a question and a meme

[lagilman]

the question, part 1: Anyone here in Second Life?

There's apparently a push (several pushes) to get a virtual pr/sales opportunity set up therein for writers.

I admit to not understanding the fascination of full-immersion virtual life (starting with Sims, and going on through this, and WoW, etc. My lack, I'm sure). So -- after wondering how anyone has time for one life, much less a second -- I ask the question, part 2: is it possible for me to dip into this, or should I just accept that this is one of those opportunities that will pass me by because First Life is too short?
----------------------
and from various f-listers:

Your Brain is Green

Of all the brain types, yours has the most balance. You are able to see all sides to most problems and are a good problem solver. You need time to work out your thoughts, but you don't get stuck in bad thinking patterns. You tend to spend a lot of time thinking about the future, philosophy, and relationships (both personal and intellectual).

What Color Is Your Brain?

*brainpalm* If every test I take tells me I'm well-balanced, why do I feel I'm going through life off-kilter?

(this morning I know it's because I got talked into that third martini. There's a reason I usually don't drink those things....)

Comments

[ex-fashioni.livejournal.com]

I know a couple of people who are really into in and sometimes, I'll be honest, it really scares me, how "into" it they get. They'll make full posts about their activities and it sounds so real, that it takes me until about halfway down the post before I realize that they're talking about SL. That kind of disconnect unnerves me.


For me, I think it's one of those that's going to pass me by.

BTW, my brain is purple.

[peggin.livejournal.com]

I've never even heard of Second Life before. Not that I need a second life... I barely have time for the one I've got.

I have a purple brain... and the description of what that means (idealistic, spend a lot of time thinking of fictional people and places) is kind of frighteningly accurate for a five question meme!

[music-lover3.livejournal.com]

i've never even heard of Second Life either. i barely have enough time for one life, let alone two. i think i'm going to let that one pass me by. if it makes you feel any better, i've never really understood the virtual life like Sims and all that, either.

[yourbob.livejournal.com]

I'm there. I'm square. I've spent a total of about two hours there since January. It's not, in my opinion, easy to learn what to do, how to do, or other things (at least in my case) without spending a lot of time there. Dipping in occassionally is less acceptable there, and less possible from the standpoint of the other players, that is LJ. And you know how cranky we get if someone doesn't post on their regular schedule.

And my brain's purple too fwiw.

[skidspoppe.livejournal.com]

Ditto this.

I signed up, checked it out, decided it would take too long to really figure it out and deleted it.

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

You're not alone. I don't play any of these alternate reality games either. Just not my thing.

[bentleywg.livejournal.com]

A bunch of librarians are in it (not me) so they set up a library (http://infoisland.org/about/). They have a reference desk and book groups and conferences and everything.

[strigine.livejournal.com]

I've been, but then my computer cacked out so I haven't been there in a while. I found it more engaging than some other commenters have described, probably because I had RL friends who were already there. But once the first blush of "whee!" wore off, I couldn't really find a point to being there.

[jennifer-dunne.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'm into it. A lot. :-) I took the decompression time previously spent playing computer solitaire, and now pop into SL. I have my own little bookshop, offering excerpts from my novels and free downloads of flash fiction. A friend whose bookshop has been running for longer has regularly scheduled book readings, that attract a crowd.

We also use it at work. (My company owns something like 18 sims inworld.)

There is no one Second Life experience. Some people do roleplaying, like StarTrek or Vampire:The Masquerade, some do building (including architects who build sample houses for their clients to walk through), some are into fashion (there are regularly scheduled fashion shows and a HUGE number of blogs describing what clothes and accessories are available), there's a very active live music scene, there are inworld gameshows, video games, and casinos, and of course, because the internet is for porn, there's quite a bit of sex-oriented activity, especially for alternative sexualities.

If you're interested in getting started and seeing what it's about, try going in through the interface on The L-Word. They've set up a much more welcoming first experience than the default one.

