I haven’t logged into a traditional game (MMO or singleplayer) in weeks. I’m feeling like a pretty sad excuse for a gamer, but I’ve been having a really good time in various virtual worlds as of late.
I finally *get* Second Life. I understand why it’s addictive, and why people spend so much time there. I have never been bored in Second Life, there is always something to do. They might not be for all gamers, and admittedly the newbie experience is pretty terrible, but I really think MMO enthusiasts should give it a try if they haven’t already. The first time I tried I ended up frustrated and thinking “what the heck is the point?” but now that I’ve gotten a feel for the experience I’ve done the following:
- Took a ride on a creepy Alice in Wonderland ride that really was spectacular.
- Paddled myself in a gondola on a beautiful tour of Austria.
- Visited a virtual replica of the University of Minnesota college.
- Attended several live concerts from some pretty amazing artists.
- Explored real estate options and looked at fancy oceanfront loft rentals.
- Toured a Holocaust tribute world that was historical, moving, and quite beautifully done.
- Went deep sea fishing out on a yacht.
- Rented a horse and went for a turkey hunt.
- Shopped and shopped and shopped for clothes and hair.
- Enjoyed so many beautiful botantical gardens with awe-inspiring landscapes.
Notice that I didn’t say that I participated in any adult-only events or saw any flying penises. It’s really unfortunate what a negative stigma SL has to the gaming community because you really only see what you WANT to see. I’ve never accidentally stumbled into something for adult eyes. Areas are marked as PG or Mature, and there are filters that hide any XXX results from view. There is SO MUCH to see that is suitable for all audiences that I couldn’t see it all in a year if I wanted to.
Virtual worlds feel refreshing to me. It’s wonderful to not know what to expect around every corner, and it’s amazing to see how creative communities can be. Contrary to popular belief, there are many congruencies with traditional gaming. There are some breathtaking roleplaying areas with themes like steampunk, horror, dark fantasy, vampire, you name it. There are mini games, carnivals, and game-type activities. But mostly, it’s everything that is beautiful about MMO exploration and socialization with added benefits such as educational classes, a commerce system rich with a variety of careers that can earn you money (in and out of world), far more diverse and detailed avatar creation and persona. For those who aren’t completely motivated by objectives and goals – Second Life is a wonderful experience. And – it blows my mind that everything is user-generated. Wow.
Some familiar systems and experiences in Second Life (that might make your stay easier are)
- Unique names (First and last)
- Group systems – Groups form around places, interests, etc.
- Voice and text chat
- Directory of places to visit, instant teleporting anywhere.
- Roleplaying galore for any sort of theme.
- The most rich avatar system ever. You can literally be ANYTHING you want.
- Inventory
- Crafting (which is really building…you think EQ2’s housing system is good? Hah)
- More immersive than any MMO you’ve ever played, with dynamic animations, weather, night/day cycles, animated interactions with other avatars, an enormous single-server world, robust economy, etc
If you give Second Life a try - friend me (tell me who you are when you do). My name is Cuppycake Cyberstar, and I’m usually just flying around sightseeing and screenshotting things.
Tami Baribeau is the Associate Producer for Metaplace, Inc, currently working on Island Life. She is also the Lead Editor of feminist gaming blog The Border House, and the National Facebook Games Examiner for Examiner.com. She can be reached on Twitter or by email.
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How's the server stability? I tried to get into it years ago and never got past the frequent crashes/hiccups/downtime.
Great post.
I love WoW and EO but SL is something different. I've tried explaining it to other gamers but its hard to get SL across to them. Even people who don't game, don't understand what SL is or can be. They just know about the many divorces it causes, the flying penises and that one episode on The Office.
One of the big barriers for people seems to be when they come in expecting Second Life to be either (a) a game or (b) a second life.
Either expectation leads to a bit of a letdown, and sometimes missing what's good about it being what it is.
You’ll be pleased to know that Linden Lab has made some significant improvements in grid stability over the past few months. it remains a bit problematic when excessively large numbers log in during days of rest, with occasional failures of selected subsystems, but the grid rarely goes down totally now – the failgorilla tends to show up only when a new server version has a dire bug that couldn’t be tested out into the open at a smaller scale.
“I’ve never accidentally stumbled into something for adult eyes. Areas are marked as PG or Mature, and there are filters that hide any XXX results from view. There is SO MUCH to see that is suitable for all audiences that I couldn’t see it all in a year if I wanted to.”
That's a pretty recent change, isn't it? I remember logging in the first time and standing there (once I got out of the tutorial area) was a very barely clothed fox-lady wearing a leash, and her vampire DOM leading her around by it.
