Lyric Demina

Thank you! ❤️

Maybe an achievement system like this (with all the crazy achievements as well as all the functional achievements combined) would be a good way to build a portfolio with the aim of being a mentor. Someone who has visited 1000 regions. Someone who has built a house from scratch. Someone who has worn an entire folder of trees. All of these "achievements" represent problems that needed solving and therefore can be useful to others who are going to have to solve these problems. Therefore, an achievement system like this would of course be "opt in" for those who wanted to develop that kind of personal record of having done all the things; it's an instant Curriculum Vitae for such stuff as Mentorship.

I know what I did as a brand new avatar in 2007 and that is to search "Groups" and find out if there were groups already formed about stuff I already liked, filled with people who liked what I liked. Searching for niche things like certain Sci-Fi fanbases (Star Wars, Star Trek, Dr Who etc...) and popular books at the time (Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Twilight etc...) or lifelong interests (Ancient Rome, Classical Mythologies, Flying) led me to regions to explore and people to meet who were like-minded and already shared at least one interest to talk about. And in conversing with those people about things we have in common, I learned everything I needed to learn about how the world worked, how the viewer(s) worked, how to get better things done better, and how to really maximize the SL experience. Second Life to me has always been about a "seek-and-ye-shall-find" curiosity that is always gratified whenever I go looking. Searching groups always leads me to new and interesting experiences -- one-offs or long-term.

I decorated a Creek Stone for my friend and found that I wouldn't want a house to be any larger than that, personally. I walled-off a bedroom just off the kitchen, and I added a powder room accessible from outdoors with full plumbing (no need to rough it in the world of fantasy). So no I didn't find it difficult at all to decorate the Creek Stone; I haven't tried the others though. (And I certainly have no trouble landscaping the larger area; I could lay out trees for days...................................)

I agree and actually ANY of the already-released themes on 2048 would be really really good. All the themes are so well done and well landscaped and well presented, just having that extra land-or-water / prim allowance on what we already have would be SUUUUUUUUPER.

In the great rush to get Ranches, this beautiful houseboat was abandoned and just sitting there all pretty. When I saw it I had to claim it, and the good-luck claiming-angels were kind to me ❤️ I love this West End houseboat and will be here a good while!

This chalet is a recently abandoned beauty; the land and water around it are so lovely. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Maurea/10/173/23

I never considered myself a houseboat person, however I rolled around one day and saw boat after boat in terrific locations and kept a real beauty, then special-requested a second real beauty. I highly recommend spending at least one day of your rolling privileges focused on houseboats to see what's there. This one here in Shark Bait especially, it's a beautiful abandon. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Shark Bait/115/13/22

D'oh

Well with that kind of literal revelation in mind, if they present us with the literal Thousand Islands, New York situation? I AM SO IN!!!!! ❤️

Yeah wow. Not for me thanks lol

The image that I included above in my South Haven post comes from a screen-cap of the world map which, when I single-click on a home, gives me the name of that home or reveals the "Linden Home" signal of availability. (On the Firestorm viewer anyway.) That "Linden Home" signal of availability is not always accurate of course, because sometimes a Resident will name their house "Linden Home" for reasons only they understand. But in any case, the map-clicking hunting technique is another passive way of doing it certainly while you already occupy a home and don't feel like abandoning it just yet until you're sure you're onto something. Edit to add: keep in mind that if you do find something that you would rather have somewhere, you will have to abandon your current Linden Home before another will be assigned to you. It's a leap of faith....................... sometimes an anxious one lol

There are many ways to go about doing so. My hunting-preference is rather passive; if there happens to be a region that I really love (like for example South Haven) then in my stroll around the region I investigate the different houses to see if they are occupied by someone. If they are unoccupied and the land information reveals it is "Linden Home" then I know it is available for claiming (and you can try your luck rolling for it on the land page or you can special-request it with a support ticket if you have a Premium Plus account.) I don't worry about vacant houses in regions that I don't have a special affinity for. I mainly just focus on a region that I love and look around it and spend time in it and hope that someday I get to have a place of my own in it. It's not a race, for me; it's a pastime. The homes come when they're good and ready.

