ok, there is sex and gambling, but is there anything else?

Hi,

I'm pretty new to SL, having only been "born" on 9/23/06, and took the plunge and bought first land 10/1. Other than the building, which is really cool, what else can one really do in this world?

It seems that sex (prostitution even!) and gambling are the main "industries" or entertainments around.

Very few people seem all that interested in friendly conversation, either.

Is SL all flash and no substance? What do people DO with this, anyway?

Like I said, the building abilities are really cool and fun. I would love to network with people to just make stuff, if there's nothing else to do besides wear a detachable penis and gamble ....

There IS lots of friendly conversation. It can be difficult to find when you're new and you're just randomly searching the world, but it is out there. Some suggestions:

Various people host discussion groups in Second Life, on ethics, philosophy, and many other things. Check the event listings.

The big clubs don't seem to foster good conversation, but some of the smaller, friendlier ones do, especially the ones with live music.

Classes, especially the more open-ended ones (things that are a bit less specific than "build an X", frequently lead to people talking afterwards.

Once you have built a good network of friends, finding people to talk to won't be your problem any more. Well, not most of the time; RL schedules being what they are, every once in a while none of them will be around. Finding a quiet moment to work on your latest building project while all your friends want to talk, on the other hand...

Hi Zizonus,
Welcome to SL
I guess the main concern here is, what are your interests and hobbies?
The thing about SL you can literally do anything and everything...
Go into the search menu, chose ALL, and INCLUDE mature... start typing in things you like to do, I am betting 9 times out of 10 you will find a group or place that has the same interests as you... if not, guess what? MAKE ONE Anything is possible here

I seem to get a lot of newbies pass by in Mesede and I always talk to them. I've been surprised on being told that I'm the only person who has talked to them or that people don't seem friendly. It's a case of meeting the right people I suppose. There are about 5 to 10/11 thousand people online at one time. A large percentage of them are probably only interested in meeting the people they know, perhaps rl friends, some others are only interested in mischief, some only interested in showing off their new walk, a lot of others will be fellow newbies who are a bit shy, or busy putting boxes on their heads Keep wandering around and you'll meet friendly, helpful, and interesting people I'm sure.

As for the main industries being sex and gambling, I've avoided both so far. But I live a quite sheltered second life. And I've had penty to do! I see SL as mainly a creative outlet though. I didn't know there were pimps in SL until yesterday, and that was from a newbie I'd talked to a week ago! He called back to enlighten me on his exploits so far. Oh, and try to blag my trainers from me.

For many of us, building and scripting are the whole point and are a whole lot of fun.

Personally I also really enjoy talking to people from all over and checking out the music and art scene.

IMHO, art may eventually be the "killer app" in SL.

Oh, there's lots to do! As someone with no interest in either of the things you find rampant, I can suggest building stuff (start with TeaZers classes or even the Ivory Tower of Primitives), or trying some of the other educational/lecture events (Phoenix Spa often has some great story groups), exploring (there are some neat sims out there to be seen, like Walden, Spaceport Alpha, Nakama, etc.), taking pictures (check out Snapzilla: link in my sig line), and making friends (hard to do sometimes, but possible).

Mari

In addition to the other good suggestions: for roleplayers there are many places (like the isle of wyrms, for example) that are themed to a certain playstyle. Often all you need is to run a search under "places" to find what you're looking for (medieval style RP, feudal japanese RP, fantasy worlds etc.) If there's no one around, IM the owner of the place or a member of his/her group and ask about possible events. Browsing the groups section of the search menu is also a great method to get together with people of similar interests.

But you can also view the game as an economy simulation. You've already bought some first land and crafted a few things. Craft some more, try to sell your wares to people, open a little shop, advertize and try to compete on the market, perhaps expand some day, keep busy with the customer service or hire shop personnel... can be a lot of fun too with a nice side effect: the money you earn is real money.

