What surprises you most in-world?

What do you find most surprising about the in-world experience? I'm thinking particularly of people who've been in SL some time.

My greatest puzzlement is over the amount of neglected land owned by premium members. I mean people who probably joined SL, became premium, bought some land, experimented with rezzing a few random objects, left them there and never seem to log in. I had one such plot next to me for a year - then it went back to LL for auction and was bought by someone else who just put a bus shelter on it months ago and has never been back. The other side of me is a small plot with a giant domino and a big black and white photo of a man who looks like Karl Marx - it's been there over a year with no sign of activity. I expected this parcel to revert to LL on the anniversary of its purchase but it didn't - the premium must have renewed!

I know I've posted about this before. Obviously you'd expect to find a few of these neglected but owned plots dotted around, but there are so many of them.

What else surprises you?

People who randomly pay me large sums of money for no reason.

When people (mostly new folk) come up to me and say "hi" but by the time I've typed out "hi" in return they're off to "hi" someone else.

Similar is when folk give a "hi" in a crowded area to no-one in particular about half a dozen times with no response, then say "why won't anyone talk to me?"
Sometimes I advise them to "put a name on it" but mostly not.

content creation. never fails to surprise me at what fellow residents come up with.

The turnover rate

It never ceases to amaze me how people can always tier down to zero and stay for free and only log on once in a while ..

But instead they poof entirely.

For me it is the ubiquitous human avatars with unnatural proportions. Just today I was shopping for men's clothes and I noticed every other guy in the place had shoulders about 2 meters wide and waists of about 24 inches. They all look like some kind of bizarre robot aliens.

I frequently look alien intentionally, but I think these are not intentional. Maybe it's an anime style thing I wouldn't understand. It's their world, their imagination, and they often do seem to be surrounded by ladies, some of whom are proportioned very nicely indeed.

Shrugs.

New socks.

How many people are so uptight about everything.

It's an interesting phenomenon. On the one hand it's natural that most of us want to idealize our looks and on the other there is a bit of "cartooniness" to the way we look in SL. I think the more of this cartooniness other avatars have and the more idealized the more normal it looks and the more people get more cartoony and idealized.
When I was young I was often told I was unusually tall and skinny. And in fact it was hard for me to find clothes that fit well. Now that I'm a grandmother I'm actually the same size and weight as ever and I'm still taller and thinner than the average rl woman. (But there are a lot of slim young women who are much taller now.)
When I started out in SL I made my avatar match my real life dimensions but in SL that turned out to look very short and squat. So now my avatar is over 6 feet tall and has ridiculously long legs. Kind of my fantasy of myself. And yet I still look short and stout next to a lot of women in SL. And I've noticed that the most normal looking male avatars are built like the governor of California was in rl 25 years ago.

How many people moan and groan about LL and SL when theres so much more fun to be had if they just leave the moans and groans at the login page

^has a sock fetish

the corruption, and greed


But there are some wonderful spots and people that make it worth it

Oh no you didnt! ROFL!!!! New socks YAY, sighs

Funny how what's "unnatural" in a male AV is "nicely proportioned" in a female one.
Your point works for female AVs (mine included) as well. The majority of female residents seem to be 20-something and built like Barbie. Heck, why not?

What continues to surprise me, and it's been said before, is the sheer number of stunningly well designed sims that seem to have few visitors. I'm always amazed that people are so quick to recommend the (overrated) Greenies and fail to mention super work like Kowloon, Crucible, REC, Templum or Mexico sims.
Of course it's nice to explore an area without some blingtard in fetish wear riding on a unicorn through the air, but it's a shame that builders aren't rewarded for their efforts with more visitors.
Surely, for an artists, there is no greater joy than to have one's works appreciated and admired.

The realism of some builds.

Picking up somewhat on Brann's point, I love it when I find a build that I actually *want* to walk through and experience as my avatar. One of the best examples I've found of this is also one of the most unlikely: a shopping sim. The Block (Varado sim) is one giant 'shopping mall', but it's built like a city with proper streets and side areas. Even the advertising fits, placed on the sides of store walls and billboards. I like nothing more than to just walk around that sim, browsing through the stores and taking the time to 'be in the city', as it were. There's no way I would fly around that particular sim and miss all the immersive details, not even if I was in a hurry.

I'm new here, wondering where the heck to post something, its that big,lol

The one thing i find suprising, is the amount thats going on in general
At the moment i cant actually get on second life, due to my graphics card not been powerful, enough an i have tried but i am now really intrested because i saw an overview on youtube and i didn't realise how big it actually was, in terms of importance.

My mate told me about this place ages ago and i never really paid much attention till i started on a net station and they all listen to music in the Zebra club and i'm slowly getting more into it, but my Pc keeps crashing due to vastness of SL

And thats another thing thats actually suprising, any one should be able to even view SL without it constanty crashing, its rather enoying in fact and my Pc is new

Tha fact that my big toe hurts just as much as it does in RL.

What surprises me most is the general lack of true originality pervading SL. Everything is just a reflection of real or existing fantasy. Houses and cities build according to real world rules, with walls and roof... space stations, pirate's coves, Gor inspired, medieval, samurai, steampunk... sure, the variety of scenery is impressive, the technical expertise is there too. But true creativity, the never seen before, the mark of genius, are nowhere to be seen.

As for the originality of AV's appearance, I see 3 types; real life portrayal, fantasy and wishful thinking...

Some of the above may be due to SL's limited features. having no control over global gravity makes it hard to simulate a spaceship or a planet.

But even within those limitations, few, if any, truly original settings are out there to explore. Are there any places where the mind is truly challenged with new social or technological concepts? A new form of living space for future society? SL has the potential to be a lab for testing new social structures of city planning, instead, people are bent on sex and greed. How disappointing.

Pratyeka: It's human nature


I would have been surprised to not see human nature's baser instincts magnified a hundred fold into the open.

This phenomena amazes me as well. Not to forget how many of them also have short arms and tiny hands. Then I can't help imagine what it would look like if someone shaped like that had to pee. What a mess.

that was one big reason I wound up going furry... the avatars just seemed to look better.

Well it all depends on whether you wanna spend time on the sliders or not I guess.

Oh I do... but the facial ones are enough to drive me insane

What surprises me? The fact that almost everywhere I go is labeled mature, and more often then not I teleport somewhere sexually explicit when I click on the map!

Whatever not complaining.

Oh and the other thing that surprises me. How you can use the map and teleport RIGHT into someone's private house. I've done it more than once in the past few days. It's hillarious explaining to someone that I accidentally teleported in their house! And they had no security or anything!

Hehe I guess they can be. Many good furry avs out there tho so it's not a bad option.