I've lived in South Haven for a while now and LOVE that region, but I have put the house back into the Traditional Home pool for someone else to enjoy, and heaven only knows where it is in the queue, but it is available for ticketing. I too availed myself of some lovely abandons and scored a really nice houseboat for myself. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/South Haven/131/188/22

I love this debate! I agree with you that the need to meet psychological and survival requirements is baked into all of us. But the second part of your statement falls apart because, at least in my case, the whole reason for my staying is that I don't have to worry about it here. I can pretend, through my avatar, that I don't have messy needs. If I had to wear a meter that ran out of life if I didn't meet the food requirements or the toilet requirements or the sleep requirements or the love requirements, or any of the pyramid requirements, I would give up and expire. I have enough of that in my RL. I want my SL to feel real-but-better in that sense, where my lovely avatar will do just fine indeed if I leave her sitting on a rock staring at water overnight with no threats of anything other than the internet resetting. And I know that such meters actually exist in SL and that some people just LOVE them and need them in order to feel like the time they spend here is worth spending. And so your statement likely holds true for them. In my case, though, "when presented with its absence" is a feature not a bug

Looking out towards the everlasting

The regions are calming to the eyes and the hills roll along nicely. The addition of the utility poles is great! And I love the ability to turn off and on the wagon wheel at the front by the mailbox. The soundscape is excellent as always. I wish there were more water and falls, but I can understand why there isn't. And the lots are big enough to add one's own water (really, 350 Li of water if we want, seeing as we've been trained to decorate on 350 Li already!) The variety of houses is really nice. The Aspens are lovely. The Moles did a smashing-good job with making the regions feel comfortable and "finished."

Speaking for myself only (but perhaps others have the same experience) I would argue that avatars are evolutionary; that they perhaps do not begin as anti-social (simply because avatars need other avatars' help to be able to do things; like figure out the AO, or figure out why this skin looks different on me than on the picture and discuss the "shape" phenomenon etc...) but that perhaps the next phase of second-living involves an ever-lessening degree of social interaction in local. One needs it less and less to achieve the daily goals. And so as the avatar evolves, becomes more and more sophisticated in appearance and movement, because of all the time and care spent fine-tuning it over the years, the avatar perhaps is less and less likely to engage with strangers in local chat as the avatar has likely made friends they communicate with in IMs, where one's attention is drawn the more friends one has made. (One's attention can only be in so many places; and that is assuming there isn't any RL distraction beyond the screen.) I know that my avatar has indeed become anti-social over the years; quite deliberately in fact, as an evolutionary process based on key learnings and remembered experiences. It's not that "social is bad," just that I know where Lyric's fun resides and it resides in the familiar goodness she's curated over many years of trial and error. Sociability has served her well in the past and now she reaps the benefits of it. So, I posit: Avatars Evolve. And maybe there is a next phase after the anti-sociability still to come, I don't know.

Hear hear!

Linden Bear Island is just dandy, performance-wise and display-wise, FWIW http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/SL20B Bear Island/149/196/22

What a great question. I would agree that "seeing" my Second Life garden affects me with the same joy as "seeing" my real garden. But I would also go further and say that "hearing" my Second Life garden and real garden both give me the same joy. I make sure there are birds in both places. And hearing water features makes me feel very relaxed indeed, and that is far easier for me to do in Second Life than anywhere else. Listening to water is so important for my enjoyment of Second Life lately and I'm glad that I can control that. Edit to add: this very question is probably what drives the creation and consumption of virtual life in the first place; it is if not the prime question then very close to it, I would imagine -- "is it as good as real, does it make you feel like it's real, does it feel the same as real." Success would be measured by this metric for so many aspects of virtual living.

everything works as though it were all made for the space! Really lovely decor.

There are other ways to purchase Mainland plots without going to auction, so if that is your only objection then you really do have other options. You can purchase any land on the Mainland that is listed as "abandoned" by submitting a support ticket to request it. In that case, it will cost you 512 linden dollars to purchase a 512m2 plot of land, and then it is yours tier-free for as long as you maintain your account's status. Or you can purchase a plot of land directly from another Resident who has it listed for sale; and the price of that would be subject to the seller's discretion. It is not only by auction that you would get some land, in other words, just to clarify that one point.

Thank you, Lindens All ❤️ What a treat

Hear hear! Three cheers for the creators, past and present, of, within, and around this world ❤️