Introducing real life friends / coworkers

Through the fault of my big yap, some people at my work found out that I play Second Life and formed an interest.

How do you feel about introducing your real life friends and coworkers to your online world?

Uhm... if they are the type of people that you wouldn't mind visiting a brothel with, introduce them to SL

My boss at first was only doing video/audio streaming and website hosting on the internet.

We got contacted awhile ago due to apparently an ad i placed to do some contracted work in SL and now i'm working almost 17hrs a day while he's online almost every minute playing around somewhere.

Sooo i regret it (please dont tell him ^^)

But otherwise its fun. My friends used it for awhile, and still do from time to time but they got jobs etc ^^

Might want to wait until you can TP, search and buy things inworld again.

I mentioned it to a friend of mine, who became a little curious and is now considering checking it out. I sincerely hope he continues to forget to make an avatar.

The only negative side I can think of is there's someone who doesnt like you and finds out you use SL, you're inviting a "griefer made just for you". Personally, I tell people I know about SL all the time, most either are not interested, or dont have a computer that's powerful enough to get on. I do know two people, the guy who first mentioned SL to me, and another friend who I had mentioned it to as well, but I've not been able to catch him online as of yet as he's busy with RL alot.

My friend Cory played Second Life But quit due to arduous bugs. Not that he ever did anything good, all he did was grief.

Try explaining to friends/family/co-workers that you sell cuddle and sex animations in a virtual world on the internet

Or that you are a sex slave ..

Or a vampire that engages in bloody casual sex ..

Or you work as a stripper ..

Or an escort ..

Or are best freinds with the owner of a landbot ..

For some people introducing RL people into their Second Life might be uncomfortable.

Apart from that.... I share my SL wiht people I like. To be honest, I don't like some co-workers here at the company. A few are real jerks.... I don't want them in my private RL, would I want them in my SL? Errmm... a big NO here for me.

Morwen.

What's RL?
Hmm, I have seperate alts put aside for any such occassion, brothers & friends tried but not interested, don't want to get a new nickname at work either as a Leggo Kangaroo thx

I had to contend with 'concerned' friends attempting to cure me of my internet addiction (read: SL). Most (but not all) of my RL friends and acquaintances not only do not understand SL but also have lurid 'tabloid' preconceptions that they bandy around as reasons not to join (and reasons that I needed 'curing').

I also made a concerted effort to interest musicians that I know in RL to look into SL as a valid medium for performance on the internet. I have largely given up on that as my efforts were met with a variety of responses ranging from willful misunderstanding to outright derision. No doubt when SL eventually snowballs as the next 'MySpace' for online music they'll be beating a path to my door. Or else their agents will be merrily blocking me out of SL gigs the way they do in RL.

Also, very few of my RL friends and acquaintances have a computer powerful enough to play a DVD, let alone run SL. So in general I no longer bother to interest my RL friends and acquaintances in SL. Not because I have anything to hide... I haven't... it's just that it's hardly worth the bother. I would say that out of 100+ people I told about SL, less than 10 even bothered to log in once. Of them I'd say only 2 or 3 returned.

So much for my idea of using SL as a meeting place for friends scattered far and wide across the globe.

I try NOT to tell my co-workers about SL. I work with idiots!! No, really!!!

1. One waitress wants to drive to Germany (from Pennsylvania) to visit her friend, an army wife.

2. Another one never heard of some weird music guy called Mozart.

and the list can go on.

Besides, some of them consider the internet to consist only of eBay & Hotmail. Thats it.

Make sure you have a semi standard shape/skin in your inventory and hope they don't find out about your nightlife?

