Bored Game or Board Game?

Do other people notice that for some of us SL is an extended ten minute "chat" with a neighbour, whereas for others it is an immersion into a completely new world. If people ask about me in sl (and now many don't because of the new "don't speak to me, don't touch me, leave me alone" kinda fritzy attitudes) I tell them about my "life" here - adventures in Gor and being a panther, Sim changes, landscapes, the sex, the fun I had with my partners, changes, etc. I have had a good time. But for other people it just seems like a suburb of real experience and a way to "sneer" at their real and SL world. Even an extension of that fear since they are actually "shy" here (whatever "shy" is ...)
So, after that long preamble, do you see yourself as a richly experienced avatar who welcomes conversation and chats about the weird world we live in? Or do you prefer this world to be like a section of a Sunday paper to skim thru, snarling at those of us who absorb what we can - often for future reference IN the real world in terms of human behaviours? Trust me, you can tell a lot about humanity from the way we behave here. PS. I refer to in-world here, not to the forums, which are really REAL world, if you follow.

The way you asked sorta biases the response, Jig.

I'm with you, though...I love the weird things that happen here. My biggest regrets are that 1) I usually forget to take pictures, and 2) a lot of the stuff that happens you can't really capture with a snapshot anyway. I'm an immersive player.

But let's not completely diss the people who use SL as a big 3D chatroom. It's not my approach to the place, but I think it is a perfectly valid one.

i find a mixture of people in world and on these forums.
however, i have made a huge list of friends to the point where my im's get capped and i have to use AIM/Yahoo/MSN messengers.
95% of the friends on SL i chat with using voice, sometimes in a group voice either by calling cards, friends list or a group invitation. (group invitation voice is easier)
i also use voice on AIM/Yahoo/MSN messengers as well.
a good percentage of people i have made friends with on SL, i exchange email notes and also talk on the telephone (where permitted).
i think SL is a great place to socialize with people, besides all the other interests available.
i hope to stick it out and stay here as long as possible, provided LL does not sell out or go bankrupt.

I view Second Life as an extension of real life. It is not separate. I do not come to SL with my main AV to pretend to be somebody else (that's what alts are for). My main is a direct (mostly) representation of me. This is my preference and I prefer interacting with people in SL who are more like minded in that regard.

I embrace all of SL even though I may not participate in every single activity SL has to offer. It is so much more than a chat room to me. The very concept of a virtual world is like delicious pie I want to totally sink my teeth into.

In fact, SL is helping me make my RL better. SL, for better or worse, or the concept of virtual worlds is like a focal point for me. I am an artist and I have decided to funnel all of my talents and energy into virtual worlds. It combines so many disciplines that to master SL can surely lead to more successes in real life. I'm not talking about selling. I'm talking about creating. One can learn how to 3D model, skin, animate, make/stream music, program, etc. A person with these kinds of skills is in high demand in the real world. I think for many people who can't afford to go to a computer school, they can download Second Life and teach themselves how to do these things. They do not need a digital media program at some over priced university.

So, for me, SL is not like skimming through the Sunday paper. It is not an extended chat room. It is an extension of real life and I embrace the richness of things to do and see in SL as if nothing else matters. I am *THAT* addicted.

Am I a richly experienced avatar ? or,
Do I prefer to snarl at those who obviously know better ?

I choose 'an experienced avatar who welcomes conversation and chats', especially with those who aren't biased - who don't judge. SL and RL.

I look at it through the other end of the telescope. I exist in SL, I talk about what I do and see in SL. Whether I am exactly like my RL or not is of no relevance. If there are any alts, they are not alts of me but they are separate characters employed by my RL.

I never came to SL to talk about my latest RL clothes or which RL club I'd be going out to. The only RL stuff I talk about much is music because most of the music in SL comes from RL so we can't avoid it.

But the main thing here is that this is my 1500th post on these forums.

No offense, but I find the OP to be a bit judgemental and condescending, and unfortunately not unique in the short time I've been in SL. For me, it is like the Sunday Paper, I don't have a lot of time for it, when I do go in it is for a little relaxation and entertainment. However, I don't "snarl" at those who spend more time in world or make more out of it than I do. On the contrary, it seems that they are the one's snarling amd looking down on those who don't share their ideas of what SL should be. As evidenced already in this thread. You can ride your high horse. Just make sure you don't let it crap around the rest of us.

There are as many different ways of using SL as there are people using it. What works for one may not work for another. That doesn't make anyone wrong or right, just different.

