::crickets::

The most up to date information I have on Second Life is a copy of "The Unofficial Tourist's Guide to Second Life" from 2007 that a friend of mine gave me as a joke gift this year.

I downloaded it a couple months ago. Didn't play much, just poked about for an hour or so, flew around an island, looked for furries, tried to give my avatar gigantic tits - you know, the usual. Seem it's still active, but as to how popular it is or how the community has changed, I can't say.

I tried it back in 2006 or 2007. Logged on, was instantly accosted by furries trying to sell me virtual bondage gear, got bored, logged off after 15 minutes.

I do like watching SL troll videos sometimes but actually playing it seems more like work than entertainment.

I was expecting furries and bondage gear, too, but sadly nobody offered me anything of the sort. Granted, I've got social anxiety and was frantically trying to avoid every person I saw, so that may have contaminated my results somewhat.

So, I bit the bullet the other day and downloaded Second Life on an old account I made back in 2010. Mainly because of the troll videos and some Second Life player who makes really good looking avatars. It really depends on where you in the game because I checked some spots and there was always people hanging out. Sometimes chatting or trying to troll people but being really shitty at it. Probably one of my favorite places to explore is called HANGERS LIQUIDS, some cyberpunk post-apocalyptic place that is just really neat. You kind of have to know where to look in Second Life to find people and interesting places.

I didn't even have time to try to avoid anyone, homeboy was literally standing at the new user spawn point with some kind of cybergoth-cargo-pants-fox-manimal avatar asking anyone who showed up if they wanted to buy black leather Frankenstein knee boots, then I got teleported to what it would look like if there were sex shops in Starfox 64 and it was funny for a minute before it got boring.


Which reminds me, when I was visiting my parents over the holidays I saw a full blown furry walking right down the side of Rt. 128 in Massachusetts. At first I thought they must not have had the budget for a full suit because there were hands, feet, tail and giant wolf-head with black and purple Goku hair. Then I realized the super tight skinny jeans and tee shirt were part of the fursona.

Anyway, that's a first. I've seen furries wearing tails and ears in the Boston subway from time to time when I was living there, as far back as 2004 or 2005, but I've never seen a full fursuit in the wild there, much less in the exurbs.

An old friend of mine works for Linden Labs and apparently it pays well and he has no expectations of losing his job any time soon so I would assume the business is still sustaining in some manner. Do not underestimate the power of even small communities in these types of games to spend all kinds of money on virtual fedoras and gimp suits and shit like that, enough that they support the whole system.

According to this, from almost exactly a year ago, Second LIfe is past it's heyday but "maintains a healthy user base".

http://youtu.be/ZdDIrQpKaCw

EyeZee, cool that you saw a Furry walking about, I think that might be happening more these days since Furries are becoming more well known by being in the media.

At least in Pittsburgh you can go out with tails, collar, ears on, and some people will say, 'Hey, how's it going, are you a Furry? I see 'Anthrocons' on the news when that convention's in town.'

That's fun, so more Furries are going to be doing it. I've wondered why more Furries don't go out, at conventions it's like one huge party, with costumes as far as you can see, and many of those Furries live in the city, but you just don't see them that often.

I would feel like only being able to be a Fur and dress up at the con was repressing this great thing, and why not get out there and share the joy!

Boomer

I don't have to watch this whole thing right now; could you give us a timestamp for the CEO bit to which you are referring?

He shows up throughout the first 10 minutes, but I posted that at around 11:45 when he starts talking about how things are real if we believe they are real, and that the real word is just a simulation made with molecules and Second Life isn't any different.


It really picks up around 15:00though, when they bring in the guy who spends every free moment of his life roleplaying as a little girl. Perfect balance of manipulative filmmaking and genuinely embarrassing subject.

25:17

Degenerates into NSFW virtua fighter sex.

30:10 - 30:30 is worthy of submission on its own with no context.

1:23:00

I think somebody using the term "griefing" in reference to real life would be a deal breaker for me.

1:37:15 to hear the CEO talk about how virtual worlds area big step toward actualizing the potential of the human species or something.

>> But it's fun to go to a club in SL, dress up as a hot chick (I was usually Bettie Page)


Oh, John!

"Documentary" is a bit of a stretch here.

Same here, re: the social aspect. I can never get into virtual worlds because I'm just not into the whole social thing. Same goes for MMOs, chat thingies, microblogs, hell even Facebook. I can't deal with Facebook, getting one email every week, so how would I ever survive something as intense as Second Life?

I think I can understand what you're talking about so far as your own dogginess goes. You seem like such a dog in real life, that there's not really any point in RPing as one online! I think things like Second Life or Furcadia or whatever are geared more towards people who aren't fully committed to their identity; people who feel like a human in everyday life, and need that extra OOMPH to help them break out of their inhibitions and immerse themselves in their alternate identity. But with you, you're a dog. You already feel that dog-identity, and you don't need to pretend in order to make your dog-ness "real" to you!

Like, back when I was really little, and I thought *I* was a dog (we've barked about that before, yes?), it never occured to me to "roleplay" as a dog. I just felt like a dog, and it was totally natural to me, no more weird than saying, "Hey, I'm a British-American!" or "Oh look, I've got black hair!". It was just, meh, I'm part dog.

Role-playing is about escaping from your everyday life, about being something you're *not*... so why would you feel the need to roleplay as something you already are?

This movie kept me interested and I watched the whole thing, trying to get what makes it so addictive and attracting. I guess it's like anything, you get involved, you're there, and so that's your place, at least for a while, until you feel like you need to move on, maybe you've learned all you can and are ready for the next phase.

I know, Facebook sends me many letters a day, and it's okay to a point, it's a fan page that does reach out to people. I can't respond all of the time, but I go back and cover it every so often, it is real people saying hi or relating their animal stories too.

Right, I've never been into any RPG, Mucks, Furcadia, or anything like it, even real-time chat. I don't think I'm anti-social, but I approach it differently, being a mad scientist, or outgoing with being a Dog or in costume. I'd rather build or do something cool and put it out there, getting fans for that than hanging out. It fills my needs, so I can't complain.

I remember your story about being King of the Dogs, that was great, and someone said to let it out, Homer.. :) It might be in your past but it's still in you.

I work to integrate the Dog, it's not really like a separate thing, even though I sometimes call it 'the Dog' when trying to be more objective.

I did notice that Second Life was way about role playing, the guy playing a kid, and several others who played characters that were themselves in the game, yet the characters were thinner than in real life.

Boomer