Fishing, Snowboarding, Skydiving, Riding Motocycles (or driving cars), Scuba Diving, Playing various games, Attending classes, Exploring fantastic builds, Museums, Flying

I use it to buid artificial life ecosystems.

I have lots of fun.

There is definitely more than sex and gambling, neither of which I've tried in SL so cannot speak to their merits. Search for Combat and be a samurai warrier, or a knight, or a dragon. Visit Caledon and wear the thin veneer of civilization of Victorian society. Try building something in a sandbox that you think would look cool. Check out the scripting Wiki and make objects that can move around, act like pets, or fly or drive. Mostly, it depends what you want to do, and searching can help find like-minded folks doing the same thing.

I tend to find things by haunting forums like this one, third-party forums like SL Universe, SL HomePage and reading virtual newspapers like The Metaverse Messenger. That, and talking to folks in-world should show it's a much bigger place than the blinking neon signs make it seem at first blush

We built a business that tries to bring Sl experts and SL residents together to provide solutions including scripting, building, designing etc...

There are many people doing many different things here, and much of it is good clean fun, even though you may have to loko past some dark stuff to see it.

The business end of things is still in its infancy but is coming along as well. Find something to offer that others will want, or find someone else who is doing something and offer to help.

Also...searching groups will show that there are everything from Republicans to Escort services here....Should be something here for everyone

You should try to go to a live music event.. You will not regret it.

Im me in game and I can send you some landmark or Tp you t one event...

There are quite a lot of things to do in Sl.. Yes true enough the sex and gambling seems to be put at the forefront.. but they are just smoke and mirrors to what Sl truly offers.

stef

thanks everyone,

this is encouraging. I'm interested in a lot of things. Probably right now, art and building things is particularly fascinating, and I've only scratched the surface so far. And I've already nearly maxed out my prim allotment for my 512sqm parcel. So I need to find some other places to build.

I'll follow up on some of these ideas. Roleplaying could be cool, as well.

I'd like to learn more about scripting too.

You might like to visit my Gardens. I dropped you a landmark in-world. You might also check out this list of My Gardens, or read more in Random Ramblings of Lauren Mandelbrot.

This sounds interesting. I'd like to know more about it.

thanks Lauren and everyone for the great suggestions. I'm going to go online now and try some of these things out.

SEX...Gambling...Live Music...Dancing/Socilizing and Building...yea that pretty much sums it up for me.

Every Sunday afternoon there's a lecture at the International Spaceflight Museum. You might enjoy sitting in one one of those! Heck, just touring the museum is fun.

why should ANYONE come to SL to hear a lecture or engage in a conversation about politics or philosophy? online you can do that far better by listening to videos of RL lecturers, or by visiting blogs and joining in the discussion.

while i'm new here, i have tried quite a bit. and while i'll probably post some comments on my RL blog about my experiences after a while, from where i am now, they are not going to be positive.

it isn't just activities that are missing. with all the emphasis upon ownership and development of lands, and getting people to build art and buildings and develop scripts, there has been a lot of empowerment of individual scripters/builders from LindenLabs. some of that is essential. some of it is quite mistaken.

what exists now is a Land of Expensive Baubles. if any serious use is made of scripts, they often don't work quite right, and they interact with the region, the structures, and their operation sometimes in hilarious, silly ways, sometimes outright damaging ways. there doesn't seem to be a standard of scripting which is enforced and there doesn't seem to be a way of limiting the damage a script can do by some kind of sandboxing and exception handling.

there are rules where you can't trepass into areas without your vehicle disassembling or your getting transported into zones where you can't fly and your only option is to quit SL and return. and, presumably because people don't want to mess up the landscape, there are no signs or warning that you are approaching such an area.

even the activities that there are, such as gambling and prostitution, have severe limits. like i play Hold 'Em but why should i trust any of the SL casinos to be fair? i trust PartyGaming and PokerStars, but you know what's happening to those. the call girls are nice, but they are strict professionals. i suspect from the prevalence of call girls, like most places online, SL is predominantly occupied by males.