Some days I come in and just browse like the Sunday paper and other days I come in and hours pass before I realize it. And, yeah, some days I come in and snarl at people. Doesn't mean a thing except that I'm a bit crabby that day.

To each, his/her own.

Wow. No I think you read a little too much into what I asked. But yeah, I am judgmental and you are quite right, I can be very condescending when I want to be. So I apologize for that. I just meant that in the course of a morning's wanderings I tried to be chatty and even helpful to a number of people who were really only interested in gaining directions or information or were so self-contained and - yes - rude, that I wondered why times had changed so much. I welcome you as a newbie to SL, but remember that this world was created by talented people who flavoured this "recipe" with underlying themes many moons ago. Anyway, you are welcome to IM me anytime; maybe my condescension is simply a modest charm that is well-disguised

Did you come up with the thread title first and then try to mould a topic around it ?

You failed miserably!

Why does it need to be either/or? I approach SL as an adjunct to RL. As in, my friends and I freely chat about our lives outside of SL, but we also spend a fair amount of time in light-hearted roleplay. We routinely play along with various fantasy elements and behave as if what's happening in SL is really happening, but it's always with a wink and a nod towards the fact that none of what's happening is real.

Also, I'm not sure what you are getting at by your references to snarling and sneering. Sounds like you have a chip on your shoulder.

n00b.

failed excellently

Me? No, I am much to bashful. It's just the simple plesantries for me. "Hello." "Where are you from?" "How's the weather?" "Your poseball or mine?" /me leans close to whisper in your ear, "I have had a passionant crush on you since the first time we talked." The slight growth of bad on Yosef's check pricks the soft skin at your jaw and neck. Yosef's lips just brush your ear and the warmth of his breath almost tickeling as he continues, "Given half a chance I would love to be the next story you share with your panther tribe."

Just inane chatter I guess you would say.

/me laughs

Yeah, right.

What's the point of anonimous social interaction if you dion't open yourself up a little?

Seen a mirror lately? Just be careful when throwing those stones, kplzthxbi

All that an more. Sometimes I jes wanna skim. Sometimes I prefer chattin'. Sometimes, well, who knows?

I've sort of gone from one to the other. When I first arrived in SL I was very much into the whole "new world" thing and immersion, but I kind of lost touch with that as time went by because, well, once you get used to SL you realise that pretty much every activity is basically just chat. While there is _some_ genuine immersion out there, there are far more things that are failures to make immersion work, and some that are actually cynical attempts to oversell immersion that the seller knows does not really exist - unfortunately, they're hard to tell apart. So now I tend to nip on to talk to friends or do customer service or help maintain things I've made, but I don't stay on for long periods of time.

What Yumi said! lol

I agree basically that after the initial fascination, you really have to sort of define it for yourself. Each of us is getting something a little different out of the experience. I don't sneer at anyone.....that's just sort of ridiculous. I don't partake in everything that SL has to offer....but I certainly don't have any issue with what anyone else is doing.

My avatar is just an extension of me.....I don't RP or gender jump or decide one day to be a dragon and a leopard the next..... SL is more like a giant canvas that I drop my imagination into in the form of an avatar so I can create imagery I enjoy. The social aspect of it, honestly, is secondary. I have made great friends but more often than not I prefer to be on my own working on a project......or, helping someone else with something creative. It's a visual candy shop and i've never really looked at it as anything else. It's a moving piece of art..... a fun house.

I don't spend as much time in-world as I did in the beginning...I have to have a reason to go in...something to work on.... otherwise I get bored too easily. On the occasion that I wind up in a great conversation with someone.....I enjoy that too. But I don't look for it so much as just let it happen if it's going to. I love people....but SL seems to have appealed more to my independent loner persona than my social self.

On the subject of sneering and snarling

As I've mentioned before on the forum, I never heard of SL until a resident visited the IRC role play (yes, Gorean) channel that I had been a part of for 12 years. A friend of his no longer had access to a computer powerful enough to run SL so he was trying to find another way for her to still participate in Gor. In the process, he invited us to SL.

I came to SL strictly to continue the Gorean environment in 3D with my friends of so many years. For the first month and a half or so I was totally immersed in my SL Gorean home. Then one of the new friends I met told me that there was so much in SL and to not restrict myself only to Gor. He introduced me to dancing and live music venues, etc. At about the same time, I got a job "on Earth" to pay my portion of the land my group was renting. There I met my now Partner, who was not interested in participating in Gor (although very willing to visit on occasion).

