How was SL sold to you?

I'm just curious:

Who got you to join SL?

What did they tell you SL was all about?

What got you to stay?

For example...my story!

I was involved in the beta testing prologue of a MMPOG called URU Live. It shut down in February of 2004. A couple weeks later a good friend of mine said many of the Exiles from URU had come to SL. I tried the free 7 day trial trusting my friends judgement. Once here I fell in love with how I could look any way I wanted to, make anything I wanted to (though time consuming) and the fact that people could do so many things with just a few shapes. We started building our favorite parts from URU Live in SL which are acutally now on the island of Telador. It was URU Live (which at the point of shut down was not much more than an online avatar chat with occasional new puzzles added in) with flying and teleporting. I ended up staying because of the people I met, though I must admit I love wearing clothes that I could NEVER wear in RL. My time allotment for SL has diminished but I find time to shopping, visiting, and chatting with my friends at least once a week.

A Slashdotter's sig told me SL was about building yourself, along with other players, the content of a MMORPG. I had dreamed of such a thing for a long time already so I investigated. Building and scripting I liked. I'm still here today

I'd been in ActiveWorlds for 5 years and was totally pissed at the lack of developement and refusal to incorporate new technologies. I went looking for an alternative 3d "virtual environment" and SL was the only one.

To create.

To be whatever you wanted to be, and if you couldn't, find a way to pound down the barrier keeping you from it.

The barriers have been thoughrally flattened.

Other: There was a Mac version.

Other:

There was shut for "maintenance" for the day so I googled "There alternatives". I found this one, "Second Life". It seemed unremarkable, except apparently it had a programming language. I immediately envisioned tacky neon green and red X/Y axis lines and 20 pages of code to make a cube that moves. Slowly.

I downloaded it and checked it out, and although it was a different style of 3D than there, it was interesting. Slowly I learned that in fact, "prims" did give a huge amount of freedom, and the scripting language required you to do very little to achieve quite a bit. I knocked up my first alarm system very shortly after joining, and managed to sell a few copies.

I also bought a small plot of land, and had a home. That's something I never had in There and to this day have never had. But I felt like I belonged in Second Life.

When I first played it, it was something like 10 hours in There, 1 in SL. Within a few months, it was about 30 mins in There, 10 hours in SL.

Finally, some months later I cancelled my There account.

I am soooooo glad you asked.

I was playing There, and... well, I'm an affectionate person; I like to hug people. But in There, avatar to avatar contact doesn't exist aside from a mouth to mouth peck while seated.
I petioned There for improvement in this area, and was told that it isn't possible because the avatars would "poke through each other."
Well, I knew TSO had avatar to avatar contact, but that's mainly bc all avatars in TSO are the same height. I had heard a lot about SL and was curious as to how avatar to avatar contact was handled.
I signed up for the free trial, found someone to cuddle with, and never went back to There...

I wanted to own land.

I somehow found this:

Thriller

And was sold...

I was in TSO and someone came in and told me they'd give me all kinds of free stuff for joining if I mentioned them as the referrer. Not realizing the scam, I checked out SL

I chose "to create anything I want."

I wanted to play SL since its inception, but I didn't get cable until February.

coco

I found SL through a slashdot post announcing the opening of public beta or something.
I took a single look at the website, and was instantly sold, joined immediately, and here I am, 2 years, 4 months and 7 days later

Exactly what she said, plus the fact that i've also tried almost any possible virtual world enviroment I could lay my hands on. SecondLife is one of my best findings thus far.

Definitely building. I was in love with the idea before the Mac version was out, and when I found out about it I was signing up as soon as I could.

In a box... that was a bitch to open.. with NO instructions...







Socialising is my thang, wanted to meet people and have met the best

Who got you to join SL?

My husband said "I just downloaded this software for a 3D world because Random (Twilight) invited some dinos to go to an 80s party there. I think it will run on your laptop too."

What did they tell you SL was all about?

He said "People build stuff there - their own houses and things and own land and when I saw that, I knew you'd love it!"

What got you to stay?

The friendliness of people. Going to events and having the hosts recognize you and greet you after only attending twice.

