What has SL taught you about the world?

[Caitlin Tobias]

On 8/9/2021 at 7:33 PM, Alma Palmira said:

What have you discovered about the diverse RL world through the common SL virtual reality?

* That generalization  when it comes to cultures and other countries is (still) a thing.
The moment I mention, or when ppl care to check my profile and discover, I am from The Netherlands, it is assumed I do drugs daily (because apparently legal?!) and I  know my way around Amsterdam and the Red Light District,ergo I must be *in* for some adult action, because: Dutch.

* That there are many kinks and fetishes I had never heard about before I got in SL and by now, 14 years later, I am not even surprised anymore. Live and let live!

 

 and this one, though I would  say  "a lot of Americans, very often expect...." 

 

10 hours ago, Gwin LeShelle said:

That Americans always expect everyone to speak their language but rarely speak any second language themselves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sid Nagy]

Amsterdam, de Wallen, tulips, windmills, wooden shoes, cows, Gouda cheese, a finger in the dijk and joints.
If they heard about all of those they think they are experts about Nederland.   

😆

Edited August 10, 2021 by Sid Nagy
The English word for dijk seems inaporopriate on the forums.

[Maryanne Solo]

40 minutes ago, Sid Nagy said:

Amsterdam, de Wallen, tulips, windmills, wooden shoes, cows, Gouda cheese, a finger in the dijk and joints.
If they heard about all of those they think they are experts about Nederland.   

😆

CLOGS! 🤔 - jeeeez. 
Don't you peeps know nuffin? 🤭

[Akane Nacht]

That there are a lot of incredibly techincally skilled people, happy to share their knowledge with others for scripting, building, texturing etc. SL has been a mini school for me. 

Also, that Japanese players find it cute that non-Japanese name their avies after anime characters. 😅

[Sid Nagy]

7 hours ago, Maryanne Solo said:

CLOGS! 🤔 - jeeeez. 
Don't you peeps know nuffin? 🤭

There are rumors that there must be a farmer somewhere near Tietjerksteradeel who still uses them.
 

[Rat Luv]

11 hours ago, Sid Nagy said:

Amsterdam, de Wallen, tulips, windmills, wooden shoes, cows, Gouda cheese, a finger in the dijk and joints.

But that's all true! Plus darts 🎯*

I also learned from SL: "Don't mess with Texas" 😮

On a personal level, I actually had my first ever Japanese lessons on SL, before it was easy to find sites like Japanese Pod 101 or Misa's YT channel 🙂 きょうねずみ-さんがコーヒーをのんだ (I didn't say I was good at it!)

(* only joking!)

[Maitimo]

14 hours ago, Hyperplexed said:

 and that BOM can be used regardless if a mesh has "SL Default UVs" or not. 

It can - the new Dinkies use BOM on a completely non-standard UV. It looks obviously wrong on the classic body but correct on the mesh.  I have also used BOM on other attachments including furry avatar legs, even jeans cuffs and a "bulge" for my underwear, with adjustment of the texture scale and offset. 

What you can't do is wear a regular BOM skin on, say a Dinkie, and expect it to work. The BOM layer has to be made to fit the actual mesh you're wearing.

[Taramafor]

Expreince comes from Furcadia and SL alike. Lives and sanity have been lost, so pay attention. Otherwise it could be you.

People had concerns. No one wanted to hear them. Too busy trying to pretend only fun exists and escaping from situations instead of facing/confronting them.

That's it. The end. I'm not going to go into a sob story about it. But treat online like it's "just a game" and that could be why your inconsidirate ass has the issues you do. As you live in fear and make excuses to never address context? This circles back on others. Who in turn start having similar issues.

Depression. Despair. Suicidal tendancies. All because people go "It's just a game." No, it's YOU that has the issues. It's YOU that is hypocrite when you play the blame game and never take responsibility for anything. I honestly hate people like that. Where's the understanding there? There isn't any. You just want to make a target when you do that.

