Second Walkabout: the general idea.
January 8th, 2010
Second Walkabout: A general introduction.
Approximately 3.25 years ago, I logged into Second Life for the very first time. I'd liked what I'd read about the place previously, being a whole 'creative' experience and all, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Of course I'd spent that first day trying to make my dude look presentable. The entire day. For those of you who haven't ever been there, Second Life allows you to either use a 'generic' avatar or to create your own.
You can discard the 'plain', awful looking turd of a man (or woman, or furry) they give you, and literally alter just about every aspect of your appearance. The only problem is that (when I signed up at least, and I think now still) the process isn't entirely intuitive. One slider for one physical adjustment will have subtle effects on another, and so on and so on, so you have to tweak to get it just 'right'.
And don't get me started on the hair. The horrifying clump of suck that Linden Lab (the people that created Second Life) calls hair is... tricksy to work with. You can adjust it six ways from Sunday, but you'll never get it to look quite right. I persisted however, and after about two hours (!), I got it somewhere I liked. If only I knew then what I know now, I could've saved myself a few days of aggravation.
Not that the process of 'fine tuning' the body and hair sliders gets any easier; no, what I found out is that you can, for a nominal amount of money, pick up all sorts of things to customize your person. Not that you're paying Linden Lab for them; no, you're shelling out this cash to other 'residents' of the place. And shell out I have; I do believe I've purchased 30 pairs of shoes over the last three years.
Sadly, they've all been pretty poor, save for my most recent (pictured on photograph number 1, there), which I didn't even buy (they were a gift). Similarly, I've had issues with hair, of which I have also purchased a mad variety of pre-built locks. Nobody in the entire virtual environment that is Second Life knows how to produce good man-hair. You either get the short Euro cuts or poofy Hair Band Hero mops.
I've settled in on the ones I have now, which I swap out depending on my mood, but for the most part the other ones I have picked up over the years moulder in my big boxes of shit that I keep. Why haven't I thrown this shit out if I don't use it, you ask? Aside from being a consummate pack rat, I keep this garbage as an Object Lesson: Don't keep buying stuff hoping it'll look good without being sure.
So I have a vast graveyard of hair and shoes and other assorted fashion implements scattered all over my inventory (your pile o' stuff). Which is all right I guess; it doesn't hurt you to hang onto your stuff until you build up a very very very large amount of crap, apparently (and I know some people who seem to do that a lot). But I think I have my dude right where I want him overall.
I haven't really been consistent in my on line time with my avatar, one George Nebestanka. I wandered around a bit on that first day, once I'd spent a gojillion hours getting him passably human-looking, and stopped. This was because I got bored with everything; once I'd gotten out of the initial starting area (after the tutorial, mind) I got frustrated fast. Everything loaded so slow that it all looked incomplete.
Or composed of giant gray blocks. This was in one of the welcome area 'sims' (regions of land), so it was lagged out by the huge number of people... something I hadn't realized at the time. Had I kept wandering away from the entrance, things would've picked up fast... and I wouldn't have avoided the SL for a few months out of frustration. I did end up going back though, and saw things got better fast.
Once you're away from all the 'n00b' types. Which is funny, 'cause that's exactly what I was. But without all the new folks lagging up an area, things are much, much smoother, so I really got to the exploring. I originally just walked everywhere (or flew, depending) - at least, until I learned I could teleport. That's when I started poking around all over the place, and getting into all kinds of trouble. Heh.
It's sorta weird though. I know I'm not actually on Second Life a lot these days (the one person I enjoyed talking to in there, well, we live together now... heh), but just about everything I used to check out in the past is gone. That's sort of the nature of the place I suppose, where everything is ephemeral and transient - except for the people... at least some of the time.
So what's the point of this ramble, you ask? Well, I figured it was time I started poking around in the place a little more again. I was going to start going exploring again, and share some of the more interesting points of call with you, the Banality reader (all none of you?). But don't worry, I'll try and avoid most of the creepy locations unless they're actually cool (and those are few and far between).
But creepy people are fair game. Oh, are they.
So feel free to join me, or rather George Nebestanka, as I roam around in Second Life haphazardly!