Meme Instructions: Copy and paste the following questions and answers into your blog post, delete my answers and input your own. Remember to leave your link in the meme's comments so we can all come by, read your answers and secretly judge you. ;P
- When and how did you discover Second Life? – I found out about Second Life through the 2008 documentary about the "Up and coming virtual worlds" at the time. I have been in SL since 6/15/2011 - 6 years to date.
- Did you know about virtual worlds before or was this your first experience with them? – Yes for sure. I greatly enjoyed minecraft and The Sims before joining SL.
- Has Second Life met your expectations? – It has far surpassed many of my expectations. Especially the creativity! But one thing I wish was more prevalent is educational classes. Basically either College level or TED Talks with interactive elements and Q&A. /nerd 🤓
- If you could teleport back to the first ten minutes of your avatar’s slife, what would you tell yourself? – A) Pick a better username. B) You don't have to participate in anything if you don't want to. C) But it's also ok to talk to people and do whatever you want to. Don't let you social anxiety get in the way!
- How long did it take you to master avatar flying and driving vehicles inworld? – I had the general controls down pretty quickly. But moving the cam independently was super difficult because it used both multiple keys AND the mouse which I was definitely not used to. I also had the unfortunate situation of having only a laptop so I first tried using the touchpad which was an absolute nightmare before moving to an actual mouse.
- Do you have a mystery alt? – I don't really have any alts. The only one I would use would be my SO's if I really needed one.
- Is your SL avatar a reflection of you, or someone you wished you could be? – Personality wise, my avi is genuinely just me being myself. I don't put on a persona unless I'm actively in an rp. With Sasha's looks though, even with multiple forms, she's definitely a lot more attractive than I am irl. I do wish I could be irl, but it's fun to at least be able to play it out in-game.
- Is there an individual you met in SL that inspired you in your RL? How? – Yes definitely. A lot of the bloggers, dancers/hosts, and other really genuinely friendly, outgoing people inspire me to be more confident in myself and not filled with so much social anxiety. My old rp buddy Mikoshi was super awesome and also filled me with a ton of confidence and was a ton of fun.
- Do you feel it is easier to create stronger bonds/relationships with people you meet inworld as opposed to the real world? – For myself, yes it's definitely a lot easier as I have extremely crippling social anxiety. For everyone else, probably not as much as many people prefer actually seeing & touching the other person. Imo, as long as the other person is being genuine and not putting on a persona, then a good solid friendship can happen.
- Did you ever imagine or believe people could fall in love with someone they never met before Second Life? – Definitely! Within my own circles I've had several people do just that. My Aunt met her current husband through the extremely early internet dating website days (circa 1998), and I met my ex current SO through another dating site (OkCupid in 2010). (I met my ex on Deviantart in 2008 as well.)
- How has your perspective of dating changed (or not) since you started playing second life? – Not really. I think if you really want it, and put a lot of time and effort into it, then it can work out; even if it starts out as long-distance like my relationship did.
- How has your perspective of employment changed (or not) since you started playing second life? – I never imagined someone could truly make a good living off of freelance sculpting/scripting or virtual land ownership. I certainly doff my hat to you all!
- Name three things in both your lives that overlap each other significantly. – There's certainly an overlap of creativity, exploration, and what little socializing I do.
- If you could live your life more immersively in a virtual world, would you? (Kind of like the Matrix) – I don't know if I'd really want to live there full time. But I think it would be awesome to visit.
- How do you think behavior changes for people if they’re inworld vs in real world? Why do you think that is? – A few things come to mind. A) The two sides to anonymity. On the bad side people tend to be a lot ruder online period. They think the vale of anonymity grants them that right. (which it certainly does not. fuck you if you do this bs.) B) The good side to the anonymity coin is that it allows good people to be able to do and experience many, many things which would normally be frowned upon irl as people tend to be more open minded in-game. ex: dressing sexily, sexual voyeurism, drug use, etc.
- How has second life consumerism changed your perception of spending habits, the value of money, the need to be “bleeding edge” with fashion? – I think it's made me realize how ridiculous fashion is and just how narcissistic people can be in that sense. I think there's too much pressure and emphasis in-game to always get/have the best, a lot more so than irl.
- Do you think virtual worlds like SL drive and redefine human interaction or do they narrow and limit it? – I think it certainly helps drive it as we have more and more interactions online now than we do irl.
- If technology progressed tomorrow to allow you to send emotions to people the way you’d send text or voice messages, would it enrich your SL experience or infringe on it? – I think it would definitely take some getting used to. I think there would need to be some "fail-safes" in place if you will as I can definitely see trolls abusing it. But all-in-all I think it would be a rewarding experience in time.
- Name three skills you attribute to having learned or honed in second life alone. – Photography, time management, better money management.
- If your grand kids googled your Second Life Avatar’s name, would they be intrigued, disgusted, proud or something else? – They might temporarily be intrigued but I honestly don't think they'd care. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
⊱✿ Credits ✿⊰
- Hair: Castellian Olivia Hair - Lava
- Eyes: AD Neko Ocean Stars
- Skin: S Milena Cleav
- Shape: Mai Model, Pretty Girl
- Glasses: Karacter Executive Glasses
- Ears: Le Mrrrow
- Shirt: All About Chica Blouse
- Jewelry: Cazimi Innara Gold & Peach
- Shoes: Patulas House Black Flor Heels
Posts
