I'm Lost in Second Life..

[Co Bunny]

Hey there so, I've been on second life for a few years now and I still don't get it. Everyone has these awesome stories and views on the game and I am like the one person who just sits there blank like "I don't get it.." Let me explain.

I want to be apart of the Second Life community but I am not sure where I belong or how to make the experience great for me. Most people came here in search of something but for me all I know is that this 3D World is pretty cool and I want to be apart of it, I want to experience all it has to offer but I am completely lost as it relates to which direction to go, what to do, what is my thing? 

Has anyone else ever experienced that or is it just me going through it? As a result I was just logging in, shopping on marketplace then logging off. Emptied my profile not to long ago and cleaned my inventory to take a break hoping maybe an idea comes to me. Just thought I'd share on the forum as well since I've never actually used this platform.

 

Any tips or advice would be great. 

Edited May 12, 2019 by FashionEye

[Profaitchikenz Haiku]

Without knowing what you like or loathe it's going to be hard to offer any specific advice. My suggestion is you use the search function and type words into the "places" field, then go around them seeing what's going on there. If you have a specific thing you'd like to do such as roleplay this approach will lead you to those sorts of places. If you are more interested in exploring or adventures then the sort of phrase you put in will also find some possible destinations. If you don;t know what you want to do then just pick random words like "marmalade" or "phantom" and hope to be surprised.

SL responds well to people who go out there and look around, and poorly to people who stand in a corner and ask "where is everyone?"

Good luck

[Ceka Cianci]

I usually just go where the wind takes me..If all else fails,I'll find a club with lots of people and stop in there and either someone will IM me or I'll jump in on a conversation that is going on in the general chat..

There is a lot of information that has inspired me from meeting people at the clubs.. After all,a lot of them are just going there to take a break from what they do in SL as well.. I've learned a lot over the years from the people I've met in the clubs..

It's a good place to go when you are bored or kind of wondering what to do next.. There is music ,dancing and people..Just ignore any cliques that come along is all..hehehe

If I shop,it's usually for what I feel like doing later or if I'm working on a specific thing..

[Co Bunny]

Thanks for responding guys will try these! 

[Skell Dagger]

Trying to 'get' Second Life can be like trying to force yourself to go to sleep on a night when insomnia has struck. The more you try, the more wide awake you are. Eventually, after five or six hours of tossing and turning, you get up at 5am and then you're finally falling asleep at your desk around midday. In short: from your post it seems that you're trying too hard to 'get' Second Life, and once that desperation begins to seep in that's when you feel like nothing is going to work.

I think what is key here are the words I've highlighted below:

54 minutes ago, FashionEye said:

I want to experience all it has to offer but I am completely lost as it relates to which direction to go, what to do, what is my thing?

I've been here for almost 12 years and I've not yet experienced all that SL has to offer. The woods as a whole are beautiful and overwhelmingly huge, but over the years I've examined different trees until I've found the ones that I love.

Which 'trees' have you tried? Which 'trees' catch your interest in real life? What has hooked you so far? What piqued your interest a bit, but maybe didn't pan out when you approached it one way; could you approach it another way?

Are you the kind of person who experiences things best when you're in a crowd of friends, or even just with one other person?

What haven't you tried? Expand your boundaries and go for something completely out of your comfort zone. Maybe get a cheap vehicle and start travelling the roads of SL. Maybe set up a free blog and write about what you find on your journey.

The thing that really hooked me (outside of my partner being here) was building. Sure, people want nice mesh stuff these days, and that requires a lot of study as well as outside programs, but people still buy my old prim creations, too. Then I found SL roleplay, which - admittedly - has changed over the years inworld, and I no longer partake in it. Then I found fashion, which I'm still heavily involved in. And now I've also found another niche in helping people to look good with mesh avatars, which led to my becoming a CSR for a major brand inworld, and I also help out here on the forums.

You say that you've been a resident for a few years, but don't state how many years. I know that SL has changed immeasurably in recent years with the introduction of mesh. It's become more consumer-based, whereas before it was more creator-based. Sure, we could all pick up Blender now and spend hours going through tutorials on YouTube, but back then we could all point at the ground and raise a house with just a bit of trial and error. (Of course, we still can do that, but the market for buying it has decreased considerably. That's not to say you can't still enjoy building in prims, though, and the market is still there to a lesser extent.) However, I completely lost interest in building at that point, because I couldn't be bothered to invest a lot of time in learning a completely new program. So I moved my creative urges toward fashion in SL, and I now invest money instead

Good roleplay is also getting harder to find, with many of the larger themed locations shutting down and roleplay moving more toward family-style living: Mom, Dad, kids, and people wanting 'sisters' to hang around with. I think a lot of it boils down to people wanting to be around and be sociable with other people (yes, even loners like me), be that here on the forum, chatting in inworld groups, roleplaying in a large urban region or with a small 'family' of friends, etc.

