What influences the way you play?

[cheesecurd]

Did you grow up in a weird household, pick up a strange tradition or do you normally do something abnormal, and does it affect your second life? 
Plain and simple. Anything from the weird to the dysfunctional to if you use SL to escape. Share your story if you like.

I come from an American family that had a very lax stance on nudity at home, nothing was encouraged but nothing was discouraged. There was a bit of drama in my early teens because I knew that it wasn’t normal, but it was a bit of a shock to learn from a school counselor exactly how uncommon that was specifically in the United States. But that’s a whole other story.

As a result I tend to spend a lot of my time in SL in M rated nude communities, even if it’s not the focus for me being there, it’s nice to have people to talk to on a similar ground that understand that a lot better than most. My SecondLife avatar doesn’t need to do that but it’s something I naturally gravitated to as part of my own life.

Any similar stories any of you might want to share are welcomed, what influences the way you play SL?

Edited January 9, 2020 by cheesecurd

[Alyona Su]

But, if it's normal to me and not to you, how will I know it's not "normal"? Just asking.

I ran around in public naked because SL glitched my clothes and put my hair and tennis shoes up my but after a magical teleportation from one place to another once. Does that count?

[cheesecurd]

8 minutes ago, Alyona Su said:

But, if it's normal to me and not to you, how will I know it's not "normal"? Just asking.

You would presumably know what is and isn’t normal compared to your greater social culture around you.

A person may bathe in orange juice and clearly that’s abnormal, and anyone with more than 2 brain cells would learn pretty quick “hey, nobody else is bathing in orange juice and everyone I talk to about it thinks I’m nuts.”

 

[Ceka Cianci]

I've been skinny dipping with my friends back in high school so many times at our creek,It might as well of been called a nude beach..hehehe

That creek is so clean ,you could drink the water while you swam..

We just made sure we were upstream from the boys before we did that though..hehehehe

[brodiac90]

Somewhat related to the nudity thing, being European I'm used to wearing speedos while in the US I know it is very frowned upon. Because it is what I'm used to, if James my child Avi goes to the beach, then I'll have him don a pair of speedos too. 

[Pomeline Pancake]

I have ASD. Sensory dysregulation and stimming affects the way I appear in the real world. Last year in sl I started experimenting with wearing headphones and sunglasses on occasion. Just like rl. It's been so much fun finding animations (stims) to occupy my bento hands too.

Though in previous years all I wanted was to pass for normal in sl. There was a big struggle between how I wished to appear, and who I really am. Now I'm direct about being a weirdo. Progress. :3

Thank you for the topic.

Edited January 9, 2020 by kateofarc
typo

[Pussycat Catnap]

4 hours ago, cheesecurd said:

I come from an American family that had a very lax stance on nudity at home, nothing was encouraged but nothing was discouraged. There was a bit of drama in my early teens because I knew that it wasn’t normal, but it was a bit of a shock to learn from a school counselor exactly how uncommon that was specifically in the United States. But that’s a whole other story.

There's a case right now in the USA, I forget which state. A woman is being charged as a sex offender because she was topless... inside her own home... and the kids saw it... and somehow someone heard mention of it... so she was arrested and will be labeled in the same category as a violent stranger abducting rapist...

Parts of the US are just... out of hand...

In SL I am almost always nude. In part this is a reflection of how I wish my RL could be, but cannot be, because...
...USA... where folks can enter a Walmart with a submachine gun in hand, but a woman going topless while painting the walls inside her house is more dangerous than a serial rapist...

I probably am their use case for paranoia too... I find the nudism sensual, erotic. That makes me especially scary to nudists... because they're desperate to have a 'we're all monks and nuns here' image...

- In SL I actively make a point of avoiding G regions, and if I have to go I remove my whole avatar and just wear a full body alpha. Putting on clothing is the exception I will do when some random mood strikes - SL nudity is the default.

[SpiritSparrow Skydancer]

12 hours ago, brodiac90 said:

Somewhat related to the nudity thing, being European I'm used to wearing speedos while in the US I know it is very frowned upon. Because it is what I'm used to, if James my child Avi goes to the beach, then I'll have him don a pair of speedos too. 

Not that we frown upon them its just some men just should not be wearing them.. but then again, I will be wearing a 2 piece at the beach until I am 90 so..

Edited January 10, 2020 by Tarina Sewell

[Tolya Ugajin]

I can't think of much from RL that influences how I "play" SL, other than an extreme paranoia that the sorts of thing I get up to in SL (tying women up, flogging them, leading them around on leashes, not to mention having a huge library of kink and art gallery of kinkier) becoming known in my professional RL (I'm in a senior level Human Resources position), which causes me to be extra careful about how much information I share.  Can't imagine that would play well with things like sexual harassment claims, diversity education, etc., not to mention the jokes it would inspire training and advising managers on disciplinary procedures.  Now, since I'm marrying someone from SL, and of course everyone wants to know how we met, I'm more paranoid than ever of this, but it's RL people I have to be careful with.

I did have a thing for years about having a cigar attachment going in SL whenever I smoked one in RL, but after a while I just got lazy and now leave it on all the time, until I inevitably attach an erotic painting to my right hand by mistake.  Once they legalize dope federally here in the US, I'll switch it to a virtual joint and my avatar will be baked 24/7.

[Arduenn Schwartzman]

I'll just leave this cultural heritage-related  image here. As far as these guys are concerned, they're in formal dress. Totally normal.

Edited January 10, 2020 by Arduenn Schwartzman

[BelindaN]

In SL I have freedom to dress up, explore, hang out anywhere and push my own boundaries and beliefs. This is all much harder to do in RL, so passing through the portal into SL provides me with relaxation and recreation which I simply love, and helps me cope with RL stress.

