Am I missing something? Where is everyone?

[Pomkeki]

These forums are reasonably active and so are several blogs that I've come across, but I have so much trouble finding people in game. The featured destinations tend to be ghost towns - even if I come across some people in the area,  they're dead silent. When I try to search for things I'm interested in it rarely comes up with any results on the world map so I feel like I don't understand something about how to find locations and people.

Besides that, what do you guys do for fun? Roleplay is my main interest at the moment but maybe you guys have some suggestions. I like socializing (to an extent), games, activities, whatever. Photography isn't really my thing since I'd much rather draw. I used to think I'd like a little town to roleplay in but it seems like people just coop up in their homes... Without a family and a home of my own, the only way I'd get to interact with anyone is if I became a door to door salesman lol. I'm so lost.

[zoelamb]

I've been a member only for about two weeks and have found a small number of friends by chatting in groups and going to a couple of group events.

Regarding:

15 minutes ago, Pomkeki said:

it seems like people just coop up in their homes... 

Some of the time, yes. Having found a few friends, much like might happen in real life I've since been invited back to their homes. Which is cool because I only have a tiny rented Skybox.

Actually, being new in SL reminds me a lot of when I first moved to London in RL and didn't know many people (and rented a tiny studio flat)

[Amanda Crisp]

16 minutes ago, Pomkeki said:

These forums are reasonably active and so are several blogs that I've come across, but I have so much trouble finding people in game. 

It always makes me blink when someone refers to SL as "in game" . Not in a bad way mind you; but it's a different mindset than I'm used to after over a decade in the virtual world.

The best time to find people is from 5pm SL (pacific) time till about 8pm SLT. That's "prime time" for much of the population.

Things have declined a bit, and at other times of day its very hot or miss.

Enjoy SL and have fun 

[Klytyna]

25 minutes ago, Pomkeki said:

The featured destinations tend to be ghost towns

LL's "Featured destinations" is famous for being larglely useless, due to a tendency of the selection committee to only approve "highbrow" places, like experimental conceptual art installations, conceptual experimental art installations, installations of experimental conceptual art...

Fun has no place in their thinking. They do include a couple or three horrific newbie pits infested by people asking for poseball sex and screaming at each other in voice chat about calling the Feds on each other for saying 'ass' on the internet.

35 minutes ago, Pomkeki said:

even if I come across some people in the area,  they're dead silent

Busy enjoying the art... Or possibly they have died of boredom, and are afk until their utility company shuts the power off at their RL house for non payment of bills, say 3 months.

31 minutes ago, Pomkeki said:

I used to think I'd like a little town to roleplay in but it seems like people just coop up in their homes...

Yeah well thats what people do in little towns, live in their homes and keep the curtains closed so the neighbors won't see them doing kinky stuff and have them "Shunned" at the grocery store.

36 minutes ago, Pomkeki said:

Without a family and a home of my own, the only way I'd get to interact with anyone

Actually this is one of the worst ways to go, once you confine your 'interaction' to 2-4 people in one small plot of land someplace (or worse a skybox), then you never interact with anyone again...

There's a club on Zindra, that now has 'apartment rentals' to encourage people to be on the parcel, problem is, the people are in pairs, 500 m apart at high altitude, and the club is a tomb...
 

[Alwin Alcott]

44 minutes ago, AmandaKeen said:

The best time to find people is from 5pm SL (pacific) time till about 8pm SLT. That's "prime time" for much of the population.

 

Even at this time there are 30.000 users online, at most these days it's around 45.000 that's only a third difference, you won't convince me telling there is nobody to find when it's not in that time window.

The world in Sl isn't really that "time" dependant. Just have to look at the right places.

[Jeny Howlett]

You can usually find me at quiet ,artsy sims like Chouchou or squatting in my friends house  I tend to avoid big crowds and clubs. The biggest crowd gatherers are shopping events, but nobody goes there to socialize. People tend to stick to their own these days.

 

Forum Cartel seems empty whenever i go there.. meh 

Edited August 15, 2017 by Jeny Howlett

[Amanda Crisp]

24 minutes ago, Alwin Alcott said:

 

Even at this time there are 30.000 users online, at most these days it's around 45.000 that's only a third difference, you won't convince me telling there is nobody to find when it's not in that time window.

The world in Sl isn't really that "time" dependant. Just have to look at the right places.

Not really trying to convince anyone of anything :-) Based on my experiences as  someone who DJs in SL "nightspots", the times I mentioned are the ones I experience better traffic.

Others experiences probably vary :-)

[Ceka Cianci]

There was plenty riding horses yesterday

[CaraMcLean]

A fair amount seem to be standing in mesh body/head shops, either afk or talking loudly/eating and/or screaming at offspring on mic by accident cause they either don't realise or don't care they have voice on as well as skype/discord whatever their other half is using. 

As for things to do, I've searched a bit and it seems to come up quite often, things I've seen suggested and found for myself.

