A simple fluff opinion piece. Take it or leave it. I’ve been in Second Life now for just on 9 months, a mere virgin of the metaverse if you will. At the 12 month period I doubt there will be a big rez-day celebration, it’s just not my style.
So for whatever reason, the term of 9 months seems better suited to spout off about what I’ve learnt I like and don’t like about SL. Maybe like a pregnancy, I’ve now come to term – bad pun mislaid.
So, 9 points on second life, for my 9 months in it.There’s nothing original in any of these views, I’m sure. Image taken at Red McCaw Club, taken tonight on my 9 month rezzed-day.
What I Like About Second Life
-
Escapism. And boy have I escaped lately.Call me the RLescapee.
-
Most people are kind and good mannered.Kind and considerate. Most people are – people. No less, no more.
-
Being able to live in a way (or environment) I can’t afford to, or is nigh on impossible in my real life. And a week or month later, being able to change that life completely.
-
Being able to dance in ways my real body could never support. Being a ‘good dancer’ and in rhythm with those around me. Mostly.
-
Literally being able to walk through walls (admittedly, sometimes this is accidental, and I remember my first week when I got seriously stuck in a stained glass window I had thought was a door).Or become a dog and pee on somebody stuck in the floor **
-
Being able to blaspheme against Linden Labs, and blame them for ‘everything’, in ways that I never could with a real life God.
-
It’s (generally) on-tap (give or take lag) when and if I want it.
-
Prim penises – yes really. Not for me, I’m a girl. But – I actually think prim penises are a great invention, and some of them actually look nice (don’t ask me for a comparison against real life ones, thanks).
-
Breedables *
* I sat inside a turtle pen this morning, and a roaming sionChicken made an appearance outside the turtle tank. It suddenly dawned on me that although they are pixels, they aren’t like any computer program I’ve ever experienced – they aren’t reliant on me being around to exist.
For further clarification – they don’t disappear when I’m not switched on, like other rendered computer programs, back into memory until I next call them up. No, with Breedable animals in Second Life, they get on with their lives without me – roaming around, getting into trouble if I let them, producing babies or eggs, getting older, and interacting with their environments (sometimes in unexpected ways). They exist – without me.
** Tonight before going dancing at The Red McCaw, I was on the last stretch of the Make Him Over Hunt 2 with my cousin Black. For some reason unexplained by him, he ended up half in a shop floor. Well, what’s a dog to do? Obviously my new doggie avatar was a male, because I believe female dogs don’t cock their legs, do they?
What I Loathe About Second Life
-
The many avatars with no dress or manners sense, yet would never want their children or family or real life friends seeing them like that. What’s with nipple, buttcrack (and lately pubic hair) exposure as a fashion statement? Why are so many woman dressing themselves with huge bottoms and hips out of proportion to anything else they’ve got? What’s with tags over avatar names suggesting they will give out sex for little more than a request? (On the funny side of that one, today I saw a female avatar with the tag – ‘Full Perms’ above her head, which even I grinned at.)
-
Noob male avatars who arrive at a shopping plaza and hit on any female avatar for free sex. Yes, it’s par for the course, but come on – who continues to spread the opinion that noob sex demands are accepable in any world?
-
Lag. Instability. Asset Server problems. Lag. Of course.
-
Cliques. There are many. People don’t even realise they’re doing it. Same for Real Life.
-
Voice. Loud voice – in shopping malls. Where I’m really not interested in hearing your coughs or your loud laughs in another language.
-
High primmed avatars going on popular hunts, then complaining about the lag in the store.
-
Overactive AOs on standing avatars, especially on those laggy hunts. Especially dancing, high-kicking or spinning around like your pants are on fire animations where the avatar takes up five times their own space – you’re invading mine, and that’s bad manners.
-
People who look at how many prims you’re wearing, and announce that watch of yours is taking up all the SIM resources. (Only an allowed complaint at events holding multiple avatars, not a SIM with three people on it!) At some point we are going to have to say – hey, are we all to go bald and take off all our prim attachments, and what kind of second life would that be.
-
[fill in here – there are so many to choose from]
Related posts:
