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Soooooooooo happy to have discovered Second Life!! ^_^

Hoppimike

By Hoppimike,
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Hoppimike

Hoppimike

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I just posted a ridiculously happy and excited post on MMORPG.com about it haha

 

I'll share it here too just because I don't want to type it aaaaaall again lol

 

----------- Quote -----------

Thought I might post this to help anyone else looking for a social or exploration -focused MMO and not sure what to play.

 

I tried too many MMOs to even count. The only one I have ever truly enjoyed was Phantasy Star Universe on 360 due to its powerful social component (and I enjoyed it's predecessor - Phantasy Star Online). However, when PSU went offline, I was left without an online home!

 

I searched and I searched... oh how I searched!

 

I tried WoW, Rift, Perfect World International, Entropia Universe, Onverse, EVE, Vendetta Online, Dragon Nest, Vindictus, Phantasy Star Online 2, PlaneShift, TERA, Path of Exile, Neverwinter, Defiance, Ragnarok, Ryzom, Dungeons & Dragons Online, Guild Wars, Elder Scrolls Online, Mabinogi, MapleStory... just too many to even remember them all or name.

 

But do you know what's got me? Do you know? What after all this time is probably not only my favourite MMO of all time but probably my favourite GAME of all time, dethroning SHENMUE??

 

You might not like it.

 

.................................................... Second Life.

 

It's simply tremendous. I kept not playing it. I thought it was sad or out of bounds or whatever I thought, I didn't like the interface much at first, or thought it felt a bit clunky and "un-game-like".

 

But... once you get over all that. Once you actually sit down and play the game on its OWN terms, what you get is the most immersive, complete, fleshed-out, intelligent, fulfilling and awe-inspiring gaming experience possible with today's technology.

 

Now it's not perfect. It looks dated in places and at least at first it does feel clunky.

 

But honestly, if you want an MMO about socialising or exploration, or even building, I think you will be very, very, very happy with SL.

 

I recently RENTED A HOUSE in Venice in the game, go to regular hang-outs and meet new friends, chat on mics, work on my character... I embrace the SOCIAL side of the world and dive in head-first, I don't watch other places run straight past me on quests or get killed by high level enemies just for wanting to stray off of the beaten path and explore the world.

 

In Second Life you ARE the world! Whatever you want to do you can do!

 

It's soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo cool! ^_^

 

But yeah I'm going to stop now, nerdgasm over haha

 

Peace out everyone and if you decide to try the game or play it again or whatever, add me! I am Hoppimike on there too!

 

Bye for now! ^_^

----------- End of quote! -----------

 

So yeah... I'm so happy I have found it! It's the social MMO of my dreams!

 

Woooooooo!

 

Thank you Linden Labs! ^_^

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Syo Emerald

Syo Emerald

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Now guess why the interface is not "game-like"....because Second Life is not a game. You can't compare it to any of the MMOs you mentioned you tried before. Because its not like that. People who expect to find a game won't be able to become happy in Second Life, because their expections go in a total different direction than what they will find.

I think the only group worse than the gamers-searching-for-a-game are probably the facebookers, who think this is something like a dateing website of some sort.

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LaskyaClaren

LaskyaClaren

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This was an absolute pleasure to read! Thank you for sharing!

I've never played an MMO of any sort, so I came to SL for different reasons -- largely, I think, for the social aspect, and I was intrigued by the implications of the technology, and the idea of building in 3D. Most people in SL (and I would certainly include myself in this number) don't think of it as a "game," although a great many here are gamers.

But because SL is an open sandbox, there is absolutely no reason why you can't approach it as a game. Certainly, there are games in SL, and a great deal of roleplay of various kinds. The only caveat I'd offer you is that you remember that, even if it is a game for you, many if not most of those whom you will meet here don't treat it as such, so be a little careful about assuming too much about how others think of the place.

My advice would be to explore, but also keep an eye out for communities that you might happen across that seem a comfortable fit for you. SL can certainly be enjoyed as a solitary experience, but it's much much richer if can find a home in one or more of the many communities here!

Have fun, and feel free to report back (enthusiastically!) about your future experiences! :-)

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Pussycat Catnap

Pussycat Catnap

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People who get all bent out of shape about "SL IS NOT A GAME, IT IS SRS BZNS" really do the entire platform a great disservice, and you post is a good example of why.

Some folks have a 'Dungeons and Dragons and Football' concept of a game, and it begins and ends there. A game to these people has to have a score, elves to kill, points to get, and winners and/or losers, and it needs some 'mechanic' to determine who's getting it and who's dishing it out.'

SL is a social game. Anyone who grew up playing 'dress up' or 'tea party' (minus the crazy politicians), or 'make believe' can instantly see SL is a game that is an extension of these things.