I was surprised that such imagery could be the first thing someone saw on logging in, as I know a lot of folks that would've found it very off-putting. (I just thought, “Wow, those avatars are a lot cooler than mine!”)
But my biggest problem with Second Life was knowing there were all kinds of neat things to see and do, but not really knowing how to find this content. And (again, this is a while ago) basic stuff like walking animations were so awkward and horrible… I could purchase a better animation and a better looking avatar, but that was back when I was in my “RMT R EEVIL!” phase.
Great post Cuppy.
Peter, there have been alot of upgrades over the past year so now it is easier to get past the adult stuff and immerse yourself in the beauty of things, and an updated search system that will lead you to some very cool, very interesting builds and activities. Oboreruhito, there are still instances where the servers crash or have periods of instability however, since I joined in 2007 things have improved for the better. Thank you for the wonderful post about our little world CuppyCake!
Most young people in this culture have been brought up in schools where they are forced into linear and meaningless standardization, while at the same constantly being told for the purposes of their self-esteem: “You are important, you're a winner!” (See The Narcissism Epidemic: America in the Age of Entitlement by Twenge and Campbell). This cult of self-esteem is so bad in some cases teacher's refuse to correct children's mistakes for fear it damages their self-worth.
A lot of kids who think they are special and great but have no other skills than slavishly filling out standardized tests come from this public school background, essentially, of illiteracy and self-importance, aspire to reality TV shows. A certain subsection who at least know they won't make it their, will waste their teen years in linear, corporate MMORPGs.
Because where else is that self of entitlement and specialty more gratified than in the World of Warcraft, where you pay to become some sort of imaginary superhero in your own mind simply because you have the persistence to click the same keyboard combinations over and over? Where you complete the same tasks over and over in an allotted period of time, exactly as hundreds of thousands before you have?
Second Life is a refuge from that, an outlet for the weird, the bizarre, the creative, the outcast; it's not a game, it's an art school. It's not a test to see who can kill the most wibble-wobbles by clicking a mouse, it's a challenge of your self, to make something — whatever that is — of your time there, on your own merits, your own alone.
Great post … and I 'get' that you 'get' it
…it's nice to see that someone *can* actually explain SL 
“There is SO MUCH to see that is suitable for all audiences that I couldn’t see it all in a year if I wanted to.”
Hah! I've been in Second Life® for 2 years and 5 months @ approx. 45/hrs per week. I have yet to explore it all and couldn't if I tried, because there is new and changing content daily.
Excellent post (and comments, people!). Expect many visits, this blog entry is being Tweeted far and wide.
This is a great post. I wish I could get some of my gamer friends to join me in SL. I first joined SL about 2.5 years ago, ran into all the same barriers of “what is there to DO here?” and gave up after a couple of months. Two years later I came back, and this time I went to some classes, learned some creation skills, and got completely hooked, to the extent that I've abandoned my WoW subscription. SL is definitely much more stable now, and much easier to navigate, than it was in 2006.(here via http://www.sluniverse.com forums).
Welcome “Home”
/me winks at you cheerfully
actually, it's literally thousands of servers, most of them interconnected one way or another, basicly a multi-server single world
Great post — and freakily it reflects my recent experience with SL almost exactly.
I'm only 3 days old in game, but I've effectively trodden this same path as your good self, Cuppycake, and having an absolutely amazing time of it, even down to the hours spend enjoyably shopping for hair =)
Will definitely be using your post as a great reference to send my other gaming buddies to.
Very nice.
Excellent post – I've been in SL for almost two years and I am still finding new things to do (and will be looking out for the ones on your list I haven't done yet)
Hey Cuppy… I decided to try SL again, and I would love to know how you found the things you found. I just can't find interesting things or events in SL on my own! Asking residents in world when I get on – which is usually 2-6 a.m. SL time – just leads me to the same dance clubs and sex places.
What am I doing wrong? Should I try to find events on blogs, like this, instead of trying to find them from within in SL? And is it normal for places to be so empty, or is it my timing?
Thanks!
Transgender people should say they once were the other sex? I am a transsexual woman, and I did not transition in order to become some sort of 3rd gender. I have always been a woman – I had to have some serious surgery to change my sex, but that’s no more something I plan to tell anyone up front than – say the fact that I had a broken leg 20 years ago. None of your business, frankly. All the bits work fine. And if you don’t want to have sex with trans people.. I think you should point out to any potential partner, up front, that you are trans-phobic.