Home
sign up| reviews / member game review |
 content by: member |
|
Although I will say that the people I try to tell about Second Life rather zone out when they see the interface, and their mind immediately switches over to the judgment: GAME. Fighting this argument is indeed an uphill battle. Except for those of us who live there. And, no offense, get it. So please, do yourself a favor when you enter Second Life. Do a bit of chanting and meditation beforehand. Free your mind. Imagine your wildest dreams, those dreams that lie dormant behind the drudgery of your current office cubicle. All those places you've never been, people you've never met, things you've never experienced. Cause THAT gets much closer to the heart of Second Life. Now, after you've filled out all the paperwork (please add my name in the "who suggested this crazy idea to you" spot--MicheBella Mandelbrot; and I will take that L$2000 thank you, very much), you arrive as a stark default newbie on Help Island. (Fittingly.) It is here that you create your version of yourself. Well, your first version. Later, you can become a man or a woman, a clown, whatever you want. Change them every day or every hour, at will. But I digress. Create yourself. I chose to make it as close to my actual self as I could. Others go far afield. Whatever you like. Then, you learn how to walk in this new world, and build things (sorta), and fly. Boy, is that fun! Soon enough, you find yourself on Orientation Island. Mind you, you may see signs along the way to "teleport" to this place or that. RESIST THEM! The directions don't tell you this, but if you somehow get off of Help or Orientation Island, you can NEVER go back, without special dispensation from the Linden creators themselves. In other words, you can't. While you are on Orientation Island, you see, there are all sorts of fun things: tutorials for various things (which you can save for later if you feel overwhelmed and don't want to do them just then), and best of all: lots of free things! There is a building where if you click on everything in it, you'll walk away with a free house, a free car, several changes of clothes, some textures, some furniture, I don't even remember it all. If only real life were so much fun. When you've done enough tutorials, and picked up every free thing you can find, then and ONLY then can you go to the Graduation Temple. From there, it's safe to teleport to the mainland. And this, my friends, is where the fun begins. As other posters have said, Second Life is really a visual chat room in many ways. So talk to the people you encounter, see what you can find out. Unlike the real world, I'll talk to anyone in Second Life. Unlike regular chat rooms, you never know who you'll encounter. Or what you'll learn. Already on my short travels there, I've ridden in a flying car, worn pink hair and had several types of sex that I wouldn't THINK of doing in real life. For me, Second Life isn't a game. It's about fulfilling long buried fantasies, doing things I have no way of doing in my regular life, meeting fascinating people, and mostly, mostly about creating the future. Please join me there. I swear, it's the most fun I've had in years.
 conversations
Read members' comments.
|
 |
related info
 useful links
note: The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
see also
books  books and comics archive Author interviews and reviews from 2002 to 2008. film  film archive The best of cinema in the UK from 2002 to 2008. |
send to a friend
more reviews by this member