Did you change your 1st Life SELF, for a Virtual World?

(I don't mean your time-schedule.)

Now I was a petty criminal, done many many many things small & big I could be put away for, & ain't sure I should put em up on the Forums...only s**t I can admit to is stabbin a man 7 times w/ a huntin knife & property destruction cause those cases got closed & stricken from my record. (Stabbed guy used ta be in the same crew & didn't press charges when the doctors said he would live).

Pros: There are GOOD things about me havin changed myself (albiet to a large percent...for SL).

*I had ta curb my temper or be banned. I was known for fightin, property destruction & a general "time-bomb" mindset.

*I had ta start talkin so folks in Europe could understand me. I type how I talk usually...been on computers so long it's almost automatic.

*About %200 less "profanity" in my vocabulary had a positive effect when communicating w/ "civilized" folks.

Cons:

*A lotta folks from the background I came from try & give me trouble if I walk by & say "Hi" "Hello" "Wassup" etc... until I almost get back into trouble...I get targeted like those kids who get bullied in High School or somethin. I'm surrounded by crackheads, homeless & "gangstas". Until they see in my eyes I'm always ready to fight & just don't walk around thinkin about it, they point...whisper, laugh, even kick somethin at me. The better I can talk to SLers, the less I can talk to "regular folk" in Chicago


So I guess the Pros out-weigh the Cons. Just bugs me cause I feel like I gotta pick Chicago or SL. There are a lotta Chicagoans in SL, but they ain't from my background...not even close. They are "civilized" folks who don't get the cops after em every 5 minutes, and they never have been there, so the feasibilty of explaining my position to them is pretty shakey. (Yeah, I checked the Dictionary! Yeehaw)

What about you? Have you had to change your 1st Life person to fit the world of your computer-generated "self"?

(Sidebar: I actually started SL about 8 months ago... I was just just thinkin it was a game. Hence why my 1st av was a "superhero" & I cancelled and made another one, & finally Xio Jester. I was unemployed, fresh outta my hand-cuffs, & stayin indoors as much as possible since I was "on a roll" crime-wise, & decided it was "quittin time", for good.
"Kids, don't become a petty-criminal. It just doesn't pay.")

If you're story is true, and I don't mean any offense by that, it's just that there have been things like this posted before that were just someone playing on the forum. Anyway, if you're story is true, then glad to hear it's maybe kept you out of some trouble.

I didn't change myself much when I started playing SL, I was already fairly well suited to it. I'm sure there are others who have changed themselves while playing SL but i think most of the people on here fit it in without having to change much.

Glad to have you here. A unique outlook is a very healthy thing for a place like SL, can lend itself to some creative uses. I hope you don't let that fighting instinct get you in trouble here, sounds like you've got that sorted out already though.

Good luck

Hi Xio ... Glad to see that that I.T GANGSTA never managed to get his Biker buddys to come round and do the death march on your face

http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=178578

I can total relate to what you have said , come up the hard way ..seen the error of my ways & changed my lifestyle ..best move i ever made

As for changing to suit SL ? ..... well no .... i was me wene i got here and im still me , What you get from my AV is what you would get from the RL me .

Im Polite ..Helpful... like to fool around ..diplomatic ..fast thinking and always try to see the bigger picture .

So to put it in word's ...Keep it real

Glad your still alive

I've used SL as a positive force in my life...it's a lot cheaper to buy a car for US$0.50 than 15,000.00! I used to have a decent spending problem before SL, but I've been able to spend time that would have been on bizrate.com or the video store on SL and netflix!

It's also helped me and my girlfriend have something to do on the weekend since we moved into a city where we don't know very many people. The people we DO know have very different schedules and lifestyles from us so it's not always prime to kick it with them.

Sometimes keeping to yourself is a good thing!!

Oh, but I can relate. I used to be a male prostitue IRL, and now, thanks to SL I am a female prostitue (earning a lot more).


On the serious side, SL gave me a reason to feel that I can actually accomplish something after all. That feeling alone is worth more than all the money in the world

One of the perplexing questions of human existence is: Where are the start travellers?

