Get a Life, they said ...

[tamaranth]

... so last night I created a SecondLife account, and spent a few hours playing.

I feel kind of dirty now.

Technologically speaking, it's pretty fab, though there are still rough edges where (like early DOOM) I find myself embedded in walls; where an object doesn't behave as it claims to behave; where even my high-spec laptop struggles with rendering and resolution. (There's a reason I didn't try this before: the system requirements.)

My first impulse was to make my avatar look like me. I suspect quite a lot of the SL population go for wish-fulfilment, but for some reason that route didn't interest me. OK, my avatar's hair is somewhat redder than mine, and the eyeliner is a nicer shade of green: but people who know me in real life would probably be able to recognise me in SL (though I don't think the converse would be true.)

After that, though, I spent a lot of time wandering around. Yay flight. Yay teleport. Yay pretty backdrops and clever effects. I noted:
- I am even shyer in SL than in RL. Every time anyone else got close, I fled.
- When I first ventured online, back in the early 1990s (email) practically the first thing that happened was that I got propositioned. Same here.
- I am, as yet, not interested in doing anything. I just want to sit somewhere quietly, and watch.
- I am not inclined to spend RL money on SL acquisitions: nor am I prepared to do anything in SL (such as getting money by clicking surveys) that will affect anything outside the game.
- Notwithstanding that, there is a certain desire to acquire, a desire to 'build' a house (or, better, a ship) and make my own space and so on. But I think that's probably more to do with the sense of aimlessness, the lack of a game plan.
- It really did feel like being in Gibson's or Stephenson's cyberspace (though some of the avatars reminded me more of Tanith Lee's Don't Bite the Sun)
- I can imagine using it the way I use IM / Jabber: a virtual meeting-place for people I already know, either from RL or from online communities.
- I can imagine using it to explore some of my psychological boundaries, like the shyness.

So, do any of you have SL accounts that you use? What do you do with them? Why? Where?

Comments

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

I created one a few weeks ago, mainly out of curiosity with a feeble justification of research for the essay on virtual world in-game currencies I'm writing at the moment. (In fact, all the information I need I can get from Linden Lab's web site, but it felt a bit silly to write about something I'd never experienced when it would be so easy for me to try it out.) About the only thing I've actually done in SL is to attend a talk autopope gave; it was an odd experience, although apparently even more so for him.

I also tried to create an avatar that looks something like me, although I'm not sure how accurately - in particular, the SL avatar-tweaker doesn't seem to cope with thinning hair very well. Mind you, it probably was pretty realistic, as I didn't suffer from the second issue you mentioned ;-) Joking aside, I've also wondered about using it as a way of practising meeting people, but the social context is so different from real life that I'm not convinced how well the experience would read across.

SL does remind me a bit of the joke about how the first fax machine was sold in 1861, and remained unused until the second one was sold in 1933. Whenever I've logged in I've been in splendid isolation, which is fine for admiring the pretty bits but not so good for actual socialising. Perhaps we need a virtual pub? Actually, autopope was musing in the pub the other night about prodding someone to arrange a convention in SL, so this might not be such a daft idea?

[ajshepherd.livejournal.com]

To tell the truth that kind of thing has never really appealed to me. I have very little online presence, there's my LJ and my Flickr and that's that. I haven't done on-line chat for donkeys' years as I just find it awkward. Nothing to say, I guess.
The nearest I got was I tried World of Warcraft for a while. Looks very nice, but I mostly played it as if it was single player. Mostly as I couldn't be bothered joining a group to go off on a mission that might take hours when I just wanted a quick go in the evening.
In the end I got bored of the times when you spend half an hour getting from point A to point B, click various things to kill some monster, then spend half an hour getting back to point A to get the reward. It was quite tedious!

[feorag.livejournal.com]

I'm Feorag Raymaker in SL. I mostly just hang around Caledon at the moment.

[woolymonkey.livejournal.com]

Am still dragging myself into the 1990s by playing Monkey Island with the kids. Missed it at the time, but love it now (more surprisingly, so do they!). I'll need at least another decade before I can contemplate SI.

[ladymoonray.livejournal.com]

I have a SL account. I do absolutely nothing with it, because once I'd created my avatar (which looks like me, and I *like* playing with dolls, OK) it bored me to tears. Do let me know if you find anything interesting to do!

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

steam train! beach party with free Merlot! tai chi! interactive planetarium! sweets that blow your head off! PIRATE SHIPS!

I like it for the reason I used to like wandering around DOOM with the monsters turned off. But that novelty will wear off very soon: it's the interactivity that'll make it interesting in the long run.

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

If I stick around in SL it'll be for the interactivity: IM with scenery (and virtual drink!) It's very pretty but I'm not sure what it's for, if you see what I mean. Can imagine having my online chats on some deserted virtual beach, though!

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

Research! Yes!
There are some cool things there. Steam train! Virtual planetarium! But, As We Have Seen, one can socialise, and drink virtual beer, and admire virtual sunrise from the deck of a virtual ship. As long as said ship doesn't suddenly disintegrate ...

Also, see icon.

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

I'm not yet at the stage where I feel at all comfortable about virtual socialising with strangers. Just as bad as real life! Worse! But the lack of a specific Game kind of helps: I suspect there is plenty of gaming going on but if you just want to wander, you can.

It is just like being in an early 90s SF novel. And not necessarily in a good way.

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

ooh! shall look you up!

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

also, how else would I get an icon of my head exploding?

[ladymoonray.livejournal.com]

I sound like a very old person, but I just don't see the appeal of any of those. I've been on some real (and very cool) steam trains this year, free merlot doesn't mean much when one can't actually drink it, and the planetarium is still on a screen.

Interaction *might* work, but I'd rather go to the pub. God, I've turned into my father.

[ladymoonray.livejournal.com]

The question has to arise about why you would want one, but I don't think this is the right time to discuss it :)

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

Popping out to the pub for 15 mins isn't always an option (especially when you want to interact with people who aren't geographically close). Though it was pretty much what my sister said when I first mentioned IM ...

As for the rest, if you seriously think I am advocating them instead of the real stuff then I may have found a use for the exploding head icon!

[ajshepherd.livejournal.com]

I'm not yet at the stage where I feel at all comfortable about virtual socialising with strangers.

That's what I've always found too.

[andrewducker]

Exactly.

When I can _actually_ turn into a wolf and fight giant abstract/fractal insect demons _then_ you can take my copy of Zelda away.

[shirazpetra.livejournal.com]

I tried one, but just got confused and haven't made it off the intro bit yet. Any advice welcomed.