I promised about a year ago that I would do a more detailed guide on all of the magical things you could in SL and how awesome SL was and all that stuff. I have been distracted lately, but I’ve been thinking about this more often as I help new residents.
Honestly, the Internet recently has become so dead and stale, dominated by rabid Chihuahua social media services, AI trash posts, melodrama, thirst-posting, closed Discord servers, etc. Also, everything has become so centralized and more incestuous than a Hapsburg family convention. Second Life is the opposite where everything is completely disorganized but entirely organic. It also takes a larger investment to get really immersed, which is bad when most people bounce off anything that doesn’t feed their stimuli immediately. If you want to start SL and don’t want to worry about bouncing off, here are some tips.
Soon you can be cool as a SL Resident!
Be social. Don’t just stand around silently in a welcome area. Say hi, respond to IM’s, accept invitations to places. Unless you are one of those scripters/builders who literally hides in a box Photoshopping textures and constantly uploading mesh while listening to music, you have nothing better to do. So many new people just wait for someone to do something or just don’t respond to strangers at all. Even Philip Rosedale was taken back by the passiveness of so many new players, and I don’t know why it’s like this. Maybe they are scared of the natural tendency of most games to randomly ban people who voice often, to prevent the magic of old Call of Duty lobbies? Maybe the lack of real servers and fixed matchmaking means there’s no reason to make friends with people you will never see again? In any case, it’s tragic.
YOU! HAVE! UNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Explore. There’s so much cool stuff to see. Live music, crazy builds, totally original roleplay, weird art bits, weird recreations of real places, and it’s all created by residents. Ninety percent of this stuff never shows up on the Destination Guide or search (a topic for another post). Bryn Oh, one of the largest artists on the grid, spends half her day driving around in little Japanese cars exploring mainland. It’s fun to see something magical that you never expected existed inworld. Why would you go to a club with 50 people and just stand around when there is a whole world to explore?
Don’t worry about looking sexy. Yes, modern games are crazy about the cosmetics, and Second Life can be a sex simulator. Honestly, modern avatars are all generally fine. Also, there are so many freebies now (slanted primarily towards women, but men don’t shop anyway) that you are spoiled for choice. Check FabFree in SL for inworld deals and Second Life Marketplace online (filter by 0 to 10 L). It’s generally impossible to make anything as genuinely awful as Ralph Pootawn now unless you specifically try. People know you are new and want to help you. Also, no one wants to date a 0 day account anyway. You can even get some fun creative avatars on Marketplace instead, so people remember you, rather than seeing another egirl with thick thighs and barely there jean cutoffs. Just don’t be Ralph Pootawn.
ralph pls go
Learn to build. Second Life is supposed to be like Minecraft (though it was invented before Notch was even sentient). Now it’s more like a chatroom where you buy sexy body parts from a few creators. Anyone can go to Ivory Tower and slap some prims together. It’s the best part of the game, even though I am awful at it. Caledon still hosts Primtionary, where you make something with prims to describe an object without words. Yet few people remember building exists.
Peak Second Life
Second Life is not a game you can min-max. Yes, looking at social media for help is great, but you don’t need to know everything before you get into the game. Just experience it. Most people in the past just found SL and figured out things for themselves. Now mesh made things more complicated, but it shouldn’t take more than a few hours to figure out your mesh body and head. Or ask a Mentor. They literally exist for that purpose.
No, you cannot make money in game on day one, unless you go back in time and possess Anche Chung. You can do jobs, but they largely are tedious (farming crystals or fishing or being a hostess). If you want to twirl on a stripper pole for hours just to afford one pair of shoes, go ahead. However, it will kill your fun inworld in SL. Should you like the metaverse, you can invest ten or twenty dollars inworld for an avatar or other toys. It’s going to other residents, not to a big corporation. Also, if you can spend money on the Nicki Minaji Call of Duty skin that will go away after a few years, you can invest 20 bucks for a mesh body, head, and skin in SL. Please note that, if you know Blender or scripting, you can build stuff and make really cool things to sell to other people. However, Rome wasn’t built in a day.
Dear god, why?
Do your research or ask around before you go crazy. Yes, there are free bodies that look great, but nothing is rigged for them. There are heads that don’t fit the standard neck seams. Too many stores have template clothing, so you are literally paying for someone who dropped a texture into something they bought on Marketplace and then flip it for full price. Check FabFree in SL and Seraphim before you shop.
Don’t rent land unless you really, really, really trust the renter. Check gridsurvey.com for some of the major companies. The reason for this is that all deals within SL are not policed at all. If you pay someone a year’s rent for a sim and then they decided to screw off, you are without recourse. Alternatively, consider subscribing to Second Life Premium. Yes, SL land purchasing is needlessly complicated. However, LL realized this and fixed the situation. Now you can just get a subscription for 8 to 20 dollars a month and you get either a free Linden home or 2048 square meters of land anywhere on mainland. You will need to pay for the land itself, but that is usually 1 L per square meter on mainland. Then you have 2048 square meters of land for free (as long as you pay subscription) and you are the literal god of it. You can build whatever, let people in or out, or eject or freeze people. And then dress them up in silly hats.
Monkey pls
Don’t stay with people who are toxic. Don’t dox yourself. I’ve known several new people, women primarily, who gave up their Instagram or video called with someone they met on SL, only to be disappointed after they felt used. Keep your friends close and block and mute people who bother you. Or just tp them into Mount Ga’hul, the Linden Volcano.
Tsundere! Tsundere!
Check other resources. The Welcome Hub inworld has Mentors 24/7 who literally just stand around waiting for someone to help. The Second Life Discord is great for chatting with crazy, I mean like-minded, residents. The Second Life Forum can be interesting sometimes, as well, but it also has a great Make Friends section as well where people will answer your questions.
Please note these crazed ramblings are not endorsed by Linden Lab or anything but myself. Have fun!