There are many different theories to explain why we are not in contact with some galactic civilization?

I have a new theory. Perhaps before a species is advanced enough for space travel, they develop advanced computers and climb into them.

SL is the begining of the end for our species' physical maifestation.

I never had a 1st life self to change.

Howard Sachs said: "Oh, but I can relate. I used to be a male prostitue IRL, and now, thanks to SL I am a female prostitue (earning a lot more)."

You've won teh forums with that line. I'm out at a cafe having an espresso and nearly made a scene laughing so hard. (I hope you're joking... and if you're not, well, you go girl!!)

THAT, friends, is the power of Second Life, in a nutshell. And Xio, if Second Life has helped you to become more grounded and settled in your First Life, and given you cause to rethink some of the old behavior, and most importantly, change it, all the better.

My own Second Life is evolving so quickly it's hard for me to keep up with it in a First Life sense. It's addicting, to say the least. It's going to take me another year at least to sort out what I want to do, where I want to be. I will be a part of this thing forever, and it will at times influence decisions I make in First Life.

It makes me happy to see that Second Life is affecting, and *effecting* positive changes in people's lives. That's very, very cool.

LOL
Yeah...thanks for snappin me back inta REALITY that day Lostmedia... that was kinda embarassin in retrospect, lol


Somebody asked if the above is true, yeah...
Some "unsavory" folks do happen ta use the internet, contrary to all the YouTube comments, etc... folks wannabe "G's" all had beepers & cell-phones before they even got popular, lol (well at least in MY "hood"
Just cause the 80's is gone don't mean troublemakers don't use computers no more! Matter of fact...some folks get so all upset about it that they started callin em "GRIEFERS"...I thought grief was for funerals! heh, anyway...

I'm glad ta see the other responses too, the whole reason for this post is ta hear what YOU have done as far as being yourself (like Lostmedia), OR changing (like me) after becomin a part of the Community. Just a ..."study" for my own selfish "personal reference"
(As scary as that sounds, I'm unemployed, not a mad scientist.)

Thanks for all the responses, crazy how a "Virtual World" can cross over into "1st Life" so much for us, huh

Conversely, I wonder how many real life moms are blowing off their real life toddlers because they are club-hopping in SL four hours a day, hehe. I remember when I was very little, my mother watched soap operas most of the afternoon. If she were still alive, I'm certain she'd be an SL addict.

Too true. Don't forget RL.

My Mother suffers from depression, is on medication and spends spells at mental rehabilitation at times, seems to be generally unsatisfied with life, Dad is a work hard, she'll be right person , can't cope with anything any other way, both are suffering from empty nest syndrome. I don't spend much time with them that doesn't help I guess ,but we all have our own interests families.
Sometimes I wonder if I should introduce them to SL and then the can see me more often or whether it would make their problems worse. Dad being a realestate agent would probably jump head first into the market pool without walking around the pool fist to read the depth signs & Mum may just over immerse herself too. Both are early 60's and computer savvy enough. I suspect I would have to consult Mums theripist too before introducing her to such a big change.
other family would undoubtably follow, possibly for the better for mum, giving us a chance to relate to her/each other more often too.
Then again I would have to hide some of my alts from family too, which would feel weird but give me privacy to do my own thing too.

Never really thought about it really until i read your post, I have not really changed in rl at all due to SL but my online habits have changed allot. Ive been on the net for 12 odd years now and looking back I suppose I used to be a griefer. I hated Americans, especially Americans on the internet. I found them to be touchy, annoying, whinning, fickkle creatures so easily offended, so back when I started on IRC in the late 90's my main past time was yank baiting, annoying Americans, nuking their connections, flooding or stealing their chat channels, using profanity ( I too used to type like I talk in RL) and my favourite was 'dissing the lord' as that allways got an instant reaction. For years it was just fun and I certainly didnt see it as griefing, whereas now I see how much of an immature idiot I was. This transfered over once I started playing MMO Games, and I was still a wanker, still annoying/bullying people for fun, but things changed once I came to SL. I started a business almost immediatly and found Ihad to actually interact with poeple...with Americans in order to make that business a success. So I had to change my immature attitude and my general perception of Americans. Dont get me wrong, I still get very annoyed by the attitudes and actions of allot of Americans especially some of those on this forum but 99% of the time I just ignore it rather than retorting or being sarcastic for the sake of it. I now interact with Americans allot and call some of them my friends and hopefully Im not so much of an arsehole nowadays and this change in attitudes can oly be attributed to Secondlife and I will carry it forward for the rest of my online life.