 

[Caroline Takeda]

21 hours ago, cheesecurd said:

You would presumably know what is and isn’t normal compared to your greater social culture around you.

A person may bathe in orange juice and clearly that’s abnormal, and anyone with more than 2 brain cells would learn pretty quick “hey, nobody else is bathing in orange juice and everyone I talk to about it thinks I’m nuts.”

 

You mean like him?

 

[Maitimo]

Interesting question, and I have to say I really don't know. My RL both past and present is conservatively boring (in the non-political sense of the word conservative). 

What has thrown a real curveball for me is how much I am enjoying being femme in SL, to the point that I may have already transitioned to being an actual girl. And I love it. And I have no idea why; I do not identify as female or femme or even non-binary in RL, and have no desire to transition in RL.

I might even keep the boobs. Just little ones...

[Charles Blackwood]

I really enjoy reading and playing with words.

In real life I am not flirtatious AT ALL unless of course I'm in my super close circle of friends, then I try to take over.

I don't flirt or make sexual innuendoes outside of this group because that is how I was raised. I was raised to respect people's private space but also because a joke is not funny unless you are certain people share your silly sense of humour. I majored in literature for this very reason. I couldn't speak a word of English when we immigrated and I went a little overboard trying to catch up.

But I am myself in SL.

I go to dirty places and clean places. I am open and talk to everybody about anything. But like real life, I often just keep to myself.

[Seicher Rae]

I can't say I do anything terribly abnormal in SL because of my RL upbringing. I rarely play SL, so I'm basically RL me with extra options in SL. Like I can fly. And I can fly in BDSM terms as well, as it is not possible in RL any more. I'm shy in RL, shy in SL. I attend group meetings for mental health in SL because I prefer them to the similar things in RL (ick). I shop too much in SL because I can't shop in RL. N stuff like that. Kinks aside, I'm pretty vanilla in most things in SL.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

5 minutes ago, Seicher Rae said:

I'm basically RL me with extra options in SL.

Yeah. This. Except the extra options are boring.

In theoretical terms (and to use a language that now seems strangely dated), I'm a passionate Immersionist who can't, herself, manage to get very far past being an Augmentationist. What I value about SL most, in some ways, is the power to do different things. It's just that I, myself, am strangely uninterested (or constitutionally incapable) of not being, acting, and sounding like RL me.

I'm excessively vanilla in both RL and SL. Probably I'm the best soporific that SL has to offer. It's 3 am, and you can't sleep? Shoot me an IM, and I'll fix you right up.

[Seicher Rae]

33 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Yeah. This. Except the extra options are boring.

In theoretical terms (and to use a language that now seems strangely dated), I'm a passionate Immersionist who can't, herself, manage to get very far past being an Augmentationist. What I value about SL most, in some ways, is the power to do different things. It's just that I, myself, am strangely uninterested (or constitutionally incapable) of not being, acting, and sounding like RL me.

I'm excessively vanilla in both RL and SL. Probably I'm the best soporific that SL has to offer. It's 3 am, and you can't sleep? Shoot me an IM, and I'll fix you right up.

I'm also a passionate Immersionist who... doesn't. Not for a long while. I haz theories as to why. I'm fairly constitutionally incapable of not being RL me in SL, much to my annoyance. When I first started, for example, I was sure that I could be an extrovert in SL whereas I'm an avowed introvert in RL. Nope, nope and more nope. Still an introvert, now in two lives.

I do have to point out that I have caught you posting  boldfaced lies here. As such, you will be shunned by all who come to read this. I have IM'd you at wee hours, and the conversation has been anything but soporific. It has been fast-paced and enjoyable. To totally confuse readers, it also was not about politics. So that's one lie. The second one is that no one could IM you that late. Each time the talk goes past, what 8 pm your time? you claim you have to go to sleep in RL leaving me to twist in my insomnia. 

Edited January 10, 2020 by Seicher Rae

[Scylla Rhiadra]

19 minutes ago, Seicher Rae said:

So that's one lie. The second one is that no one could IM you that late. Each time the talk goes past, what 8 pm your time? you claim you have to go to sleep in RL leaving me to twist in my insomnia.

As you observed at the time, I think, I am a wus.

[Ted McGregor]

17 minutes ago, Seicher Rae said:

Each time the talk goes past, what 8 pm your time? you claim you have to go to sleep in RL leaving me to twist in my insomnia. 

You have personal Scylla IM sessions outside these forums and you STILL suffer insomnia ?

Sorry. Incurable. No hope of healing.

[SpiritSparrow Skydancer]

7 hours ago, Arduenn Schwartzman said:

I'll just leave this cultural heritage-related  image here. As far as these guys are concerned, they're in formal dress. Totally normal.

I mean... I know that circumcision is usually a American thing.. Hey, that is an effective form of birth control for sure.

Edited January 10, 2020 by Tarina Sewell
maybe its just cause its been so long but guy 5th from the left's horn member is awfully thick.

[ArgontheDevil Ormega]

I find that SL is pretty tame compared to my RL.  Of course I have not been able to have an entire kitchen staff in a restaurant fired in SL because there really are no restaurants in SL.  I know there are RP ones but really, it's pretty hard to RP a really badly done meal and mesh food just has no flavor to begin with.  On the other hand, I can't fly in RL no matter how hard I flap my arms.

It's a balancing act.

[rasterscan]

The company I keep, mostly.

[ManuelAngel2004]

I think it's my real-life personality, not really sure, I'm caring and loving irl and I like to have fun so yeah 🤷🏻‍♂️ that may be.