To this I say I keep in mind the other persons mental and physical well being at all times. And will question and challenge their logic at every turn. Questions. Asking each other. Addresing concerns. getting the full story. It's life. But it's also SL even if people pretend otherwise. Pretend otherwise and it's denial. And I can't trust an idiot that doesn't use their brain. That doesn't mean I need someones life stroy. It does mean I know when someone makes excuses and contradicts themselves. It's not assumption, it's observation. If you can't handle the truth then you don't value honesty even if you claim too. Or if you do then that's even worse and you betray everything you claim to stand for when you only have your own viewpoint and never listen.

I can trust an honest hypocrite. I can't trust someone that has their own head so far up their ass that they never ask or get the full story. Fun happens when concerns get addressed. That means take SL seriously. And if you can't do that then you're a weak fragile person that can't handle it. Do you really want that?

Got a slave lately. Been fun breaking them to be stronger. Questions, corrections. Honesty and straight answers. But for honesty there must be answers. And you won't get them by fleeing and escaping. The lack of considiration for others will harm you in the end as well. Want to know why people are drama when you're desperate for fun? Probably because you don't try to be understadning when people have concerns. Or if you do try, your approach is flawed. Then you're the one with issues. Maybe you feel like you'll never fun and end up isloating yourself even online. As a gun or a knife or a bottle of pills starts to look tempting. This is a daily occurrence by the way.

Man... And people say SL is just a game. Ignorant fools. Have the fun. But never turn a blind eye to danger. And that danger is trying to escape. Being weak. Fragile. Delicate. Soft. I actually enjoy helping people. It benefits me. It's just easier to have fun when people talk and listen to each other and address concerns.

Not saying don't be weak btw. But I am saying do better when you are. It can even be fun. I got a slave latey but I also enjoy aiming to please others and can be on the leash. The trick to it all is to make the best of any situation. Which you only really learn when you been in the worst. After going through "Darth vader" to the point of apathy, it's childs play now. I can adapt and bounce back in any situation. Even to the point I get degraded and talked down too as I point out hypocrisy and corrections which ends up in *****ing. Do you get that skill and talent by only escaping? Hell no!

Deal with the serious and learn to play in it and you can have fun anywhere at any time. Life will teach you the hard way if you don't try too. Be it online or offline. Better on your terms, right?

Edited August 12, 2021 by Taramafor

[Hyperplexed]

18 hours ago, Maitimo said:

It can - the new Dinkies use BOM on a completely non-standard UV. It looks obviously wrong on the classic body but correct on the mesh.  I have also used BOM on other attachments including furry avatar legs, even jeans cuffs and a "bulge" for my underwear, with adjustment of the texture scale and offset. 

What you can't do is wear a regular BOM skin on, say a Dinkie, and expect it to work. The BOM layer has to be made to fit the actual mesh you're wearing.

I know it can... you know it can... but go try having that discussion with a "regular" person. Because according to their gospel, THOU SHALL NOT USE BOM WITH NON SL DEFAULT UVS! I'm not even kidding:

Quote

XXX: You're full of *****.

XXX: You're still using proprietary skins. It's not true bom. The whole purpose of bom is to be able to use anyone's skins on ANY body. In those pictures the only thing you can use in there are AES compatible textures.

So, I just quit trying to educate people. I just muted all groups where I used to help, because people think they know better and I don't want to have dumb discussions or be insulted.

[cunomar]

I reckon you have to have lived a somewhat sheltered life if SL taught you anything about life .  Though I suppose for me its had me stop looking for the best in people .

[Chroma Starlight]

You can't depend on the integrity of community leaders nor on the decency of society to keep you safe enough to flourish if you are not also extremely extroverted and popular and constantly and intensely projecting your own image in a manner that's universally "readable" lest others broadcast just about anything at all that they please in order to completely jam you, your vision, and your own definition of who you actually are on the inside from ever been seen by anyone else at all ever, like you have no voice, like magic made you invisible or worse than invisible, and nobody explained to you what's happening or why it is happening or what you did to deserve this fate, or worse still, they tried to and you realized that they are completely deluded about you, and so you explain this to them, pointing out just about everything they are saying is almost offensively wrong, but they refuse to listen and imperiously try to lecture to you about how you're simply mistaken, as if they have some sort of basis to claim they know anything about you, which they clearly have demonstrated that they do not. And so you are left to simply just wonder, "where's it all coming from?" It's such a focused thing, it seems as if it must have sole authorship, but ain't nobody standing out in a spotlight with microphone pointing at you. It's just all the effects of that occurring raining into your life like it's some cosmic joke, only they delivered it to the wrong address like a confused SWAT team. Well, that's society online for you, as taught by Second Life 2004-2015 and beyond.

