Explainists

where can i go motorcycle racing? and do i need my own motorcycle?

There are still some that engage in SL as a place for artistic expression, who don't care about profit.

Being able to experiment with style, fashion, class, expression, theme in a variety of mediums is fantastically addictive.

Being able to make things that other people can admire or interact with immediately is actually really fun.

It's a shame the public sandboxes are utter chaos, that's where many of the people I have the most respect for seemed to start out.

Oh I agree there, people should come here with an open mind and expect the unexpected. The potential is huge, that's what I find exciting about it all. If people come here expecting The Sims, they'll be largely disappointed (which is the sort of point I think you were making now that I re-read your posts ).

Your SL, your lack of imagination.

Forget about money. Make things!!
Make them for the fun of it.

And by the holy!!! Quite apart from you having fun, other people might enjoy what you make.
You might get 'some' money as a byproduct.

As others have posted above, there's heaps of wonderful stuff in SL.
Go look. Spend your time, not your dime.
(unless of course you want to throw your dimes at moi!)

to a newbie it can appear that way. too bad you didnt see the SL4B sims that was great fun!!

It offers a lot more than just killing mobs to get bigger weapons, to kill bigger mobs to get bigger weapons... ad nauseum.

As many have said, there is lots to do in SL. Its up to you how you spend your second life. You like combat there are the combat sims, roleplay, pick your flavor you'll likely find it. Exploring, Its a huge world. In-world games like "The Pot Healers Adventure" comes to mind and there are others.

The only goals are the ones that you set for yourself. There is no leveling up. The only levels that you achive are the ones that want to create for yourself.

You are limited only by your own imagination. If you have none, then maybe Second Life isn't for you.

Don't get after him too bad - it took me forever to figure out what to do with SL. Actually, I still don't quite know what I want to do in SL, and that's cool with me, too. I'll wander around until I figure it out. People who are new to SL, but not new to gaming (like me) can have a difficult time. We're used to defined goals and objectives. Kill zombies with shotgun. Go to place X and retrieve a dragon scale from cave full of angry trolls, etc. Even in pretty open ended games like WoW, there are always specific things to do, and as soon as a lot of people start finishing everything they release an expansion.

When you come into SL, it looks like there is nothing to do - until you realize that it only looks that way because the sheer number of things to do is overwhelming. It takes a little while for that to set in. Plus, it's not like SL comes with an instruction book, or at least not a helpful one. I almost quit out of frustration several times, and I've had to talk a couple very new people through the Search process:

"It's the middle button on the bottom - no, that's map. It's the...no that's build...it says search. Yes, I know you just made a little plywood box when you were trying to search for freebies. Just delete it and hit the button that says search...Oh fer crisss sakes."

It just takes time to figure it out, that's all. Some people stick around for the payoff and some get frustrated and leave.

SL is not a game.

Way, way, way, waaayyyyyyyyyyy back in January (2007 I might add) when I entered SL, I bought the book Second Life - The Official guide.
Being a techie, I found it a bit too light reading. It is a good overview though. It takes the reader through all the basics, including bits on building, basic scripting, permissions, group ownership, etc.

It doesn't get around to the topic of earning money until page 212.

The first heading is "Money: The cold, hard facts".
Second sentence: "That means it cost hundreds of L$ to buy bubble gum in the real world - chew on that."

Page 215 - a quote from stove Lu:
"I think that if you really put your heart into it, you could probably make about $100 a week from it."

It's very much in your face that you're NOT going to get rich in SL. That's the Official Guide.


And then, the hype took over.
Everytime I picked up a news article that mentioned SL, I got
1. x million residents
2. Anse Fecking Chung and her fecking RL US$million.
3. ANse Fecking Chung
4. Anse Fecking Chung
5. AFC
6. AFC
etc.


What happened to "making stuff"??
It got lost.
The best bit got lost.

Sling reminds me of something I've been thinking about off and on for a while.