I wouldn't try to explain to my mom why I sometimes enjoy wandering the world looking like a 2 foot tall siamese cat while *also* trying to explain SL's quirks. She'd just get distracted by how odd my avatar is. Instead I'd bring out Capella, dressed in very "normal" clothing (no Free woman outfits. No silks. Not a wedding dress, or even clubbing gear. Jeans and a nice shirt) with a very "normal" hairdo. In my case I'd probably also try to match my real life haircolor/eyecolor and wear glasses just to make it easier for her to see Capella and *think* her daughter. Clothes/hair/eyes/acessories are easy and cheap but she'd probably have to get accustomed to the fact that I have a much different face in world because skins are too darn expensive and I have a really exquisite one. (Being generic american mutt IRL, and looking much more asian-american in game.) =P

I started telling co-workers and friends about this wonderful world, now I hope they don't decide to take a look. My life here has some secrets that would totally cause mayhem in RL i.e. having an intimate relationship with another in SL

Been there, done that, and although I'm sure it often works out, it sometimes doesn't. About a week after I joined, I introduced my ex (who I also worked with), and having more time to spend here than myself, he quickly formed his own circle of friends. When I *did* login, I noticed he was keeping us very separate, and didn't think much of it (I wasn't around much). Eventually it all got me very suspicious so when my sensors detected him during a random fly-about one day, I homed in on him and got talking to his little clique. I quickly discovered he'd embellished certain aspects of his RL, and was leading people to believe he was far more 'interesting' than he really was.

That's a very concise and cut-down version of the story and it all ended very badly, but I think it does expose a danger of bringing certain personality types into an environment full of people they'll never *really* meet. It allows your imagination to run riot far beyond the creative aspects of the place.

OTOH, I've brought other friends into SL and they've adjusted very well. I guess we need some kind of test to put our RL friends through before taking the chance.

Great idea, 99.9% of the population would fail ROFL

1. Well, I think she can make it if the Bering Strait freezes over again...

2. Yeah, Moz-who? I don't keep up with those new fangled groups now-a-days.

3. Don't forget, now it's eBay, HotMail, and MySpace.. lol

DOH! I forgot MySPace!!

Was asked a few weeks ago "Can you hack a MySpace account for me?" says the disgruntled waitress about her ex-friends account.

My answer: NO.

#1 Its illegal.
#2 Its Petty
#3 I have a life.

Sure all of you *males* invite your Mother on in but don't tell her your SL name. Now what fun that might be *ICK*. Heck no I am not telling anyone about this, my well guarded secret. When I do tell my rl friends about my sl friends I tell them I met them in a chat room, well sort of. Now stay away from my pose balls if you come in I don't want to play with my rl friends.

LOL! I explained SL to my parents.... once.

I got that Eyes-Glazed-Over look. Not unexpected tho- they can barely figure out how to use a Mouse. But we're also talking about 2 people who STILL think all this "computer stuff" is a fad.

Hardest thing was explaining the Local News story about the Furry convention, and what a Furry is.

Thank god it wasnt a Gorean convention!!!

I don't mind playing with my RL friends. Some of them could really use a good spanking.
I just don't want to know it is them

I think it very much depends on how similar you are in SL and your first life, and whether you are comfortable intermingling the two.

I personally would never do it. My first life is pretty different from my second life, by design, in terms of what I like to do, and how I like to spend my time. I much prefer to keep the two worlds separated, and relate to SL friends in the context of SL on the basis of how I live in SL, rather than importing friends from my first life into my SL, where I am very different in terms of how I live from the person they know in my first life. For someone who is more or less the same in lifestyle, activities and so forth in both lives, it's probably less of an issue -- so it's a pretty personal choice, I think.

Now that's what I think about personal first life friends. In terms of coworkers, I wouldn't touch that with a ten foot pole. In my view, you should never let people at work get into areas of your life that could, in whatever way, undermine you at the workplace. There's plenty in SL that could reflect poorly on you, whether you're involved with it or not, so to be honest I would never invite coworkers to SL.

My parents know I'm spending time in SL. My mom has no clue what SL is, and my dad, who does have quite a good clue- just laughed and told her not to worry about it.

He knows I have a shop and some land, but I think he's afraid to ask what I sell. (Jewelry dad. Normal every day, could buy it at the mall in front of a child or for a child, jewelry.)

We may work together, Talamasca. I know those people too!