HELP

[KalTsunami]

How do play second life? that's my question this game is really hard, from the unboxing clothes and the extra stuff you have to do to be satisfied with your look. If anybody can reach out to me to help with this game I would really like that because this game seems relay fun.. I don't have the vip access is thats the problem and I have a lot of ( l dollars) I brought with real cash, anybody?

[Rolig Loon]

There's so much to talk about that it's hard to know where to start.  I suggest first reading about the basics in the Knowledge Base (link at the top of this page).  Begin with this page, and then start looking for articles on other subjects as you have questions:

Then use your map and teleport to Social Island (there are 9 identical ones), where you can explore and practice some basic skills.  Then visit Caledon Oxbridge University,. where they have some excellent tutorials, helpful mentors, and free classes.

SL is fun.  It is not a game, but you can find games to play here if that's your thing.  You can also make friends, dance, shop, explore, create things, sell things, .... anything you want to do.  There are no goals other than the ones you set for yourself, no dragons to slay, no medals or levels to earn.  This is quite literally a Second Life -- much like your first one except that you can fly and teleport.  And you get to be your fantasy self.

Welcome, and good luck. 

EDIT:   Oh, and you don't need "VIP" access -- (we call it a Premium membership, not VIP).  You can do almost anything you want with a free Basic membership.  The big advantages of Premium membership come when you want to buy land, but loads of people never do that.  I suggest using a Basic membership until you see what's possible here.  (I have been here almost eleven years and never been Premium.)

Edited December 30, 2017 by Rolig Loon

[Lindal Kidd]

No, you don't have to be a Premium member.  That does come with some benefits, but you can buy $L, shop, customize your avatar, and have access to all the functions of SL without it.  The main benefits of a Premium membership are:

• You can own Mainland
• You can get a free Linden Home  (but you can rent a home, or buy land on a private estate, WITHOUT a Premium membership)
• You get paid $L300 weekly
• After 45 days, there's a one-time $L1,000 bonus
• You have access to a higher level of tech support for certain problems
• You can belong to 60 groups (Basic members can belong to 42)
• You have access to a few Premium-only locations
• Linden Lab gives out gifts to Premium members every now and again.  The latest one was a funky Volkswagen bus.

[Nalates Urriah]

GAME!?! This ain't no stinking GAME! 

I'm teasing. Whether SL is a game or not is a long and old debate. A couple of years ago someone jokingly called it an inventory management game. (Reference) For those of us playing in SL the comment touched a tender point. I was just posting with a person that had an inventory with 300,000 items. He was crashing and some clueless or devious person told him his inventory was too big. So, he deleted 270,000 items from inventory and still crashes.

So, was the advice giver really clueless and honestly trying to help or were they playing a game and messing with the one crashing? I can debate either side of that one. If SL is an inventory game, does he with the most stuff win? OR is it who can find things fastest in inventory? And when does the game end?

The point to be taken away from this is that different people see and experience SL very differently.

If you approach SL as a game to be won or level up in, you will most likely be confused and frustrated. SL is something between a game and an interactive-movie, something to play with and be enjoyed that you can shape to your desire and imagination. Approach SL as you do RL. Perhaps with more daring. You can jump out of an airplane 3,000m up with no parachute and survive... not even a broken bone...

So, I think the trick for you is to meet some people and to read some of the blogs about Second Life. Get a sense of what is possible and what things are available to you. I like recommending Inara's and my blogs, but those are for the tech of SL. I can't think of any blog or forum post about generally enjoying SL. So, I suggest you open the SL Forum and look at the headings available. Making friends may be a good starting place. Talk to people in-world. Ask questions. Ask for help. But, remain skeptical. SL is just as full of strange messed up people as RL is.

There are new-user places that will help with the mundane tasks of clothes and appearance, teleporting, getting a home, starting businesses, being creative, and of course meeting people. SL is very much like RL. The more we know, the more people we know, and the more we do the richer our experience is. Those that stay in SL the longest are those that interact the most with other people.

This forum has answers. Google will get you to specific answers and subjects. I've been messing around in SL for about 9 years. I am still learning stuff. So, you might consider SL a puzzle game and spend years trying to figure it out. I think those of us that enjoy SL don't really care what it is classed as. We just enjoy what we are doing and that is different for each of us.

[Rolig Loon]

3 minutes ago, Nalates Urriah said:

You can jump out of an airplane 3,000m up with no parachute and survive... not even a broken bone...

Indeed ... until you hit the ground.   Of course, there is that apocryphal story of the airman who bailed out over Alaska and fell 3000m onto a hillside covered with deep power snow, but don't count on copying him.