Taking sl too seriously

Hey! now look .. I didn't mean ignore ... like .. I meant .. hell, *someone* had to be at the front of that list? .. I mean ... if I'd said .. hobbits? ... heck! .. she very well might have!!

/me rolls a ball of yarn across the carpet

*pouncetumbleroll*

My avi doesn't look like me.... I am a brunette and my avi is blond. And there are more differences in looks....

But when talking to me, you are dealing with me as I am in RL too. No difference there.... (RP may be the only exception, but then I don't RP lately not that much anymore).

Morwen.

(getting back to the OP...)

The problem, as always, is trying to make sure that people are playing the SAME game.

I'm not talking about software... I'm talking about social interaction. Are you 'hooking up', 'hanging out', 'looking for friends only', 'serious about getting involved', 'practicing pick-up lines' or what?

Are you making YOUR intention clear to the person you're interacting with so they know what game you're playing?

If someone is desperate and someone else uses that desperation to satisfy a bit of temporary gratification... it inevitably results in problems.

Using an electronic medium like email, irc, secondlife only makes reading the signals and intentions that much more complicated and prone to error.

This is just my own opinion (and only my opinion) but I wouldn't call a relationship based on fantasy and roleplay a real friendship. I would call it entertainment.




I fantasize, daydream in my head but I don't think I could swing roleplaying with other people. It feels odd to me. I like my real life but I don't think it's what is keeping me from enjoying roleplay. I think it's just my personality and no other reason that keeps me from understanding the appeal of it. But I don't think it's a bad thing. I just can't do it.

You are quite right Ingrid. I merely meant these friends are happy to stop at the keyboard. I know little of their RL, They know little of mine. These are my alt's SL friends.

Bilbo on the other hand has introduced three RL friends and therefore is pretty true to life. My SL friends also know relatively little of my RL though. That's the unigue thing, well one of the unigue things with SL. You can have a blend of RL/SL. I can pour my soul out to my RL friends who also know my alt. Complicated I know ... but basically my alt just has to be a little more guarded.


There are some roleplayers I believe who completely separate their real and virtual lives. As explained above I've blended them. Some are as real in SL as outside. Everybody has the opportunity to make SL what they want. Some once in, dip into the unknown. Some fall into traps they've made for themselves. It isn't for everyone. Some run away screaming. There are threads elsewhere which are evidence of this.
You stick with what you want

From the Wikipedia;



There you have it; it's not a game, it's a libertarian anarchy!

I'm loving it.

(Well, okay, it's very late; and I'm only awake right now because I'm sick and my throat hurts too much to sleep at the moment. So it's quite possible that my sense of humor is.. umm... suspect. )

Seriously, even RL is shaped by our perceptions of it.

SL is whatever you think it is.

For you.

Just make sure you know what those you are interacting with think it is, before you get too deeply into your interactions.

Going back to bed now..

dude what you described is so Second Life.

Basic tools you need to survive: Library Popgun (undoubtedly the most brilliant object ever made), default plywood prim to set your rump upon to avoid orbiting etc, and of course the other stock stuff for experimentation.

Leveling up: getting better at building, scripting, etc. And apparently you missed the "Skill Status" monitor you can enable in debug settings. For example, I am a level 45 prim builder, a level 10 griefer, level 45 troll, level 30 texturizer, level 51 scripter, and level 3 land baron. Oh yea, and a level 99 sculpted prim0rizer.

As for plot, there is one. The FICs and the Lindens make it up, for the most part

Plot Overview thus far:

Linden Labs is born, from the aspiring mind of a dictator known only as "Philip Linden."
The "slow expansion" phase begins, in Beta and afterwards, with the FICS ensuring their place within the regime. Sims are released slowly.
After some political skirmishes, the main game's "rules" are established, stuff happens, and the original mainland continent is formed.

The rapid expansion forms, with exponential user growth. LL shifts from being heavily integrated despots to rulers of a system that makes Ayn Rand lovers aroused... intellectually, that is. Prokofy arises as Court Gesture, copybot drama ensues. The southern continent is made, with little Linden content.

Talk of a messiah is made; someone who will revolutionize the platform and be the savior of Second Life. Soon after this FIC prophecy is made, Aminom Marvin is born.

More expansion ensues, with new sims released at a high rate, lowering land prices to near-reasonable levels. Sculpties, voice, and other features are added.

-----------------
SPOILERS: Do not read on unless you don't care about the plot of SL.

In late July and early August a user named Aminom Marvin arises to such a state that he makes Anshe Chung look homeless. Through his brilliant work, he revolutionizes the game.

The rise of the "furry" culture on the internet reaches critical mass for it to be covered extensively by the media. The result is that furries are driven to obscure places on the Internet, and to private, open-sourced servers in SL.

Philip Linden asks the deep philosophical question, "Do you have stairs in your house?," and acknowledges the numerous contributions to SL by Something Awful imports. A golden age of prosperity, democracy, and comedy is ushered in by the new goon FICs.

This, of course, was mere coincidence.

