So like if you are or were addicted to SL, what was the initial hook?

[MoiselleErin Teardrop]

I am sure at least a few of us have -

• spent 24 or more hours at once in game.
• Neglected responsibilities cause SL was more important
• Had relationships
• etc

When we were new, we went thru "How do i get a job, why am I wearing a box, how do you play this, what does this notice mean that "fangs" wants to animate my avatar..."

 

Day one was stupid. maybe it is just slow, try again tomorrow. Day two was cool, that seems pretty neat, what is this SL? Day three, you finally figured out how to do something but it will take a while to learn more about it...

At some point you find yourself hooked.

 

Anyways, on the day you got hooked, what was it exactly that drew you in hardcore?

For me, it was being able to build my avatar's look and I guess maybe character. I was like a young girl who just her first Barbie set. I am embarrased to admit this evenn to my fellow SL'ers but I love my avatar as if a friend. In reality, yes it is pixels on a screen but I cannot see it that way. "Pixels on a screen" is how I see my player on non-RPG's games.

So I guess my hook for SL was being introduced to my ideal sister or friend. I think the worst part is this - in RL I am not lonely, I do have friends and regular social interactions. So why would I need an online character? Not sure.I see her as her own person and not so much an extention of the RL me. Too much emotional investment into a graphic? Reminds me of that movie "cool world".

Maybe I am not the only one - I do understand why some folks are so testy when their avatar gets pushed or griefed.

So how did you get hooked?

 

[Rya Nitely]

I think I was hooked on SL even before I tried it. I saw a report about it on TV and I thought 'OMG, if that is all they say it is I will love it.....I was hooked on The SIMS 2 at the time.

And it was what exacptly what I hoped for. So I persevered through the constant crashes. I remember being so amused the first time I saw a person typing on an invisible keyboard and I figured out they were saying something. Hehe, I also remember wondering what that person was doing standing for ages in one spot with arms outstretched and there was another one. I remember crashing just when I was about to make my first friend and that person was gone when I returned . But I knew I was going to love it.

That was almost 5 years ago. Still love it but for different reasons. Now creating is my passion, oh and meeroos...I like meeroos

[lucagrabacr]

Unlimited possibilities in avatar appearance lol, and it's synced to everyone!, that's my first reason, tbh.

 

You see, there are many great mmo's out there, some allowed us to customize our avatars to some extent, TO SOME EXTENT.

 

Or this mmo where we could customize our avatar with 'mods' but it's only client-sided, so everyone else but me sees my avatar in its default looks, except they used different mods, lol.

 

[Ceka Cianci]

i think i became hooked with the first dance ball i ever tried..

that was a few days after i joined..

 

the first day i left for like 3 days because the controls made me mad..

i had no problem finding a job really.. my first real job came two weeks after i joined and lasted like 2 years before i left it..

[RoKk Blackheart]

i think what hooked me was the fact you can be/do anything on here, kind of an escape from reality every once in a while

[Dilbert Dilweg]

I guess the hook for me was when i found out I was able to create stuff my self. I built my first home a few weeks after i started SL. It was pretty rough lookin. But damn I was proud! lol Sl became a creative outlet for me. Then I learned how to put a script in objects and built a club. ZOMG! I was hooked even more. Now 6 years later. I am getting into mesh modeling. BLAM! here we go again. another hook lmao. Totally meshmerized

 

That reminds me. I haven't cleaned the house in a week.. kidding lol

[Claireschen Hesten]

i think what kept my initial interest in SL was freebies camping wonder chairs zyngo and a little booth in a mall i rented two or three weeks after i joined SL i didn't properly get hooked until about 4 months in when a friend at the time introduced me to a free land group and found an empty flat i could live in on one of the free land sims i managed to grab a few prims when other people had deleted stuff and rezzed some tacky freebie furniture i was so delighted to have a place to call my own that i used to spend all day every day in the flat up until the land owner did a bi-monthly sim clean two weeks later when the sim was open again it was a rush to furnish the flat again so i could have another two week stay if it wasn't for the active group chat and a lovely guy in the group who taught me a lot about SL became a good friend (even to this day) and for a little while we were even partnered i think my interest in SL/the flat would have quickly waned and thngs wouldn't have turned out like they have

[Teagan Morningstar]

Haha, "what does this notice mean that 'fangs' wants to animate my avatar?". That sounds about right.

My first Second Life experience was that my computer couldn't run it. That was 2007. When I came back in 2010, with a much better laptop and a new avi (since I couldn't remember my password for the old avi)... that experience was interesting. To put it delicately... a human in horse form... told me to hop on a poseball to "sit". Needless to say, he didn't mention what I'd be sitting on. If my boyfriend hadn't seen the whole thing and convince me to just block that creep, admittedly I would have never looked back.

