Observations of a newbie after one whole week

Hi all. I have played a few online mmo's and wandered my share of internet chat rooms. A friend told me about SecondLife after hearing it discussed on a podcast about a week ago and I decided to check it out.

I have to say I am totally blown away by the variety of things to do and explore here as well as the number of interesting and very friendly people in game.

I started with the welcome area, just chatting and asking questions then started to teleport around to the popular destinations on the "find" menu. Of course most of the popular places were sex clubs and the ones that were well done are really amazing. I have always known that mature content has driven the technical evolution of most new media delivery products and SL is no exception. It is fun to learn things about myself and how I react to sexual situations when I know its safe and can just teleport away if someone crosses a line.

I found some great dance clubs and quickly fell in love with the pair dancing and synchronized dancing. Some of the dances are so cool looking, sexy and elaborate that I am blown away that people could have built them.

I have made some great friends here too. Since I am deaf and do not really speak in RL I find interacting with strangers in RL very difficult. I really love that here I can just go up to anyone and chat it up without having to fumble around with a pen and notepad. Written English is still a struggle for me but everyone seems to have great patience with my slow typing and typos.

Of course I set out to fix up my avatar next and find shopping here totally fun but overwhelming. Every shop seems to have 2,000 variations on everything so its a slow process. I wish more places had "try it on" buttons or models that could show what stuff looks like in 3D. I am really trying to make my avatar look like me in RL (is that weird?) and see how this game can get expensive fast. Some of the shops are so amazing, they look every bit as professionally done as a RL high-end boutique. Special thanks to Zyrra and HoseQueen from Panache for teleporting over to help me try to match a hair style to my own RL hair.

I am just starting to explore and am continually stunned at what I find, from realistic tree houses to skating rinks to incredible artisans. Its quite an amazing game and an even more amazing community.

Welcome to SL!

-Ghoti

That is so cool. My parents were deaf and I know that my dad would have thought SL was a blast. Unfortunately, he's been gone for many years. Ironically, I bought my first computer with part of the small amount of money he left me.



Not at all. Everybody has their own little thing they like to do. Some people want a mini-me (so to speak). Some want to be who they WISH they were in rl, hence the masses of Barbies and Ah-nolds. Some want to be furries, or robots, or whatever, and a few people are different every time you see 'em, it seems.

Welcome to SL! May your time here be long and enjoyable.

P2

Welcome to SL, Eponine!!!!

Just judging from what you have written, you are light years ahead of where I was when I had been here for just a week. One week into my SL experience, it was as if my AV's feet were encased in cement in the Welcome Area (I was having a great deal of trouble using the direction keys to walk, and I had not mastered flying--I kept falling out of the sky).

You are finding some of the more awe-inspiring/amazing/weird things that SL has to offer. You have already met HoseQueen and Zyrrah? You have already met just two of the incredible folks who visit the grid! Really. The people here are astounding.

My prediction: Eponine will do very, very well in SL! Yay!!

Yes, I don't think most people realize how cool it can be in SL just to be able to shout across a room to a friend or to "hear" conversations going on around you in a room.

Thanks for posting Eponine! Welcome to SL! I'm hooked too. Have been for close to 2 years!

Welcome!



This was like a breath of fresh air.

Hello and welcome! If you would like a variety of basic clothing to try on and find out what you like, do a find, places on Yadni's Junkyard and The Shelter, which have free or $1L boxes of items. Great places for a new player, the latter being quite helpful with questions and the like.

Nice places I have found to visit are ElvenGlen and Caledon, both themed areas (the latter, my home). If you are interested in vehicles and flight, Abbott's Aerodrome is another place to find.

yes, such a wonderful break from the drama. Isn't a new player's enthusiasm almost contageous?

Wonder if Eponine has worn a box on the head yet?

Welcome, Eponine! What a fantastic post.

You chose two of the best folks in world for hair and fun - Zyrra and HoseQueen! They're so wonderful.