Aside from that I have also learned 3D moddeling and graphics skills that have transferred over into my professional life.

Nice thread btw.

Not really new, I'm afraid. Check out http://www.simulation-argument.com/
Tis very interesing. If you like that kind of thing!

As for the original question of the thread. I haven't had as much time as I would like to spend in SL (I know when I have to let RL take over! ) but if I can achieve my goals in SL it will be very good for me to realise that I actually CAN do stuff and may even transfer those things to RL. (eg get my music heard, organise events ... still to be done in SL, let alone RL tho! lol)
Even if not, it keeps me busy when RL is dull. I'm never bored anymore and I am learning basic graphics skills - something I've always struggled with, not being a particularly visually-minded person! - and some scripting. It's also been great with helping me remember some of the German I've forgotten. I keep seeming to go to clubs where the predominant language is German, which is great. Far better than learning from textbooks! And, of course, I have made some friends too.

So, no, my 1st life self hasn't CHANGED, but my 1st life is certainly ENRICHED by SL.

I've been here 7 months now. Still think I'm a newbie in a lot of things. I don't think I've changed my RL as a result .. other than forking out for upgrades to the computer .. and spending more time than I probably really should .. online. Too many late nights for sure .. and I've done everything in the 'You know when you've been in SL too long' thread ... twice!
I'm still the same Bilbo that was in the Starship Titanic forum in 1999. Even with the addition of graphics I am not three feet tall. I've always been brought up to be polite and helpful.
SL has opened vast avenues to me, mentally. The text only fantasy of the last century was wild .. but with even the present graphics SL is wild with knobs on! (ancient british phrase which is probably wholly inappropriate in this situation)
I have bags under my eyes. I now don't fully wake up till the fourth extra-caffiene espresso ... and by mid-afternoon I develop the Alt/click/drag twitch ... but I don't think my RL has changed other than that.

Hey Xio, you got you that teeny avatar yet?

Some sleep deprivation and less television watching are the biggest effects on RL, so I think I'm breaking even.

this is a much more imporant question than many people would perhaps give it credit. as computers and VR advance, we will eventually be technically able to escape reality completely... why would people want to come out ?

and perhaps more perplexingly, how would the experience inside a completely immersive environment as I've described above, be any less real than "real"?

reality is only defined by our senses after all.

Hopefully any advanced life forms out there can see how screwed up we still are and know enough to stay away from us.

*thumbs up* Ditto

Yeah, if they got an ounce of sense they'll have muted us

To take a dump?.

LOL, funny ya should mention that, nope but my av is a midget right now, lookin for a motorcycle for tinies, gotta figure out his height, he's shorter than the seat height on a BMW bike as you were folks

a) this thread caught my dislexic eye as "Did you exchange your 1st... " /me thot wtf? lol

b) oh dude, wow /me recollects a homeless dude in SL who got enough lindens to rent him a real life apt.

c) stories of change... wheelies? SL has so many ppl who for one reason or another are socially challenged(heck,mayby all?) perhaps the best real reply is the entirety of SL

def&g) ppl would need to come out to deflect the asteroid.

x&y) this has been the best thread ever

z) sticky this thread. plz?

Hmmm.... I don't think I changed my RL really for SL (or any other online community/game).

I never spend that much hours in SL has I see/hear from others (I mean there are people who are always online when I log in... and they are not camping or something alike). There are even times I am even less in SL (as right now), because other things need my attention.

That doesn't mean SL is not important to me. That is something else.

Morwen.