Also, if you'd like some tips for getting started, check out my article (http://www.ladyjaided.com/kink.html) in the March issue of Lady Jaided, which talks about how to get signed up and outfit your avatar. (You can skip the bit about how to have virtual sex at the end of the article -- this was for the Ellora's Cave magazine, after all)

[lagilman]

Thanks. I may dip a toe in, but suspect it's not my cuppa -- I already have an interactive world going on in my head, and building another sounds too much like work...without the pay!

[jennifer-dunne.livejournal.com]

Well, I tend to use it for retail therapy. Much more theraputic to go on a wild $5,000L spending spree buying 50 different dresses, shoes, and pieces of jewelry (all of which fit and come in my size) that costs less than $20 real money, rather than drive to the mall, find clothes I adore in other people's sizes and hideous excuses for clothing in my size, finally find the one thing that both looks good and fits, and realize it's $60, so I either don't get it and am depressed because after all that effort I don't have any new pretties, or buy it and feel guilty over the expenditure.

So, some nights, I will simply log on, get dressed in a new outfit, and then log out, happy with my fix of pretty.

[lavenderbard.livejournal.com]

I went, I played around, I didn't have a lot of trouble figuring it out anything -- except interactions with people, which I found just as awkward there as I do in real life. :/

In my "first life" I spend most of the time I am not writing making 3D computer graphics, building websites, and other forms of creative geekness. In Second Life almost all my usually not terribly useful skills were of direct value to the community. At first I thought that was pretty cool. Then I figured out that I can't take a break from my regular activities by going into Second Life and doing the exact same things.

If Second Life wasn't a fun relaxing break from my usual activities, I couldn't figure out what the point was. I didn't want to make a career of it. (I want to be a career novelist.) I'm not really sure what the people who don't create content *do* in Second Life other than buy things and talk to each other, and I haven't been there in months.

Instead I've been playing Puzzle Pirates. Earn virtual pieces of eight playing games (Tetris like "puzzle" video games) so you can equip your ship, form a crew of hearties and go swash and pillage on the high seas. Yar!

If I had an income and some published books it would be tempting to spend some of that income and get some land in Second Life and build something really big and cool (probably a myst-like adventure puzzle game) and use that to try to attract people and thus promote my books. But I suspect it would take a lot of time/energy that would probably be better expended doing other things... like writing more books, and getting the graphic novel that has invaded my brain finished so it will stop nagging at me.

[lagilman]

Instead I've been playing Puzzle Pirates. Earn virtual pieces of eight playing games (Tetris like "puzzle" video games) so you can equip your ship, form a crew of hearties and go swash and pillage on the high seas. Yar!

okay, now that? Gets my attention....

[lavenderbard.livejournal.com]

:chuckle:
www.puzzlepirates.com

As soon as you sign on they teach you how to contribute to a pirate crew. Right off the bat you can do "sailing", "bilging" or "carpentry", each is a different game, and how well the crew does on those games determines how fast the ship goes, and how maneuverable it is in battle. Later you can switch to the "gunnery" game which is used to load the cannons. Officers can also play the navigation game and the sea battle (or battle navigation) game. If one of the ships successfully grapples an opponent then everyone in the crew teams up in either the "sword-fighting" game or the "rumble" game depending on the nature of your opponents.

While relaxing with your pirate friends you can talk, challenge each to swordfighting or rumble matches, or to games of drinking, treasure drop, spades, or hearts. You can help industry out by playing the shipbuilding, alchemy and distilling games. (You can't go pilliging if you have no rum!). You can also run a store, or run a ship -- which may meet up with pirates...

In short, it's a "massively multiple online roleplaying game that's all about...
...playing games. :)

It's also *cute*.

[kalligraphy.livejournal.com]

Second Life is not like WoW, EVE, Everquest or any of a dozen or so other online virtual worlds.