"OMG! Taggy actually spoke to me! *swoon*"

The addictiveness of the land auctions. (Gone now, of course)

Easier to make friends than in RL.

The ability to run multiple businesses for fun and a little profit.

The satisfaction of helping people as a Mentor, Instructor, Live Helper and now Greeter.

(Oh, and also Other: There's a Mac version. Which is why neither of us play CoH)

I was sold through Google and the old website.

I'd been discussing many of the ideas present here and how it would spark a pivotal "gaming" revolution since about a year prior, but I didn't know someone went and made the damned thing until I found that website.

Guess I got my wish.

It was late....
I'd fallen asleep on my keyboard again.
I was running a deep-level search, trying to find what I could on the one they called Phillip.
There was some esoteric david byrne song playing on winamp.
Suddenly....
the music stopped.
This caused me to wake up to find my computer screen had gone blank.
Except.... for some grey text typing itself across the top of the screen...

WAKE UP BURKE.
BURKE WAKE UP.
BURKE!!!!11111
OMG BURKE!!!
...grrrrr.
HERE BURKEYBURJEYBURKEY BURKE!!!!!!

"What?" I said.
Apparently it'd taken a bit for me ti wake up.

FINALLY!!!
*SIGH* STUPID SLEEPY HACKERS.

"Hey!"
The screen cleared.

GOOD, YOU'RE UP, LEMME RESTART THE SPEIL......

Cleared again.

BURKE, THE MEATSPACE HAS YOU.

"Meat? Great, I'm starving."

NO BURKE, THE MEATSPACE, THE REAL WORLD HAS YOU.

"Oh... okayyy...."

THE METAVERSE NEEDS YOU, YOU HAVE A DESTINY TO LINE OUR COFFERS, ER, GET PHAT LEWTS... NO, WAIT, THAT'S NOT IT..... HOLD ON, LET ME CHECK MY NOTES


"What... the fuck?"

It went on like this for awhile, then I got sent to the signup page.
The rest is history. There were some really lame sequels.

**SNORT LAUGH**

For me, besides "There" having no mac client.. was the pic of the guy building his own motorcycle in a shop and about to "take it for a spin".

My husband had it for a few months before I did. I kept seeing him chit-chatting with other avatars, and wasn't really interested. If I wanted to chat or roleplay or socialize, I could go on IRC or any other of countless programs, or, you know, leave the house.

Then I saw all the cool stuff he and others had been building, from Arabesque palaces to flying toilets, and I was suddenly itching to try it.

I joined for the building/creation aspect of it.

I joined simply to socialize and explore. I read about it in Jane magazine some time ago, and decided to check it out.

Don't really remember how i got on the website, maybe it was a ad on boingboing.
But on the site i started to read and check the pics, even went to NWN i believe. And read stories about kermitt, jenna fairplay, etc.
And i got really exicted by all that, people creating games, and even making some money with it. It seemed like a place where i could prosper. It did take a while before i got from my lazy ass and be a active resident.

Sims Online was tanking and being a job rather than fun. Some people I knew were going to SL and mentioned it. I resisted for a while and then signed up and got sucked into buying land. Mmmmm land. So, here I stayed and TSO went to the mafias. I loved being able to build anything I could and wanted. Or finding the people who could build better than me and buying it.

The short story is it hit me at a time in my life when I was particularly vulnerable, having terminated a music career because of a hearing accident and hyperacusis. Wanted to find something productive to do, thought back to a wondrous childhood that wasn't so full of burden, and then there were two online worlds I found out about through numerous sources online—it just seemed like a lotta synchronicity—and they turned out to be There and Second Life. Gave both a trial spin, came onto sites like SLUniverse.com to ask questions, questions answered. Curiouser and curiouser. This is very abridged. Prolly historical now, and I am grateful to each and everyone who have helped me.

I wrote about my first days infact and the long story is here:

http://torley.blog-city.com/living_a_second_life.htm

Keep scrolling through the days to see how it all ended up.

http://torley.blog-city.com/index.cfm?m=9&y=2004

I don't think I stayed for any single reason; I am keeping mindful of the possibilities here. I'm commonly classified as a socializer-explorer though.

Yes; found it by googling "Mac games".