other women are online, but they all seem to work for LindenLabs. i've never met a woman online who isn't in sales or in a sex club, except for once when SL faulted, and a bunch of us were dumped randomly together into Korea. gee, maybe that should happen more often.

the scripting looks interesting to learn, but with all else i -- and everyone else does -- in RL, why should i spend the time to master it if all there is is what's available now? so i can bring someone over and say "Look what I built". that's cool, for about 10 seconds. it's really a very adolescent set of motivations.

and jobs? pfffffffffft!! the only respectable jobs in SL are as prostitutes (and with that, sorry, women only, not enough women here of the adventurous sort to support significant numbers of male prostitutes), and real estate. what, and be a bouncer some place for pittance per hour? RL life is too expensive for that. and SL hasn't anything which devoting that amount of RL time to justifies.

and there's building and scripting.... a bunch of people running around trying to become masters of scripts which noone is around to buy, use, or want.

in fact, that's the most interesting thing about my experience in SL. apart from big events, and Saturday night hotspots, notably places where people come to pick up girls, SL is pretty empty. that is the density of people is nowhere like a city, or even a suburban mall.

and conversation? why the heck would you come to SL to do that? it would be fun to have romantic virtual SL relationships not centered on sex, yes. but, for reasons given, those aren't possible.

finally, the SL "Live Help" is a joke. i've posted questions twice, after searching in Knowledge Base, and i didn't get any response at all.

Well! That's quite a lot to digest! I hope some of the veterans respond. I've been quite happy the past 2 days learning how to build, but yes, this will take a toll on real life, and is it, in the end worth it? very hard to say. I won't venture a guess tonight. I pretty much decided that if I'm staying with SL, it will be to build, to sightsee and to discuss Buddhism with people, because I believe in it, and maybe it will positively impact their RLs.

Don't forget that there are gay men in SL, and thus male prostitutes. AND, I met a male "escort" the other day that sold his services to women, but was willing to sell his services to other men, if the price was right.

so -- this is quite a sociologically interesting terrain. What will people be willing to do if the usual RL consequences of their actions are missing, or if they have close to total anonymity?

If that is all you are LOOKING for, that is all you are going to Find.

There is an Ethics Chat group.
No prostitution or Gambling there.
There is an Elven Sim or two.
No Prostitution or Gambling there either.
There is a Hunt and Capture game.
No Bets, No Hookers.
There is a Sci-Fi Museum
Ditto.
On the sim of Brenner on a tiny Island you will find what i feel is one of the Most Impressive Builds i have seen in my two years in SL.
Oh, and Not a Hooker or a dice in sight there either.
How abour Racing? there is quite a few sims dedicated to that.
Or Aviation.
Or Magic.
Or a Very interesting Grav-Ball Game.

SL is limited only by the Players Imaginations, and i've seen some astoundingly Imaginative things there.
But every so often, we meet a Person like yourself who sees Only Hookers, and Gambling.
I guess not everyone has a Vivid Imagination.
If thats the Only part of this world you can see, you might as well learn to enjoy it. I see so much more, and I'm Having the time of my second Life.

Angel.

Oh, and i didn't even mention the Live U2 concert i attended a few months ago.

No Hookers, No Gambling.
Just one H*ll of a Good Party.

Angel.

i'm glad it means so much to you.

probably not for me.

oh well.

despite all i wrote above, i've decided to stay.

i'm gonna fix it.

Its easy to figure out why no one will talk to you.

Thanks to lindens wonderful removal of account verifications, all noobs are now treated with an air of caution.

Everyone will suspect you of being a griefers alt. I for one avoid noobs if I can. Who knows when they are about to just drop a replication script and crash the grid again.

So all the lindens have achieved now is created a new way to be prejudiced towards a new user. Not because they dont know anything or because they ask endless questions (which up until lately I had no problem spending an hour or two with them helping out in any way I can)
but because any new user can now potentially be the next grid crasher.

It's that simple.