At first I thought I could live in "both worlds" but I found that sheer time and energy didn't allow for that, so life with my Partner took precedence. We tried to visit my former home regularly and stay in contact with my friends but, guess what? I was bombarded with IMs constantly guilt-tripping me because I was no longer immersed in Gor (I'm just using this because it's my history....insert any other group and it would be the same). So, they were the ones doing the snarling because I had widened my horizons. They also refused to attend our partnering ceremony.

I'm not getting on your case, Jig, because I've been on both sides and what SL is for me changes sometimes from day to day. But my personal experience with people sneering at me has been a group who is in total immersion.

For brand new residents, it's all about RL. How could it not be? What else is there to chat about? (Well, that and how to get L$s and where to get SLaid... but still with RL referents, because that's all one has on stock.) They may be extremely sociable, but the conversation really can't be much different from a standard chat program. I'm lucky if I can handle ten minutes of that, but for some this is just how they want to use SL. And that's perfectly fine; I just wonder how they put up with all the stability problems, for (it would seem) relatively little advantage over much more stable programs.

At some other extreme, role play demands all the platform can deliver to represent as perfectly as possible the subject fantasy/reality. While of course text itself is immersive--witness literature--a virtual world offers more dimensions. And of course the topic of conversation is tightly focused on the role play theme. And that's fine, too. But a conversation between, say, die-hard Trekkies and Goreans will probably not last 10 minutes. (Although... Scotty and the Priest Kings might hit it off.)

So what do I chat about, when I chat for more than ten minutes? It's not about RL or RP, it's about uniquely in-world content, and possibilities for other in-world content, and how that content affects me--emotionally, perceptually, aesthetically. Although there are RL referents (DanCoyote / Frank Stella, perhaps; four Yip / Magritte; Whisperbox / Rosenboom), the topic is SL as a medium of expression, and that which is expressed.

But I rather doubt the lights would stay on at an LL catering exclusively to that interest.

I guess I would have to place myself in the Dont talk to me catagory. Not because Im not friendly or dont like to chat, but because Im usually so wraped up in the world I created around me that its really work to keep focused and get my tasks done in a timely manner, I only wish ther was 40 hours in each day so I would have a little more time for socialities

Depends what day of the month you ask me.

Seriously, you pick the wrong few days and you'll get some taciturn replies. Or virtually growled at. I'm sweetness and light the rest of the time.

Depends if I am building when you ask me (seems every time someone wants to throw drama at me is when I am fiddling with .001 changes step by step on a fiddly texturing job.

Depends who you are ... for some, it will be the amalgamation of Cherry and me. For most it will be just Cherry, who IS me but I am not her. Wish I had her figure.

I'll talk to anyone until they prove themselves to be an asshat, and being as soft as I am I'll keep talking to people who don't do me any good long after I should have given up on them.

BTW I personally VERY much approve of the distinction made between a Forum and in world, since so many appear to live for a Forum instead of using it as Forum.

That was priceless And so true.

Back in the first month I was in SL (see above post)...the one or two times I got hit on I decided to use the "Blind Them With Science" approach to pest control:

Them: where r u from?

Me: (Gorean town)

Them: where?

Me: (Repeats name of town)

Them: where's that?

Me: Gor

Them: Where??

Me: GOR!! (I may have added some exasperated eye-rolling here for effect)

Them: (Deciding on a different tactic) - how old r u?

Me: Ageless

Them: Huh?

Me: You might want to see a healer about that hearing problem.

Them: well how old r u?

Me: I told you. OH! Don't tell me you haven't taken the stabilization serums?

Them: wut?

Me: *sighs heavily*

Me: You must see a healer right away. I must continue my marketing. I wish you well.

~ ~ ~

I had this mental image of this guy walking away scratching his head and thinking what a loon I was. Maybe it made him think before he hit on someone next time. LOL

LOL ... oh come on Czari. You're expecting thought from an HNG?

I'd LOVE to skim. Since I can't stay connected if I TP ... I can't go anywhere lightly cos if I TP on I will still time out. In fact I have to TP, log, see if I time out after 5 minutes or not, prolly log again ... miss all the possible IMs or chat and probably seem rude to strangers who talk to me as I am waiting to get back on, whom I never see ...

Yeah, I guess it did kind of come off that way , didn't it. It's Ok, I'm old(ish).