Just because something is a game is not a bad thing - and this is another 'old people' concept that gets carted out around here like an albatros. That game is childish. Or so they say as they're getting carted off to the nursing home for going senile for not... exercising their minds with games of intellect... resulting in them returning to a mental state of childhood anyway...

Games can be used to serious purposes. Games can extend into work, lifestyle, the arts, and so on.

 

Calling SL a game is a compliment.

 

And welcome aboard Hoppi. Is that half of your name chosen out of interest in Native American issues? If so, there's a good amount of Native Americans and people curious about Native folks in SL.

We rant and rave about things all the time here - but we're all still here because there's still something magical about this 'game' for us. :)

 

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Hoppimike

Hoppimike

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Wow thank you for all the very welcoming and nice posts!

 

To answer your question Pussycat Catnap, no my name does not have Native American origins... I am curious now as to why you think it did!

It's actually taken from the Sigur Ros song Hoppipolla, and then Mike is of course my real name :D

 

I think at the end of the day... Second Life can be so many things, can't it? There are so many ways to approach it and to enjoy it. It feels like it's in a whole other UNIVERSE to the quest and combat dominated MMORPGs like WoW and Rift. Not that I hate them or anything (Rift is pretty cool at least for a very short time) but... they're just so... rigid, you know? And other people don't really seem to be truly be playing this multiplayer game for the multiplayer component, or if they are it always seems more like using people to boost your own strength, or for the raw pursuit of status in the game, be it for yourself individually or your guild. It's just not my thing. I have no interest in trying to "beat" others, I just want to socialise with them and be friendly :)

In my first post there was one typo, it's supposed to say "I don't watch other players run straight past me on quests or get killed by high level enemies just for wanting to stray off of the beaten path and explore the world.", but I'm sure most people worked that out! And that's the thing... most games were like that. I found that everyone else just acted like... like drones, doing the quests and things but never really stopping to smell the flowers, so to speak. And ALL I wanted to do was smell the flowers lol

 

Anyway erm, I guess I've put all this across enough now! It's just nice to finally find what I was looking for this whole time!

 

Oh, Laskya Claren, about that thing about SL being better when you socialise more and become part of groups... I do that very naturally to be honest. I am naturally very talkative and energetic, so I always speak to people and stuff! The social side of the game is definitely #1 for me, with exploration #2 and aaaaaaaall of the many, many other things Second Life can do also ranking somewhere close as well! The number of things you can do is just amazing.

 

Oh, one final point - it's great to be in an online world like this with roughly equal numbers of men and women. On nearly all other MMORPGs you just get aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall of these guys, and guys pretending to be girls haha

It's been great having a real mix of both genders, I think the experience is far better for it!

 

Thanks again for the very warm welcomes everyone and I look forward to hopefully meeting a lot of you in-world! ^_^

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LaskyaClaren

LaskyaClaren

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Hoppimike wrote:

On nearly all other MMORPGs you just get aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall of these guys, and guys pretending to be girls haha

*coughs*

Yeah, well, about that . . .

I think the gender mix in SL is undoubtedly more balanced than it is in most MMOs (and, if Anita Sarkeesian is to be believed, SL is also much more welcoming of women than most of those) . . . but there are a great many people who represent as a different gender here as well.

I actually think that this is kind of a cool thing about SL . . . it's a place where you can experiment with your own identity and "be" very different things . . . but not everyone feels that way. It's generally suggested that about 25% of the women in SL are actually "played" by RL males, and a somewhat smaller percentage of the men operated by RL females. But even those numbers are pretty speculative.

Hopefully, this doesn't matter to you too much. What is important is that SL is extremely diverse, with a really wide range of genders, sexualities, ages, cultures, ethnicities, and backgrounds represented. For that reason, it's a great place to get insights into other perspectives and experiences!

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Syo Emerald

Syo Emerald

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Hoppimike wrote:

 

Oh, one final point - it's great to be in an online world like this with roughly equal numbers of men and women. On nearly all other MMORPGs you just get aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall of these guys, and guys pretending to be girls haha

Oho....I feel someone will have some unpleasant things to discover.... :matte-motes-little-laugh:

In SL applies the same rule as to any of your other games: Just because its a female avatar, its not a female person behind the screen. And like in those games, you have no valid statistics on how many males and females are there. Speaking of games...the number of women who play online games has grown in the past decade.

 

@Pussycat: I was one who said SL is not a game, because game is a neutral term (not a compliment) to describe something. And everytime someone used the word "game" for SL, there were a bunch of misconceptions and wrong expections in the background. Who hasn't come across some newbie inworld, who complained how useless this game is or what he should do in this game?