54 minutes ago, FashionEye said:

I am not sure where I belong or how to make the experience great for me.

The experience of SL is like the experience of RL. More often than not, for a lot of people, it's not great; it just is. Some people grab life by the horns and go balls-out to experience every single thing: off-road, off-piste, off the hook. But many of us let life wash over us and take us where it will. Oftentimes that can be more enjoyable, because it takes us places we never even dreamed of. As shown by my 'resumé' earlier in my post, my niche in SL has changed as I've moved through the years and let SL wash over me. As Ceka said: go where the wind takes you.

Second Life - no matter how cool a 3D world - just isn't for some people, and that's absolutely fine, too. If you really can't 'get it' that doesn't mean there's something wrong with either you or it. It just means that particular relationship didn't work out

Edited May 12, 2019 by Skell Dagger

[Selene Gregoire]

4 hours ago, Skell Dagger said:

Second Life - no matter how cool a 3D world - just isn't for some people, and that's absolutely fine, too. If you really can't 'get it' that doesn't mean there's something wrong with either you or it. It just means that particular relationship didn't work out

And some of us are just too damned stubborn to give up completely, even after walking away for 4 years.

[Madelaine McMasters]

52 minutes ago, Selene Gregoire said:

even after walking away for 4 years.

That's a lot of walking. Did you grab an Uber to get back?

[Selene Gregoire]

1 hour ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

That's a lot of walking. Did you grab an Uber to get back?

Gas, grass or @$$, nobody rides for free. 

[BelindaN]

Just go with the flow. Don't try to plan too hard. Go to clubs like Ceka suggested. Go to beaches. Go to scenic sims. Engage with people. Every so often you'll make a friend.  Let those friendships grow. Give it time. It will grow organically.

[MoiraKathleen]

Another thing that is popular is taking pictures.  That fits in with a lot of different things - taking pictures of places you visit that you enjoy, taking pictures of things that you do as a record for yourself, being inspired by a location to go shop for a particular look to wear when taking pictures at that location...   Play around with the camera tool in the viewer.   There is an option in the camera tool to save the pictures to your hard drive which eliminates the L$10 fee for saving the picture to your inventory (and also make it easier to do things like post pictures here in the forum or on Flickr).    There are several photo threads here in the forum.  Mixed in with the photo threads is a lot of advice and tips for taking pictures in SL.  There is a very active SL community on Flickr.

[Polenth Yue]

You could try visiting some of the big events. Raglan Shire's ArtWalk (http://raglanshire.com/) is happening now. SciFi Con starts in a few days (https://scificonventionsl.wordpress.com/). Fantasy Faire (https://fantasyfairesl.wordpress.com/) is over for this year, but people do still talk in the group, and it'll be around again soon enough.

The advantage of the big events is they usually have an active group, run well-attended parties, and have things you can explore on your own. It deals with the issue of general community sims, where it can be hard to figure out when people will be there. Also, once you get involved in one event, you'll find people will talk about others on the groups.

If you enjoy hunts and games, MadPea is worth checking out. The group is pretty active, especially during the seasonal hunts.

I'm emphasising groups because you're more likely to find people to chat in groups than by wandering around. Groups also mean you'll get reminders of when things are happening.

[Arduenn Schwartzman]

Getting Second Life? After many decades, I'm still struggling with getting First Life and what my God-given purpose here on this Earth is supposed to be. It's almost like Second Life is trying to borrow from First Life's biggest mystery.

In the mean time, I just pass time in SL making stuff.

[Gabriele Graves]

Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is you must see it for yourself.

 

[Amina Sopwith]

My experience of SL is that, getting its real potential requires a proper time commitment. I don't have that time these days, but since I have had in the past, I know what it's about and I can still enjoy myself just exploring on the snatched bits of time I get inworld. If I didn't have that experience in the past, though, I don't think it would hold my attention now. RP in varying forms was where it was at for me. Never really been into SL clubs, unless I was with friends or a partner, and while I liked having a well turned out av, shopping and styling couldn't hold my attention for too long either. Not unless I was putting together an av and costume for an RP character, then I could happily spend ages on it.

It may be that SL just isn't your thing and there's nothing wrong with that. In many cases it's probably for the best, although we don't like to think that. I'd suggest you just think of something that interests you (anything, even and especially things that don't exist in RL), seek out those places and just explore.

[Lindal Kidd]

Hi FashionEye!

SL is so MANY things.  Figure out the parts you like and concentrate on those.

By the way, "apart" and "a part" are two completely different things.  You can be a part of an SL community (that is, you are a member of a group and participate in its activities).  Or you can stand apart, by yourself, and not be a part of things.

See what I did there?

You're welcome!

Sincerely, the Grammar Police

[Bree Giffen]

I often meet people who are into something in SL that I'm not interested in or had no idea existed. Even really new residents seem to have some particular obsession. All I can suggest is follow your interests but also talk to people in SL and see if they are doing something you aren't aware of.