The next day, with a fresh mind (albeit tainted), I set off into the world. I wasn't entirely sure what I was here for, so I figured that exploring would be a good place to start. A vampire approached me someplace and asked me if I wanted to join her clan, yadda yadda. Much nicer than my first experience! I agreed, and like the rest of the "newbies", I joined Bloodlines. Of course, that was long before I realized the sheer amount of oversaturation, but my clan was the best thing that happened to me! They taught me why I was wearing that box, and how to remedy it... they accepted me immediately, without question, and even paid for me to get my Bloodlines HUD and some new outfits so I wasn't a noob avatar. Without that experience to wipe out my initial experience, I wouldn't be on SL today.

[Jo Yardley]

I hated SL the first time I tried it for a week or so, it was everything I thought it would be; silly rude people who only liked shopping, chatting and hanky panky.

But when I returned (2 years later) to try out my new laptop, I searched for something I might like and discovered a lovely 1930s themed bar with 1930s music, people in vintage clothes and where they were discussing the things I find interesting; old music, fashion, history, etc.

That was when I decided not to leave again right away.

Then I got a dream, set up my own 1920s Berlin place.

And as soon as I started building that, I knew I was lost.

[MoiselleErin Teardrop]

I will admit the only reason I stayed more than 5 minutes was cause I had a mentor who I knew outside SL who basically dragged me in. She got me started but then moved on like she does with every "friendship" she makes :matte-motes-confused:

I remember seeing my stupid avatar as that pink polka dot dress girl and first thing i wanted to know was "how to fix that sh*t".

I knew I was hooked though one day when I had lost my hair the day before and at work the whole next day was looking forward to going home to figure out how to fix that.

 

Sometimes i still do accidently remove my hair but I know exactly what to do now - attach a box to my head to hide it. No one notices thankfully

[Millennium Sands]

Well, I'm not really hooked. I depend on SL because it's the only place where a SL avatar like me can live. The one who is actually hooked is my 1st Life avatar who created me - and got hooked on me.

I was born when my 1st Life avatar got a new high speed internet connection and wanted to try it before moving to Guild Wars and create an account there. Joining Guild Wars wasn't free, but SL was, so it looked like the perfect platform for a test.

My 1st Life avatar wasn't sure what I would be in the long run, if there would be a long run at all. So it made up a name for me that could fit to both genders or even to a goldfish - Millennium - and decided my initial gender with a dice.

When I rezzed for the very first time, I was a blue haired girl who didn't look impressing at all, and I moved like I was made of wood. But my 1st Life avatar was curious enough to ignore the terrible lag, let me explore the surroundings a little bit, and learn a few basic lessons. And I even met a guy who was just as puzzled like me and we became friends. All in all I kept my 1st Life avatar entertained enough to earn my ticket for a second log in.

Next day I discovered a bunch of people who had gathered not far away and were building a lot of stuff. Creating all sorts of things out of thin air, they looked like mages to me. This world was apparently full of miracles! And then it happened: Among these people a woman appeared who looked very different than the rest of the crowd around her.

It was a fairy, and she was a creature of unimaginable delicacy, grace and beauty. For the first time, I realized how amazing and outstanding a female avatar can look in SL, and it was enough to inspire me. I wanted to be like her, and I wanted it with all my heart and soul. But I had really no idea how this goal could be achieved.

Without actually realizing it, I had discovered something essential about me: I was not a goldfish and not a guy. I was definitely a woman with the desire to be admired! And my 1st Life avatar became aware that it couldn't change this basic fact anymore.

With the help of some friendly old rezidents, I began to evolve and develope a basic look. People gave me things like hair and clothes, and by trying these things on me I could feel if they matched my personality or not. It turned out very soon that I was obviously a blonde with a lighthearted nature. While I grew and revealed myself more and more to my 1st Life avatar with every step I got to know myself better, I could feel the growing attachment and passion it felt for me. The creator had started not only to cherish but also to respect it's creation, and now we have a bond. Isn't that the way it should be - in all Lifes and dimensions?

[Dilbert Dilweg]

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MoiselleErin Teardrop wrote:

I will admit the only reason I stayed more than 5 minutes was cause I had a mentor who I knew outside SL who basically dragged me in. She got me started but then moved on like she does with every "friendship" she makes

---

 

Funny you say that . That was also one of the big reasons I stayed. I came here before in early 2005 or late 04 I think, and landed at some oriental sim.There were 5 people and no one said hello when I talked to them. So I left and never came back lol.. Untill I met a girl on another website around 2006. She invited me in and showed me around She was a mentor as well. I say if it was not for that I probably may not have stuck in. I was totally routed away from all the newbie landing places etc.

[kattatonia Wickentower]

I was figuring out how to lose the newbie walk and I had googled for the solution and read a really outdated article that was written before AOs were commonplace.  So I was trying to place a walk script inside a torus and was having a really hard time getting the torus to fit my wrist like a bracelet and went to NCI to look for someone who could answer my questions.  At first nobody there could help me but they talked with me and encouraged me to hang around until someone who could answer my questions showed up.  By the time that person arrived I had learned a whole lot of things that I didn't even know I didn't know.  And I was hooked.  I lived at NCI for my first three months and soaked up information like a sponge. 

[Tracy Redangel]

My parole officer thought it would be a good way for me to interact with people