Edited August 12, 2021 by Chroma Starlight

[Paladin Tyran]

OMG, just reading all the posts till now, it seems that everyone used SL to learn about the great meaning of life .. for my part, I just learned to have decent virtual sex .. still learning i guess...

[ValKalAstra]

My experiences haven't even hit the one year mark yet but something I have learned from Second Life was a bit of a disappointment. That when given the ability to be anyone you want, many people chose angry, bitter and spiteful. Which just makes me want to hug people.

The other aspect was an interesting insight into how a gamified system can teach complex and abstract knowledge. Namely, that casual users in SL have got a curious amount of of very technical, specialised knowledge.

Textures, vertices, LOD, DOF, meshes, you name it. All of that taught through necessity in SL. I found that kind of cool and also amusing. To see people technobabble about FPS, latency, memory limits, caches and what not - and then not understand very basic computer use.

It's like people learned rocket science without being able to open a door.

[Ceka Cianci]

All I can really think of is, Learning about other peoples countries and places from people that live in them, rather than getting that information from systems that wanted me to think of those people and places in a different way..

I never really met too many people from around the world until I made a bunch of friends from around the world in SL..

So if there is anything, it's that.

[rasterscan]

What has SL taught you about the world?

To tread carefully. In both worlds.

 

 

[Silent Mistwalker]

On 8/10/2021 at 2:54 PM, Hyperplexed said:

Overall, I feel a bit disenchanted with SL. I have been a gamer all my life, since I was a kid, I have always helped other gamers modding their games, for free and because I like to educate people, it gives me a sense of accomplishment. But in SL, when I try to do it, I am barraged with attacks and insults, as if my good will, decades long experience with 3D and working with game engines is worth nothing. It is truly frustrating and disappointing, and I decided today I will no longer try to help anyone in SL. I'm done.

 Just my freaking luck. I bet you could have helped me learn how to create textures from those stupid "AO maps" using GIMP. I seem to have the opposite problem. I haven't been able to find anyone willing to teach me via text since I have hearing loss. Oh well. Back to the old drawing board. Oh wait. I pitched it out the window. Crap. 💸 

[Silent Mistwalker]

On 8/11/2021 at 12:20 AM, Sid Nagy said:

There are rumors that there must be a farmer somewhere near Tietjerksteradeel who still uses them.
 

I see what you did there. 🤭

[Silent Mistwalker]

On 8/12/2021 at 7:58 AM, Chroma Starlight said:

You can't depend on the integrity of community leaders nor on the decency of society to keep you safe enough to flourish if you are not also extremely extroverted and popular and constantly and intensely projecting your own image in a manner that's universally "readable" lest others broadcast just about anything at all that they please in order to completely jam you, your vision, and your own definition of who you actually are on the inside from ever been seen by anyone else at all ever, like you have no voice, like magic made you invisible or worse than invisible, and nobody explained to you what's happening or why it is happening or what you did to deserve this fate, or worse still, they tried to and you realized that they are completely deluded about you, and so you explain this to them, pointing out just about everything they are saying is almost offensively wrong, but they refuse to listen and imperiously try to lecture to you about how you're simply mistaken, as if they have some sort of basis to claim they know anything about you, which they clearly have demonstrated that they do not.

tl;dr

 

https://blog.inkforall.com/run-on-sentence

[Silent Mistwalker]

On 8/12/2021 at 12:35 PM, Paladin Tyran said:

OMG, just reading all the posts till now, it seems that everyone used SL to learn about the great meaning of life .. for my part, I just learned to have decent virtual sex .. still learning i guess...