The more I'm in SL (check the start date ) the more it looks like a somewhat hazy mirror of how we are as a "free" society with the ability to make our own decisions within reason.

Not the flying or the furries or the RP or whatever...but the attitudes, the choices we make and the way we interract with others.

So many people look for ways to either profit or consume while so few actually look for ways to create or enhance their own experience or that of others'.

Then, because of the "customer's always right" entitlement that we as consumers feel we have we are quick to jump to conclusions and complain about things without first trying to actually understand them.

Plenty of those complaints are valid and I know I have complained plenty about various things but look at how we go about it!

If you, as the clerk at the counter of a rental car place (or whatever) had a car shortage and a line of people yelling at you, would you feel compelled to do your best to satisfy them or to get them the hell out? What if there was one guy in the line that was being nice and understanding of the situation you're in...would you feel more inclined to go the extra mile for that guy?

I know I would and I've used this to my advantage in plenty of similar situations!

I'm not excusing LL's behaviour in some situations but there are ways we could be helping this thing along to become what we actually want it to be!

because there is nothing, there is everything. What should SL have in it. Good idea, build it. Not witstanding the current Gambling controversy, and the child sex crack downs, the beauty of SL is that it's a blank slate for you and everyone to paint upon.

Go out there. Build it. I'm excited to see what you came up with. IM when it's done....

hiro

I think one of the most interesting things about Second Life is the feature where multiple servers are seamlessly connected.

You can initially connect to a region and fly or walk your way across multiple servers without reconnecting.

There is not another implementation of joined servers in any other game to my knowledge.

SL is a RPG- Role Playing Game. It's a chat room with pictures. You can be a member and spend $0.

Czari, I'll have to add roller coasters to my "to do" list. Not something I'd ever do in the real world because I am really, really, really afraid of heights.



OMG! Where is that? Have to go there!!!



Sadly, I haven't done that myself, I just saw it in one of the resident created vids on the main page...

I ouldn't call it seamless........

/me still has a bump on her head from her last meetup with a full parcel.

Well said - it took me three painful paragraphs to try to say what you said in 7 words. That's exactly it.

TC, You should come and hang out with my friends.
We primarily just hang out and talk, create things and explore.
Some are into going to poetry readings, listening to music and cultural events.
Some are into just designing and building. Few are into business aspect of SL but I have few who that is their primary purpose for being in SL.
For us friendship is more important, making lindens isn't that important to us.
Yes some of my friends have spent L and real money on shopping, land and tier but its not their primary purpose for being in SL.

Novis, I don't know if it is what Czari is referring to, but do a search on "Pot Healers Adventure".

But what if you, as _many_ people have been nowadays, have been told over and over again that when you see a blank canvas you shouldn't touch the paints because you're bad at it? Because it needs something called "talent", and if you had it, you'd be an artist already?

Thank you, Tomas, will check that out tomorrow.

when your avatars falls from a relatively high place, does your stomach go *ugh*? i get that 'horrible stomach dropping feeling' and can't watch my av fall.

Talent Schmalent. Jump on in. There is nothing wrong with creating bad art it can be the funnest to create. Don't get me started on my rant about the commodification of art and what is good art and what is not.

You have before you the perfect world! A world in which you have the ability to "Mute" people who tell you foolish things like "when you see a blank canvas you shouldn't touch the paints because you're bad at it? Because it needs something called "talent", and if you had it, you'd be an artist already".

I king god hiro Voss command you to go create!!!! or not! whatever you want. Better yet I king god hiro Voss pernounce you Yumi a king God!!! Now go pernounce something...or not! whatever you want.

Thankfully, no. Might be because of that little brush-off gesture they always do after a fall, sorta like "Oh, 's alright, hun, nothing's broken, you can look now".

mine stills falls and crashes. i don't know how to land right. and it's the actual act of falling that swirls my stomach, and i can't watch. once she crash-lands, i'm okay.

But the little boy said...
There are so many colors in the rainbow
So many colors in the morning sun
So many colors in a flower and I see every one