What brought you into Second Life?

[Jesica Dragovar]

Same thing that keeps me here, the sky's the limit openness and sheer creativity I've seen in terms of just what you can do in SL It has theoretically be every game you've ever played and then some

[Eve Greymoon]

A friend dragged me into SL back in 2008 to prove a point...he proved it.  And I never left.

What fascinates me about SL is the wide variety of people I get to meet. For me, that has been the biggest draw, and what keeps me here.  It would be unlikely that I would have the opportunity to meet and learn from people from such diverse backgrounds and cultures in the "real" world.

[Harlett Daines]

I was at a district sales meeting when SL first was launched.  I overheard my district mates talking about this new world.  I asked them to explain it, but I had no interest.  

YEARS later, in 2009, I was googling online classrooms.  Second Life was an advertisement on one of the pages.  I recalled my colleagues and decided to check it out.  

Every once in a while, I wonder if I'll ever cross paths with one of them....

[Pussycat Catnap]

The launch party for Poser 7.

But I left right after because well, 90% of SL was just gray untextured stuff, and I was getting about 5 fps or something like it, and had no idea how to do anything.

Came back in 2009 because I was bored one day, and looked up "that thing I'd tried way back when." This time I spent a few days reading blogs about it, and blogs on how to get started in it, before jumping in.

Got hooked the moment I found being a neko in SL was possible - which launched the mission of hitting reload several hundred times on that login page to get the name catnap to come up... multiple times... as 'pussycat' was not my original first choice for a first name...

- The ability to be true to an inner spirit as my avatar. And then the ability to explore sides of my nature I cannot delve into as much in RL hooked me.

 

 What fascinated me? Lots of things continue to facinate me. I think what fascinates me the most is how many people do -not- seem to explore beyond a recreation of something similar to RL. They will make a physically 'better looking', 'younger', or 'less fat' version of themselves - and then go about doing things not too different from what they could have done in RL had they been in the 'in crowd' in high school' or if they were in that crowd, attempt to 'pick up where they left off' at graduation.

I find the tinies, furries, child avs, nekos, vampires, robots, and so on to be mundane and normal - not fascinating, but what I would expect people to do given a world of limitless possibilities.

But the humans... that fascinates me as a phenominon I cannot explain. Do they simply not have anything deeper to themselves? I cannot believe that - Life has taught me that stereotypes about how other folks are shallow are ALWAYS false - so I'm fascinated by an inability to explain why they do not explore.

 

 

[Kaluura Boa]

I don't really remember where I read about SL for the first time. It was in 2007, somewhere on Internet for sure, most probably some tech news feed. I found the idea of a totally new world to explore absolutely fascinating.

I checked that a client was available for Linux and I was in... Well, certainly after a looooong time spent creating my name. I had some real fun on the Orientation Island altho everybody --including me-- was a bit shy and didn't talk much. I only regret I didn't keep the snapshot I made on my first day. I also remember that I didn't actually finish the Orientation Island before TP'ing away. I was in a hurry to start exploring.

The really funny thing that I remember from this time is that it took me a week to rez my first cube altho the big "Build" button was right under my nose. A script in it and I turned from hooked to addict...

Aaahhhh... Good ol' time of money trees, camping spots and casinos. :smileywink:

[Rene Erlanger]

Getting ready for work...early morning BBC news was on at the  time.....and there was a mention of an Avatar making a million dollars in a virtual world (i.e Ahnse Chung). 2 weeks later i created an SL account.

[Lucinda Bulloch]

lol, just like me.

[Melita Magic]

The lure of easy money...

I thought I'd put my interest in fashion design into practice using some easy in world tools and make some pocket change.

Still haven't learned how!

[Celebee]

For me, it was when my local newspaper ran an article on two people meeting virtually, which then translated into a real life relationship, before they got married, and the programme that they used was Second Life. That intrigued me, because at that point I was bored, and the idea of virtual worlds sounded really interesting. It was something I had never really experienced before.

So on that very day, I created an avatar and logged in, but at that time, I wasn't earning so my avatar ended up looking pretty ugly compared to the other avatars I found. I got into roleplay in Gor as a slave, but I found it boring (I realise I'm not of a submissive personality now), so I left.

I recently created a new avatar, but left for a few months because of RIFT. I came back after I lost interest in RIFT, signed up for Premium after being convinced by some of the users, and have been here ever since. And, it's been great. I now mainly do a lot of socialising and listening to music and dancing in clubs, and I find it less stressful than when I was concentrating on roleplaying.

[Hikaru Yamamoto]

Around the start of 2003 I was really bored and wanted to play an online game for free, so I went to check the beta section of gamespot.com and there was Second Life beta. I don't remember the description but it talked of creating my own stuff which I thought was amazing. So I signed up to join and waited for weeks to get approved. Everyday after that I only thought of the game. I thought of things I wanted to make and what kind of avatar I wanted to create. After a while I got a notice back saying my computer specs were too low. So I decided to sign up again and this time I lied about my computer. Also I had to write a paragraph about why I wanted to join SL. Then I was approved quickly afterward.

The thing that facinates me most about SL is being able to express myself in the way I want to. Most games just hand you toys to play with and don't leave much room for indiviuality. But in SL I can be whoever I truly want to.

[hazy Cygnet]

smiles i have meet a few that came into game this way ooh u soo should have got them to pay for a sim for u what a shame you didnt thiknk of that .

[hazy Cygnet]

ooh i love the pixel bean coffee shop

[Elite Runner]

One time in 2008, when I was searching Youtube on Fire Alarms I noticed an unusual video about fire alarms in a virtual world. I posted a comment on the Youtube video regarding what virtual world it was and he replied "Second Life", so I went to Google and searched Second Life, signed up an account named Elite Jigsaw and went on my journey in Second Life. This is my second account in Second Life (Ryan R. Elite (Elite Runner)) after my old account Elite Jigsaw went bonkers as I nuked Elite Jigsaw. Once I installed Second Life on my laptop, it seems slow. Then I tried Second Life on the desktop, it runs faster. In 2011, once I got a new computer, and once I tried Second Life under the right configurations, it runs ok.