If you haven’t heard of Second Life, you’re about 20-odd years late. It’s this hella cool but weird niche virtual world where people can create their own lives at. The tools are everything in digital form that you can throw at it, not just the building blocks they provide for you.
I am a real-life life coach, and decided to use the same strategies on myself as on others – or the other way around. I use Second Life as a sketch pad to redesign my real life from scratch. I invite you to join me in that.
Second Life is basically 3D Internet. You buy or rent a bit of land (web space) and start building what you want on it (web site). You can upload your own mesh, write your own scripts, bring your own images, textures, animations, and music, or buy stuff half- or ready-made from thousands of creators on the platform. It makes it messy, weird, and wonderful.
Also, Second Life is a 100% adult environment. As such, minors cannot join us (and I recommend you NOT TO make an exception with your kids even supervised even though it’ll look very innocent at times; I’ll explain later). It may be the last oasis for adults not to be slapped on the fingers for having a sex drive left on the Internet. Everyone will assume everyone on is an adult and address them accordingly.
Rules on top of rules – but they’re yours.
Linden Labs, the creator of Second Life is a full-blown anarchist company. Their idea of moderation is basically: “You’re an adult; deal and figure it out.” They don’t really give a fuck, and that’s the coolest thing. That is not to say that there are no rules on Second Life. There are plenty of rules; it’s just that they’re all rules for every sim(ulator) created by the individual residents on it. Also, these rules are often very sexy.
Have a look at the Second Life online map. That’s my sim there, where it says ZEN METAL. The map is pointed at the smallest of continents on Second Life, Gaeta V, and from there, you can find others. Have a look. Each different parcel is operated by a different person or a group. Each group has their own set of rules, their own way of doing things. The individual squares in far West are private islands that a resident can buy for themselves for some extra privacy if they don’t like dealing with their neighbors… Or just need more space for simultanous visitors.
My Sim
Personally, I’m rather looking for the perfect people than what stuff to surround myself with. Stuff is secondary, but I do build realistic scenes. To be honest, I’m dreaming of a life on board a cruise ship, but hey, first things first: People.
My sim is there as an initial HUB, it’ll be my people sorter. 😀 I’ve got some games already set for the purpose and planning for more. This sim will also stay that way but I’ll be building the ultimate sim with my… People, I hope, once I find these unicorns of mine. I have some temporary lodgings set up, but we’ll need a whole new sim eventually. <3
I suggest you get an account right now.
Here’s the best part for those of you who are as broke as yours truly; it’s a free download, free account forever… But it knows how to get your money out of your pockets if you’re not careful. While you can survive there completely free, it is just weirdly fun to spend money (that you could use in a more adult way) on there. It’s just that the dollar-to-feel-good value is, to me at least, unbeatable.
I suggest you join and download yourself a viewer from FirestormViewer.org. This viewer is the crowd favorite. It’s like what Chrome is to Internet Explorer. Edge? You can join through SecondLife.com as well, obviously, but I’d skip the haste of installing the standard Second Life Viewer because you’ll switch over to FS eventually anyway… I’m sure.
You’ll choose a starter avatar to your liking, and then, you’ll customize it to your heart’s content later. This is me:
While you can be a dinosaur with a keyboard hand if you like, I am doing this to redesign my real life and to build a SL-to-RL community so I try to look as much as myself as possible. My tattoos are not realistic but other than that I’m pretty one-to-one.
Get yourself a starter avi. Then, head over to my sim’s newbie info box for orientation and wait for further instructions on how to redesign your life, hey?