I want to keep SL and RL very separate. In SL, I get to do things and wear things (more specifically a pair of thigh-high leather boots with a very sexy walk!!!) that I wouldn't get away with in RL, simply because I can. My AV looks, I think anyway, like a hot chick, because surely if you had the chance to make yourself look like a hot chick (or a Johnny StudMuffin, depending on your preference) well, you would, wouldn't you? I also have an alt, recently created and still being tweaked, which is also turning into quite a hot looking chick.

The reason I have two is because sometimes I want to be the nice girly helping Newbies and just hanging out, when I take off the boots and dress more conservatively. Sometimes I like to take a stroll around some of the more entertaining adult areas, complete with boots and slightly more risque clothing, when I become my alt, simply because the kind of people you meet here are totally different to those you meet elsewhere, if you know what I mean. Maybe that is a bit too "putting each identity in a box", but when using either alt I am still me, and in no way am I trying to deceive anyone, I just prefer to keep the two things separate.

Anyway, my point is that I am always surprised at how quickly (usually the second question) the conversation nearly always turns to questions about RL, how old are you, where are you from, what do you do, etc, etc, irrespective of which alt I am using. I really don't want to share this kind of info with anyone I have just met, simply because you don't know who (or what) is behind the AV. I usually try and avoid the question and change the subject, but if it gets persistant, I politely make my excuses and leave.

SL is a kind of mix of fantasy and reality, because what happens in RL will ultimately have some effect on the way we behave in SL. As much as it is a "game", there has to be a certain amount of taking it seriously in order to protect ourselves!

Whew!! Sorry. Ramble over!

I've seen lots of avatars that aren't hot. Some of my best friends in second life don't have hot avatars. They don't have any desire to pixel slap either so maybe there's a connection.

Ive seen a lot of people who just THINK their avatar is hot as well.


--------------------

"Friends dont tell friends they are hot when they are not."

Any of them your customers?

I think .. therefore I am ...

It's to a large degree personal preference though just like RL. Being a little senior in years I cannot for the life of me understand why a lot of people have piercings .. and tattoos. Don't get me wrong. I appreciate their courage to perhaps stand out from the crowd but I just personally don't go for it.
My alt met someone in a club a while back and we just chatted in relatively PG terms. Nothing sordid, no question of going somewhere else etc. Time came to part and he said how nice it was to meet an avatar with a pretty face who wasn't a 7 foot Amazonian. That moment was better than any pixel sex I've come across!

I can attest to the opposite as well. it's refreshing to meet a guy who isn't 8 ft tall with the Brooklyn Bridge for shouders and 12 in waist who doesn't ask for sex or friendship in the first 30 seconds.

When you could wear a bracelet around your waist, and you have toothpick stilt legs, meenwhile your butt wouldnt fit in a small Car, and you are so busty that youd need a Steel Belted Bra to hold you up , thats not hot.

I like women of all shapes and sizes. But the how Barbie looks after dropping acid thing I dont get.

only before they buy , of course

its funny the turn this conversation has taken

i used to be one of those 7ft tall females busty and curvey and got it on all the time some days too much

now i shortened myself made myself curvier and i now get ignored like the plague lol

so even though alot dont like the tall skinny top heavy chicks i think it garners more attention then an average size player

No ...... no ......... no ....... errm .. heck! .. we can't *all* be perfect!!

you must be going to the wrong places

The 'tall skinny top heavy chicks' ARE average size in Second Life.

Right back to the inception of IRC the internet has been been full of mentalists and nut jobs all out there looking for love and I rekon 90% of them are women. I've heard a lot of horror stories, the worst being:

Around 1999 a friend of mine (female) from from the irc server Dalnet was cybering this other chick on a regular basis. They had fun and were good friends etc but then this chick starts getting serious, wants to meet in rl etc. My friend wasnt up for that so broke things off. The chick goes a bit mental, starts flooding channels with love note spam for my friend. The chick is kicked banned etc as you would expect but that made things worse. She got my friends IP found out her ISP, managed to get her home address from them, turned up in her town in Texas. Long story short my friend had her house burned down and was kidnapped and locked in a barn for 2 days with no water. Apparently it made national news in the states. No moral to this story other than to be careful. The internet is an ideal place for these sorts of people and SL is the perfect envoronment for them to weave their mental magic.

Ive heard plenty of horror stories about male stalkers - so I think this one isnt unique to either men or women.

Famous case was that guy who fell in love online she broke it off and so he went to her rl front lawn and hacked at his own neck with a chain saw and died.

Another one was the date rapist who lied to women about his profession arrainged a RL meetup - and slipped GHB in their drink. I beleive it was 8 different women.

Those two were both on the national news in the US.

I got chatting to a woman yesterday in-world who was only a week old. She told me within minutes of entering SL's newbie zone some guy was asking for her email address.....makes me wonder if some people are making accounts so that they can prey on the newbies??

Some people mainly try to hook up with noobies - I guess their expectations are lower. Easier to impress or whatever.