#1, Explore, pick a mainland area and go a wandering, this is what I'm doing mostly at the moment, got myself a nice low scripts bike and pick a direction. Planning to get a boat some time too for the same thing.

#2, Go to clubs to socialise and or dance (unfortunately this is most commonly suggested and gets painfully boring fast)

#3, Exactly the same as 2 but replace club with live singer/musician etc. 

#4, Games like greedy/uno/bowling, fun to change things up and can be sociable but also not so much.

#5, Shop, if you want to spend ridiculous amounts of money on something that might vanish tomorrow its viable as an activity supposedly, if you're more like me and limit your virtual spending its really not as viable, sure there is cheep stuff and freebies but, y, for every good object or item you got 9,999 that are cheep or free for good reason.

#6, Fight zombies, with janky SL controls and lag...  or not, buy a game designed for it instead.

#7, Build and/or script...  This really isn't an activity for most personality types, I can enjoy it in moderation and do so out of necessity but I do not think most would and some will find it tit achingly monotonous for any length of time. 

#8, Nope, think that's it aside from duplicates such as #2 & #3 being near identical.

But of course, it wouldn't be a what to do thread without the obligatory "The possibilities are endless." statement that does nothing to actually help but hey, I came up with 8 things, well, 6 things really. 

Oh, editing to add, I've not found decent RP yet, its either sex sims or people taking 2 RL hours to get a single sentence out. 

Edited August 15, 2017 by CaraMcLean

[Ceka Cianci]

28 minutes ago, CaraMcLean said:

A fair amount seem to be standing in mesh body/head shops, either afk or talking loudly/eating and/or screaming at offspring on mic by accident cause they either don't realise or don't care they have voice on as well as skype/discord whatever their other half is using. 

As for things to do, I've searched a bit and it seems to come up quite often, things I've seen suggested and found for myself.

#1, Explore, pick a mainland area and go a wandering, this is what I'm doing mostly at the moment, got myself a nice low scripts bike and pick a direction. Planning to get a boat some time too for the same thing.

#2, Go to clubs to socialise and or dance (unfortunately this is most commonly suggested and gets painfully boring fast)

#3, Exactly the same as 2 but replace club with live singer/musician etc. 

#4, Games like greedy/uno/bowling, fun to change things up and can be sociable but also not so much.

#5, Shop, if you want to spend ridiculous amounts of money on something that might vanish tomorrow its viable as an activity supposedly, if you're more like me and limit your virtual spending its really not as viable, sure there is cheep stuff and freebies but, y, for every good object or item you got 9,999 that are cheep or free for good reason.

#6, Fight zombies, with janky SL controls and lag...  or not, buy a game designed for it instead.

#7, Build and/or script...  This really isn't an activity for most personality types, I can enjoy it in moderation and do so out of necessity but I do not think most would and some will find it tit achingly monotonous for any length of time. 

#8, Nope, think that's it aside from duplicates such as #2 & #3 being near identical.

But of course, it wouldn't be a what to do thread without the obligatory "The possibilities are endless." statement that does nothing to actually help but hey, I came up with 8 things, well, 6 things really. 

Oh, editing to add, I've not found decent RP yet, its either sex sims or people taking 2 RL hours to get a single sentence out. 

 

I did the first one,the day before yesterday.. I grabbed my horse and headed for the Heterocera Atoll.. Well,I was on the route that goes right next to the great wall..

I still didn't make it to the half way point before I had to log and go to sleep for work..

Has to be my most favorite ride..So many cool things going on around  it..

Here are a lot of the routes to go around it.. I think it's supposed to have the highest point in second life mainland also, if I'm not mistaken..

From the wiki,

Heterocera (or Atoll Continent) is the second historical mainland continent. It has the most advanced transportation systems of all mainland continents. This includes: a vast railway system, the most complex road system and internal and external waterways. The Geographical features are unique and are composed of vast plains, coasts, mountains, corals and hills. Heterocera is the most populated continent, with the smallest percent of abandoned land and also the continent with the smallest percent of places to rent.

 

Here is a link to the wiki about it..It's pretty awesome I think..Heterocera

 

[Kotelle]

I had the same problem at the beginning, so I tried to visit some popular clubs. The music was good but the local chat made me doubt secondlifers sanity so I decided to stay on my own. I do believe there are a lot of nice, funny, friendly, interesting, charming people around, so either I had bad luck or I am Miss Awkward of SL. Either way, I socialize much more here, on this forum than in world and that's fine.

[LittleMe Jewell]

2 hours ago, Jeny Howlett said:

Forum Cartel seems empty whenever i go there.. meh 

Other than a designated event, it is sometimes active on a Fri or Sat night, US time.  Otherwise, folks don't really hang out there much like in the past.

[Jeny Howlett]

Just now, LittleMe Jewell said:

Other than a designated event, it is sometimes active on a Fri or Sat night, US time.  Otherwise, folks don't really hang out there much like in the past.

