LeonardoMyst

Syo Emerald wrote: How much you spend depends on multiple things: 1. Size Any parcel, no matter if you are a premium member and able to rent directly from LL or just renting from another person, will be primarly priced after its size. The bigger the higher the price. There is something for every pocket, as the smaller landsizes will cost you as much as a fancy big coffee at Starbucks. 2. Location Like RL the "eye candy" costs extra. If a parcel has unblocked ocean view, its usually more expensive (not montly on mainland, but often the previous owner sells the land instead of just abonding it/giving it to LL back). Some private estates also rent their parcels at higher prices, when they have put a lot of love in designing the land around the parcel with a lot of care. Thanks. Since I only use my personal checking account for two bills that autodraft each month, I'll have to determine how much extra to keep on there for SL, if I decide to go that route. So, I'm really attempting to budget before making my decisions.

seanabrady wrote: Welcome to Second Life. Just a couple of quick comments. You might like a visit to Caledon Oxbridge University. You will find plenty of Victorian era inspiration, and will find a great education resource for Second Life. You might also really enjoy some of the art exhibits at LEA, Linden Endowment for the Arts. They often have a theme that is supernatural, or at least very story driven. Good places to explore. Best of luck, feel free to ask if you have follow ups. Thanks for the great suggestions! LEA is on my to-do list. I'll also check out Firestorm.

Thanks for the help, Dresden. I'll be sure to check out those links. However, I'm curious... about how much per month would I be looking at spending of real money per month just to have a personal house? I don't suppose they have casino-like games that don't have cash-outs? Oh, and the HUD question... If you scroll your mousewheel forward it goes into first person view. I sometimes like to do that to feel more immersed in the environment. However, I'm afraid someone may want to talk and I would not see the messages. I wouldn't want them to think I was ignoring them.

I'm rather new to Second Life. Actually, I started a little less than a week ago. I almost didn't stick with it because I found it a bit sluggish on my laptop. However, after researching, I discovered some optimum tweaks for the settings and it's running much smoother now. I'm familiar with the virtual world concept after being on Playstation Home for a couple years, so I have that going for me. Back in 2012 I had a real life crisis with my mom dying and me taking a hard look at my real life job. I ended up quitting a really good paying job that I found unethical and had a terrible work/life balance. Although it was the best thing I could've done for myself it crippled me financially. I was living alone in the only non-government housing apartments in my town and after quitting my job a lot of places either found me overqualified or questioned why a store manager would quit and seek a less paying occupation. Needless to say, I still had a lease to pay. So for a few months I managed to make my rent by selling almost everything I owned. My PS3 was one of the things I had to let go of. Now, things are better. I've had a couple jobs since then and now that I have a partner that I live with, I don't feel like I have to sell myself short by settling for a job that I don't feel comfortable doing. Currently unemployed but more due to my moving to another state. Now... I had been telling myself that one day I would get a PS3 again and return to my virtual residence. However, after the recent news of Sony shutting Home down, I've been looking for an alternative. Second Life looks like it may fit the bill. I'm actually looking for a bit of guidance here and some comparisons to help me make a smooth transition. What I'm going to do is list what I liked about Home and my avatar/residence settings and ask for the best Second Life alternatives to replace them with. I will also list the Second Life locations that I have enjoyed visiting the most so far and see if anyone has more suggestions. In PSHome, I was known as LeeStone71 (because I goofed and didn't know your login would be your avatar name) and I generally dressed in Victorian suits, complete with top hat, monocle and cane. Sometimes I would swap the cane out for a magic wand. I fashioned my character as a mix of a classic stage magician and a Victorian gentleman. I had several houses (estates) on Home but my favorites were the Cutteridge Estate and Hollywood Hills. If you need info on these two, there are some well made videos on youtube that show them off. I also liked Darla's Den, which was a personal area of the Midway Carnival. Those three are where I spent a lot of time when I wanted to relax. Cutteridge Estate was a spooky house, perfect for mystery dinners or reading gothic novels (in real life- I just left it on for the ambiance of the background sounds when reading). I had some photos and paintings I had decorated it with. Namely, a really haunting image of Jean Harlow I found and a couple pieces from the Artmagick website. And I had put a fortune teller machine (Shandor) in, as well. He made more noises that fit with the ambiance and was interactive. The last piece I had that was important was a grandfather clock that kept real time and chimed every hour. At Hollywood Hills I had my tv which played Crackle and RadioIO. And I had decorated it with old Hollywood glamour shots of movie stars, as well as working arcade cabinets and a pool table. Darla's Den had a carnival look and I also put arcade cabinets and Shandor there, as well. I decorated with old B-movie posters. Places I enjoyed going the most were the Casino (to play Blackjack, Poker or Bingo), the Carnival (to play the games and take in the sights and sounds) and XI Continuum (the actual game had flopped but the space was beautifully designed). So far in Second Life, I've found myself drawn to Innsmouth (I even gave someone a fortune telling reading while I was there once), the Renaissance Faire, the Victorian New Orleans, one of the libraries, the Velvet Lion, the Museum of Magic & Illusion and the Steampunk event going on. Something I really like about Second Life so far is the more mature environment (as opposed to Home) and the radio streaming (although there was one place I went that was playing music that didn't fit the scenery so I didn't stay there long). I'm kinda curious about getting my own residence but I was wondering the cost factor. If I buy a house, do I need to rent space? Do I need to be a premium member? How hard is it to upload pictures for picture frames? Is there a way to set an ambiance for your house, such as rain and thunder? Are there places like the carnival and casino where one can go to play mini-games? Or would it be more to my benefit to go to a spot like the carnival at Innsmouth and play games on my tablet while there? Also... is there a way to display the HUD or chat box in 1st person view?