Or take a more radical term, like griefers or other folks who hurt others. For them its nothing serious, nothing with worth...like in the phrase "its just a game!".

Thats why I cringe, when I see/hear people call SL a game and personally, I don't associate myself with the term player either.

 

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Hoppimike

Hoppimike

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haha yeah, I did factor in the way often people portray themselves as a different gender, although to be honest it's easy to forget that. But you do get alarm bells for SURE when you meet a woman in the game, or at least I do!

 

Thing is erm, I'm "a bit" bisexual anyway (definitely mostly straight) so it doesn't bother me as much as it would some lol

 

But yeah erm, also on top of that, I'm taken xD

 

It's mostly just the balance socially of men and women. The genders are different in many ways so it's lovely to have BOTH together!! :)

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LaskyaClaren

LaskyaClaren

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That's the best attitude to take, I think.

There are people who pride themselves on their "ability" to spot people who are representing as a different gender. They mostly tend to be those who care a lot about such things. I suspect that they are fooling themselves as often as not. And there are "voice verfication" groups in-world for people who are really paranoid about it -- men and women who belong have to be voice "verified" as representing their "real" gender. (As though that can't be gamed too . . .)

I think it's natural to sometimes be curious, or to have "suspicions" about someone, mostly in instances where one meets a female who is hyper-sexualized or "feminine" in really stereotypical ways. But I think most people really just don't care. I try to accept people as the gender that they choose to represent: it just seems to me the civil thing to do.

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Madelaine McMasters

Madelaine McMasters

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LaskyaClaren wrote:

That's the best attitude to take, I think.

There are people who pride themselves on their "ability" to spot people who are representing as a different gender. They mostly tend to be those who care a lot about such things. I suspect that they are fooling themselves as often as not. And there are "voice verfication" groups in-world for people who are really paranoid about it -- men and women who belong have to be voice "verified" as representing their "real" gender. (As though that can't be gamed too . . .)

I think it's natural to sometimes be curious, or to have "suspicions" about someone, mostly in instances where one meets a female who is hyper-sexualized or "feminine" in really stereotypical ways. But I think most people really just don't care. I try to accept people as the gender that they choose to represent: it just seems to me the civil thing to do.

I like Hoppimike's attitude as well. I recently learned that Facebook USA has 56 genders to pick from. If I wasn't confused before, I am now. I think that for me to spot someone representing as a different gender, they'd almost have to be doing a caricature. Some do that accidentally, but I think virtually anyone with some intelligence and self awareness could, with one arm behind their back, help me pull the wool over my own eyes.

I do judge (with error), along the dimension of good/bad egg. A bad egg can make you sick, but hatchlings are soooo cute.

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Pussycat Catnap

Pussycat Catnap

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Hoppimike wrote:

Wow thank you for all the very welcoming and nice posts!

 

To answer your question Pussycat Catnap, no my name does not have Native American origins... I am curious now as to why you think it did!

I'd been thinking it was a variant spelling for Hopi:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hopi

 

 

Hoppimike wrote:

 

Oh, one final point - it's great to be in an online world like this with roughly equal numbers of men and women. On nearly all other MMORPGs you just get aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall of these guys, and guys pretending to be girls haha

It's been great having a real mix of both genders, I think the experience is far better for it!

In SL, everyone, but especially the male avatars, is a 320lbs 40-50 year old woman living with 32 cats in her daughter's basement in an old bathrobe with curlers in her hair and a cigarrette.

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Nimue Mistwalker

Nimue Mistwalker

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Hoppimike wrote:

lol, Pussycat!

 

You really can never tell.

 

It also strikes me how EVERY AVATAR is ridiculously attractive! I wonder how many ugly people exist in the whole of Second Life!

 

... bit suspicious!
xD

Hi Mike and welcome! :matte-motes-bashful-cute-2:

Being fat and ugly is a lot of fun on SL too.. After a while, all the beautiful avatars become quite boring IMO.. I have a dumpy fat avatar with curlers in her hair and a bottle of Jack in her hand. I don't use her all of the time, but, it's fun to mix it up.. makes ppl smile because its such a shock after being around good looking avatars all of the time.. :matte-motes-wink-tongue:

Have fun!

 

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Syo Emerald

Syo Emerald

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Hoppimike wrote:

lol, Pussycat!

 

You really can never tell.

 

It also strikes me how EVERY AVATAR is ridiculously attractive! I wonder how many ugly people exist in the whole of Second Life!

 

... bit suspicious!
xD

I see a lot avatars, that I would consider ugly....but they probably think they look wonderful....

beauty is even more subjective in SL than in RL. Because here, even squished faces and ridiculusly deformed shapes are called "beautiful" by some.

 

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