Hearing about how you feel about being able to be heard across a room is great. Second Life can be a wonderful outlet. Its funny, I can't fly in RL (of course), but I'm sure I get a similar vicarious thrill from the ability to fly that you get from being able to be heard. I can't wait to meet you!

Regards,

-Flip

Ummm, yes. Glad I am not the only one. I also made a whole bunch of tweaks to my face then accidentally took off the skin and deleted it lol.

Wearing a box on your head is a rite of passage - welcome to the team! I still see Lindens make that mistake sometimes, hehehehe.

EVERYONE who has actually switched out of the default outfit (and not been pre-briefed by an experienced player) has ended up with a box on their head. It's kinda a SL new player tradition!

Hi... *waves*

I have been here about a week too. I seem to be working the opposite direction of you. I have spent time getting my look down. (With the help of many of those freebies mentioned). I think the most useful thing I found in bringing together a look was the skin. Having a skin I liked made a lot of differnence in the look. I still need to work on moving and expressing myself.

Now I am just barely starting to rove around and explore. There are some beautiful places out there. I'm having a great time too!

p.s. I still accidently end up with a box sometimes...or a piece of furniture. LOL

Welcome Welcome Eponine and Whimsycallie!!

Oh and PS Eponine, not sure if you found your skin again or not but just in case you haven't...anything you delete ends up in your trash folder. Might look there.


Oh yea, I once tried to set out a house to see what it looked like only my clicker was pointed more at my AV than at the ground... so ended up with an entire house on my head and i couldn't even claim newbie status. *shrugs*

What a refreshing thread. We can all relate to your experience, otherwise none of us would still be here. However, we all could use a reminder of how fresh and exciting SL was when we first arrived. I think it would do us old timers some good if this week we all thought about what it was that made us fall in love with this place.

Welcome to SL, may you become as passionate as many of us are about this place, find your niche in this community and some day be nostalgic about way back when in 2006 when you were a noob.

Tell me about it. If I'd read any SL forums before I signed up, I never would have bothered. Welcome, O.P.

Thanks for the encouragement all.

I forgot to mention that I made my first t-shirt - that was so cool!

A woman asked if she could buy it from me at a club and I was terrified to sell it because I did not know if I had even done it right. I had her check it out and she ended up buying two (one for her and one for her gf)

Wow.. you are seriously ahead of me on the learning curve. I need to find remedial classes.

Congrats on your sale.

i`ve done the same, box on head, lol

i`ve been playing for 4 days

did try it over a year ago and didnt like it, now i`m hooked

heard it on adam curry's podcast

But I'm not everyone, I'm nobody.

Seriously, I had no warnings, but haven't yet had any problems, even with getting out of the kinda lame newbie clothes (courtesy of something from... erm, crap, can't remember the name of the place, where they hold the newbie classes).

Or maybe I'm just a freak.

Indeed. I found this whole thread enjoyable too.



And Oh... My... Gawd! As someone said "This IS a rite of passage!" When I first did it I just about died laughing. It was a rather large and ungainly box, more a flat sign-shaped box-like shape but stuck onto my head all the same.

Welcome.

Making a t-shirt already? That is fast!

I always like my avatars to look kind of like mini-me's. Anyway, you can have that the your base avatar, and then, you can still make or have as many avatars as you want and wear them whenever you want! I've got a bunch I use like that, including one that is a bowl of fruit!

I got a motorcycle stuck on my head when I first joined (over a year ago). I guess a house would be even worse!

coco

Welcome, Eponine and Whimsycallie. In echo of others, thank you for sharing your wonderfully positive explorations!

Box stories abound, ancient status being no exception.

Scene:

Mermaid with fancy prim hair attaches box to head (said box presumed to be previously unpacked, as it bears same name as items inside).

Mermaid sheepishly detaches box.

Instant bald mermaid! Gah

From me too, an` Ah hain`t even been SLborn yet!Ah`ve managed ta avoid it...so far.... [chuckles] Ah cain`t hardly wait ta get ma new hardware so`s Ah can finally gets in-world! Readin` stull like this is sooooo fun!

Toodle-oo!