished for anything.

Seems right to me

If I want to BE enhanced, I'd get a boob job (not that I need one... .
If I want to FEEL enhanced, I get high - on life, with a good laugh, a glass of wine or a puff of pipeweed.

I agree with Michael on this one, and his other post. And I don't agree with Michael often. If someone researches this topic, they'll find that pot is less harmful than cigarettes and alchohol, which are both legal (if only when one reaches a certain age). As far as I can determine, pot remains illegal in the US because the government receives funds to "fight the war on drugs", and a lot of that money is received to fight marijuana specifically. But the question is, does all the money received to fight the war on drugs, actually go to the war on drugs? Or used for other purposes?
To answer the OP, I've been on SL while high and while slightly drunk.
As to whether or not it enhances the experience, I would have to say that it depends on what I'm doing in SL at the time. When I went to clubs regularly, it added to my immersion to have a beer at home. I could almost "feel" like I was at a club in RL. When creating, a little buzz allows me to fully involve myself in creating without a lot of other mental distractions. (if that makes any sense)

Agreed it is one of the basic food groups, Deny it affects sleeping when used correctly.

If you find that it causes you to have problems getting to sleep then the solution is simple, the caffeine to blood ratio is out, you need to drink more caffeine for an extended period.

*takes a sip of her final cup of coffee for the night before heading off to bed while trying to count the number of cups consumed today, 1,2,3,4,5,6 *breakfast*, 7, 8, 9, 10...*

Did I mention its 6.20am and I'm just heading to bed now, and will be back up within 3 hours for work?

This thread made me laugh!

The other night I had "a bit to many" drinks and decided for some reason I would look great with cat ears!!!!
Drunken search ensues.....ears are purchased and worn......
Signing in the next day and having my stupid ears on like an after party idiot.....priceless.

What is this *breakfast* you talk about?

Well said Michael...

Oh and by the way, I say you today in SL, but didn't go up to say hi...too shy. You're actually the first person that I was in some way familiar with by name that I've just 'bumped into'...

Nicotine & Caffeine are my #1 Drug of choice.

Till 12 AM Eastern Time. Then its Beer & Vodka till the screen is doubled. Then its time to crawl to bed & get up 4 hrs later.

Why get drunk or high just to sit at your computer? :|