What surprises you most in-world?

*sniffles at Brann's comment*


One that just popped into my head as I was cooking.... and reaching for cooking oil..

Oily skin! Oh my god what is the deal with that?

LOL, you're *not* who she was talking about! There there, Darion, people in a class by themselves need not take Brann's comment to heart.

... oily skin, yum. To each their own, I guess!

I also get a chuckle out of people who are embarrassed for their avs to be seen naked, but again, it's just because we identify with our avatars.

The more real and less cartoonish SL gets (or whatever VR world), the more it'll apply.

What surprises me is the number of people who want to make their SL as identical to their RL as possible.

There is a vast range of things you can be, places you can live (or maybe you don't really need to live anywhere?) and yet they create their avie to look like themselves in RL and buy a regular-looking home and fill it with regular-looking furniture. I guess I just don't get it.

Worse is then when they start criticizing others for looking different to themselves in RL.

Although maybe it doesn't surprise me - maybe I just find it very disappointing....

Simultaniously the creativity of some...
and the lack of imagination of others. It really is an amazing show of the extremes of humanity.

What frequently surprises me is the drama.

There's something about SL that takes apparently mature, intelligent, creative people that somehow gets them acting like JHS kids.

Welcome, Paulzine! For really general discussion about anything and nothing, post in the thread "Please Ignore and Let This One Die". For technical questions, you could use the Technical Issues forum, but you'll usually get a quicker response if you post here in Resident Answers.

If you have a new(ish) PC, you really should be able to run SL. Could you please post your graphics card specs? Maybe we can offer some help and advice. You could also check your system against the recommended specs here: http://secondlife.com/support/sysreqs.php

Also, if you will open your user preferences (User CP, upper left of the forum window), and select Edit Options, you can set it up so that people can send you private messages, instead of having to check the public thread for new responses.

Once you get your PC problems fixed up, you'll love SL. At least, I hope you will...we all do. If you run into problems or have questions, IM me in world, or post here on the forums. We're all happy to help.

Along the same lines - what surprises me is that these mature, intelligent, creative people sometimes forget that there are emotional, feeling human beings on the other side of the monitor. With an avatar in front of you, is it *that* easy, really, to forget that there's a human listening to the words you "speak", wanting to trust and believe in you?

I am constantly, breathtakingly surprised at the kindness, helpfulness and generosity of utter strangers on the grid. I truly pray that this remains; for me, it is a major differentiation between grid life and RL.

And in the forums, sometimes, too.
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People.

I am continuously surprised by unexpected kindness and generosity. People can be so damned GOOD.

Far less often, I'm surprised by unexpected rudeness. Sometimes, they can be so damned AWFUL.

Either way, it's always a surprise.

With all the weird things in SL, I just had to pass on this story. I purchased a gravestone that when an avatar walks past, rezzes his/her name on it and makes a funny epitaph.

My friend was walking by the gravestone, saw their name on it and was freaked out to the point that they asked me to remove it. I gladdy complied as I really like this person but it just seems to me that of all the weird stuff in SL, that the gravestone would be one of the least strange things

Visit Clock Island....just a bit of "out of the norm" for you. You might like it.
Handy

I am constantly suprised by my own creative genius and awesomeness.

I am also suprised that my fellow residents havn't organised a parade in my honour or given me an award or somthing.

Selfish wankers!

Flying pig needed in Aisle 10, please...

QFT. This is my answer, too.

On the same thread as the rudeness mentioned already, the sense of self importance and lack of humor displayed by people sometimes...but that holds true in RL as well.

what surprises me is how rude, crude and crass some folks can be
and the total disregard for the rules on another person's property, especially if said property is a business (SL or RL business doesn't matter, rules are rules)

But don't you have to see the joy and kindness in people as well? I agree. The venom and hatred people exhibit can be shocking. But at the same time, I have witnessed more caring, compassion and kindness here in SL than anywhere else. I've seen people go out of their way to welcome a new person, to pick someone up when they've been knocked down, or to help someone out who is frustrated and angry. You don't get to witness that much in RL, and it is a surprising and amazing part of this community.

I'm not arguing with you, but I think you might balance the negative with the positive.

the OP asked what surprised us in world
people being kind and helping others doesn't surprise me

but people being rude and crude and disrespectful of other people's property that surprises me

nothing needs balancing, I was merely answering the question
(not arguing with you either, just explaining why I replied the way I did)

that people still buy toilets for their houses

I've been there once and it was quite creative, but now I can't seem to find it or a landmark. Has it disappeared?

I'm startled at times by the way egos can grow to absolutely jumborrific size inside SL.

which then tend to carry outside SL

strange isn't it?

Back to the creativity issue. First, I guess I sit at the right end of the creativity curve which means I am not seeing things the way most Second Lifers do. I feel I sort of had to become creative and do a lot of my own building.

One of the things that surprises me about Second Life is how small it actually is. There are 60,000 avatarim on the grid on a good day. Figure generously that of those half are habitual users. This gives Second Life the population of Utica, New York in 1990, only unlike Utica, there is no Syracuse (the big city in Central New York) fifty miles up the road. I'm not sure how to measure the poulation density of Second Life, but my guess is that it is somewhat like Wyoming.

Given the fact that SL is really a very small town, a lot of items are simply unavailable unless I make them for myself. Try finding a floral or novelty print blouse, If you have an Afro-American avi as I do, try looking for ethnic hair. There are one or two people making it. Cornrows are very easy to make by the way. That was one of my first projects. Look for kente cloth, mud cloth, wax prints or other African textile patterns. I know of one merchant who has two styles of kente. The idea of painting houses in the Ndebele style (very prim-economical by the way since you use an existing surface) has never caught on except with me.

Also most creative ideas do not have to be grand schemes that use a lot of prims and require a lot of space and time. The tube dress (yes, wearing one or two prims) I came up with is a great example, so too are wearable scriptless skis and poles. There's a lot of places with snow where you can't rez or use scripts. Most of the time the standard for a good creative item isn't perfection. It's better than nothing because you can guess the alterantive.

People who rent those expensive ready-made houses or apartments and who buy store bought clothing baffle me. Unless they are using freebies, they can upload textures and make their own so easily. There are several vernacular styles of ultra low prim house. A vernacular style is one commonly used in the real world.

Could it be noncreatives are afraid of looking poor or out of place somehow? I've received very little static for my "outrageous clothes." The rude comments come exclusively from males. I keep a file of them. And none of my neighbors have complained about my pale green yurt with the mural of the life cycle of a bee and the making of honey on it. Still being like everybody else even when there is no punishment for doing your own thing, is a powerful mode of behavioral control. I don't understand it. I just notice it.

Some of us "uncreatives" just aren't interested in the process and acquiring the skills to make things. I don't have any of the commonly used programs creators use besides the in world tools, and don't have a reason to. My SL time is limited, I don't want to spend it trying to make something that someone else can do for me. I'd rather be exploring or whatever. If there weren't consumers, creators would have no market for their wares.

When I was new actually what really was surprising how 500L here, 1000L here, 10k there for land could so easily and quickly add up to hundreds of dollars.
What has kept me is small group of really wonderful, kind, patient and generous friends that have helped me a whole lot.