Meeting people just gets easier, especially when you can find them...

Walking through the remnants of Burning Life, I ran into two women, meandering around just as I was. They were quite nice, very interested in the class I was taking asking many questions after I mentioned my enrollment here at the University. In conversation with them I asked for a picture of the two of them and they more than obliged, even posing together for it, asking if the camera could still see the fire in the background. Also, they were excited to here about a collegiate class studying how virtual worlds, such as Second Life, were being used as the newest form of communication between professionals and educators alike. I met a few people on this trip, all of them involved in Burning Life, some of them adding vehicles to the entertainment after the crowds had left, just as something else to do.


Encouraged by the friendly nature of these Second Lifers, I decided I should go exploring! Bad idea. This was probably a good idea and simply a bad approach, as I simply began teleporting all over the map hoping to run into some fun subculture, but all I got was backyards and do not enter signs. How is it that I teleported five times and everytime ended up trapped on private property? I would pick a place on the map that had plenty of green dots, hoping to find more people but somehow when I got there, everyone had left! I want to explore Second Life, but next time I want a guide because obviously I'm doing something wrong. This virtual world is a lot of fun but I want to get past the surface and dive into something more complex. This is an opportunity to see how people behave when their actions are less connected to negative consequences. I say this because there is less peer pressure in SL and it is easier to find a group of people that share your values. This means people's true values, beliefs and wants will come out as the opportunity to express one's self increases while their actions are tied less to their reputations than in real life.