I'm so glad my name isn't Everyone.  🤭

[LittleMe Jewell]

On 8/10/2021 at 6:09 AM, Gwin LeShelle said:

That Americans always expect everyone to speak their language but rarely speak any second language themselves.

I wouldn't say that all of us always expect it, but most of us probably do at least hope for it.  

Part of this is because, as a whole, Americans are not really encouraged to learn another language.  Whereas, in many other countries, learning a second, and even a third, language is mandatory in their schooling.  I am always grateful for that whenever I am conversing with folks that are not native English speakers. Even the ones that somewhat butcher it do far better than I do when I'm attempting any other language.

[Gwin LeShelle]

1 hour ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

I wouldn't say that all of us always expect it, but most of us probably do at least hope for it.  

Part of this is because, as a whole, Americans are not really encouraged to learn another language.  Whereas, in many other countries, learning a second, and even a third, language is mandatory in their schooling.  I am always grateful for that whenever I am conversing with folks that are not native English speakers. Even the ones that somewhat butcher it do far better than I do when I'm attempting any other language.

Yes I learned languages in school and later also because I loved languages, I speak 5 languages near fluent and some more I am good at understanding and reading, and some others I can only speak different words for foods haha but this really surprised me back then, because when you learn about the USA in school and the rich history and background you would expect that many of their ancestors languages would have been teached in the families or school. So to me this was a very surprising experience! Not a bad one to make it clear, just unexpected (~‾▿‾)~

[Pussycat Catnap]

On 8/9/2021 at 10:33 AM, Alma Palmira said:

These and hundreds of others of interactions with real people behind fanciful avatars have taught me that the world is much smaller with far more diversity and similarity than can be imagined. Here are a few lessons that added clarity to my life.

That's one of the things I learned through a poly-sci degree:

We're more alike in the places we think we're different, and less alike in the places we presume we're similar...

Cases in point:

Some "basic common sense manners" are not basic, common, or even considered polite 5 miles away from where a given 'you' is from...

Yet on many issues of 'ideology / politics / religion' over which people fight - as soon as you remove the 'phrasing / slanting / etc' that leaders use to get people against each other - we find that people tend to hold about 80% of the same core stances on these topics. And the remaining 20% can be anything big or small - not specifically the "important topics".

 

SL is a microcosm of people fighting over things they actually agree on, and ignoring things they disagree on - basic humanity...

 

Edited August 17, 2021 by Pussycat Catnap

[Adamburp Adamczyk]

it's taught me that in SL I can collect toilets, and walk down the road in just my underpants.

 

In RL I'd have to explain to a Judge, and have a lifetime membership to dynorod

[Silent Mistwalker]

3 hours ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

I wouldn't say that all of us always expect it, but most of us probably do at least hope for it.  

Part of this is because, as a whole, Americans are not really encouraged to learn another language.  Whereas, in many other countries, learning a second, and even a third, language is mandatory in their schooling.  I am always grateful for that whenever I am conversing with folks that are not native English speakers. Even the ones that somewhat butcher it do far better than I do when I'm attempting any other language.

When I was still in grammar school, taking a foreign language was mandatory. We had a choice of French or Spanish. Not much of a choice, but a choice nonetheless. While that may not have been true of all schools in all states, it was true of the majority. That should never have changed. 

Only problem is, you forget what you don't use over time. Most of us never had opportunity to keep our language skills up. As far as encountering someone that speaks my native language, there are only a couple thousand of us left, most over 65.

 

[LittleMe Jewell]

3 hours ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

When I was still in grammar school, taking a foreign language was mandatory. We had a choice of French or Spanish. Not much of a choice, but a choice nonetheless. While that may not have been true of all schools in all states, it was true of the majority. That should never have changed. 

Only problem is, you forget what you don't use over time. Most of us never had opportunity to keep our language skills up. As far as encountering someone that speaks my native language, there are only a couple thousand of us left, most over 65.

 

We were required, in junior high (now called middle school), to take one semester of French or Spanish.  So, we all did that and then probably 75% or more did not take any more and thus forgot it all (or most of it -- I can still count to 500 in Spanish).