Thanks

[Callum Meriman]

Normally I'm building something in blender or photoshop or illustrator, or I have my nose in a script, or sailing, or driving, or flying, or riding a horse, or surfing, or gardening for people who rent on my estate, or shopping, or ... omg

People are nice and all, but mostly they only want to dance to some canned mewsic.

[2Tessa]

3 hours ago, Pomkeki said:

Am I missing something? Where is everyone?

Besides that, what do you guys do for fun?

https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/WW-Physical-Prim-Train-boxed/2667867

(I am not affiliated with this ^_^)

[Amanda Crisp]

8 hours ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

Other than a designated event, it is sometimes active on a Fri or Sat night, US time.  Otherwise, folks don't really hang out there much like in the past.

Heh, I pop in every other day in Prime Time - just to check :-)

[MoiraKathleen]

You might want to search groups for some role play groups and/or look at the forum posts for Role Play.  Then once you have a landmark, TP out to it.  Most RP areas will have a landing spot with further information about the RP, the site, and contacts, so you can start to gather info on ones that look like you would enjoy.   If the group info for a role play area doesn't have a LM in the info, you can search under places for the RP group name and see if you can find the landmark to it.  

I find that the "Highlights from the Destination Guide for <the current date>" in the Blogs section of this site is more useful for finding interesting places than just picking something out of the regular destination guide list.  

 

[Tari Landar]

I tend to wander the grid aimlessly, or search for things I enjoy doing in rl, or can't in rl because I'm a chicken, like parachuting and skydiving.

I like amusement parks, those are lots of fun. I also like mini golf, surfing, zoos, swimming, riding the slrr randomly...ummmm...lots of stuff. But I do most of it by myself, I'm a bit of a loner these days. Most of my sl friends have long since stopped logging in, or gone their separate ways at least. I spend a fair amount of time creating, though these days most things never see the light of day once they're finished, or nearly so (I have way more nearly so than any creator in sl should reasonably have, lol)

 

[Chic Aeon]

If you like Roleplay there are TONS of places. Find some listings on the Destination guide and look on the map for ones with lots of dots. For RP most seem busiest on the weekends (I have lived in a couple of RP sims) so that is a good time to be out and about meeting folks. 

 

 

[Chase01]

I am actually surprised there isn't more activity on the forums considering the size of the base. When I see the topics of some threads (not all), I often think, we're grasping at the straws for more.

I still love you all though! ❤️

 

 

 

 

[HarrisonMcKenzie]

My only guess is that other people just aren't where you are.

If you are looking to roleplay, look for roleplay groups and sims with a storyline or character application. There are more likely to be active than free for all places (though not always), since more effort is being spent to maintain it. Regarding living in a town, you have to find one that is more than just a rental sim. If the town has roleplay locations, shops, a school, parks, and the like, it's more likely to be more active. If it's just a row of houses with nothing to do, people are either going to stay home or TP out to have fun. As for not having a family, why not start or join one? Most of my interactions and roleplaying come from my family, since you have a bunch of people there to play with. If that's something you're interested in, do it.

As for what I do for fun (full disclosure, I play a kid), I'm in scouts and go to school. At scouts, we do normal scout stuff. We go camping, hiking, swimming, and I'm working on some merit badges that we can work on. At school, the classes I go to usually have some light homework, like writing a paragraph on a real world place or drawing something for class. I also played soccer for a number of months and almost joined a baseball league. That might not be your thing, but I hope that it gives you some ideas of what's out there. If you're into drawing, why not sketch scenes you find in SL and share them in an art gallery, or sign up to be the teacher of an art class (either at an RP school or somewhere else). There's a phrase in Japanese that transliterates as "my boom." It's used to talk about your hobbies and what excites you. The key to SL is finding your boom.

Edited August 21, 2017 by HarrisonMcKenzie

[Bree Giffen]

Hahaha! Hide n Seek is over! @Pomkeki couldn't find any of us! Whew, that was a long game. My avatar is tired from hiding inside the attic of that bdsm parlor. The noises I heard! 

[Darrius Gothly]

14 minutes ago, Bree Giffen said:

Hahaha! Hide n Seek is over! @Pomkeki couldn't find any of us! Whew, that was a long game. My avatar is tired from hiding inside the attic of that bdsm parlor. The noises I heard! 

Next time bring a tape recorder. Your L$ worries could be over for life if you get the right "noises". 

[Love567]

I have fun on SL doing my thing I spend time with friends when their on but im in SL mainly for avatar customization. I do think using world map and tping to green dots is good idea although sometimes they may be private homes still worth taking a chance. Your responsible for your own fun and social interactions, people arent going to log in to entertain you.

Edited August 22, 2017 by Love567

[Talligurl]

For fun? I am usually working in SL, I take a break from that by going to my RL job.