WoW, EQ, EVE and others are MMORPG's (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games). Oddity here is that in MMORPG's, most people don't really role play. :) In the MMORPG's, there is an entire system of Player vs Environment (PvE) and/or Player vs Player (PvP) interactions. Basically some form of combat simulation for the purpose of gathering wealth/items/prestige/experience. Interactions between players occur on a few different levels. Friendly grouping, clan/guild/corp interactions and hostile encounters. In games like WoW and EQ, most interactions are in the first two categories where people band together to take out bad guys run by the central computer. This is to gain experience and loot. In some games like EVE, player vs player battles are far more common. In fact EVE probably takes PvP to a whole new level. Clan/guild/corp interactions are when players band together into a larger organization to facilitate friendships, alliances and other interactions among members. Sort of like a club. In truth, they are games. Friendships are important, but the driving force behind it is the game.

Second Life is more of a graphical chat room with options. Think IRC, but with a world around it. A world that you can interact with as well as interact with the people. In truth, I think it places far more emphasis on the role playing aspect that games do not. An interesting aspect of Second Life is the ability to shape your avatar and build your world as you see fit. That option does not exist in the MMORPG's.

The most important factor here is that these things require a time commitment to get anything out of. From a professional standpoint, there is probably not much to gain from playing the MMORPG's, unless you want to get into novel writing within the world. EVE has several on staff fiction writers and I am willing to bet most of the others would love to have a way of selling fiction as part of world building and keeping up player interests. If you play the game, you would have a much better insight into the world you would be writing into. Because of the way Second Life involves player interactions to such a high degree, you could build a virtual persona and work within that persona to collaborate and push books. I could see that working professionally, just not sure how effective you could be. I suppose a group of writers could get together and use SL as an interface for collaboration and communication, but i would think a forum or mailing list would actually be much more effective at that.

[lagilman]

Yeah, I know what MORPG's are -- I'm an original-box gamer from waybackwhen, and I've followed the evolution of these things, even though they don't interest me personally any longer.

Friends of Liad already has a presence in Second Life, several publishers are opening virtual bookstores, and a number other writer groups are thinking of establishing areas likewise, so the economic aspect of it are already being exploited. I was just looking for feedback to see if it would fit with what I am willing to and/or interested in doing. And it looks like the answer is probably no -- it's not going to be a justifiable use of my time/energy.

[equesgal.livejournal.com]

I play World of Warcraft and use it to relax and get together with friends from all over the country, some who I haven't seen in years because we simply live so far apart. We also play with mutual friends in Australia and Switzerland. We are also all on Ventrilo, a program which allows us to speak to each other as we play without incurring huge phone bills. There's nothing as relaxing as having a nice glass of wine, logging on my Night Elf Druid, meeting up with 5-8 friends and going out to kill the big bad evil dragon. But I do know people who are too into it and the game has become their lives. But I think if someone has a life to begin with that doesn't become an issue.

[lagilman]

ah, so you use IoW the way I use Instant Messenger.... *grin*

(which reminds me, there hasn't been a major Mock-the-Movie session in far too long. Need to remedy that)

[deire.livejournal.com]

I'm debating sticking my toe in the water. Friends have recently gone to it, and you can sell graphic design and animation for real money to players...but I'd only do it to play around with modeling and animation because I'm already interested in those and it might get me moving a bit. As a writer, it seems like a time suck more than anything else. And even for an artist, I kind of wonder. Nene Thomas seems to talk about it quite a bit, if that helps, under nene_thomas. She does lovely art, too. Not too fine a point, the person I know who gets the most out of it is a stay at home mom whose only child is going on to high school, and she's NOT making any money there.

[otterdance.livejournal.com]

I must admit, I am curious about the Second Life thing, but it would be career suicide for me to go near it. This is the woman who just sent her husband off to painting class with the Final Fantasy XII disk so I can get some work done. Can we say obssessive? Can we say zero will power to resist siren song of things like FF and The Sims? (Not to mention LJ) Must be my orange brain.

"Of all the brain types, yours is the quickest.
You are usually thinking a mile a minute, and you could be thinking about anything at all.
Your thoughts are often scattered and random - but they're also a lot of fun!

You tend to spend a lot of time thinking about esoteric subjects, the meaning of life, and pop culture."

Yep, too much time, and it's damn distracting!

[fakefrenchie.livejournal.com]

My brain is green. But I don't think I'm vvery balanced. Oy!