Persephone Emerald

I was with you until the last paragraph. I don't think all the scholars are in the pockets of the gaming companies. I do believe data from studies when that data is consistent through numerous studies. Also, I wonder if playing Candy Crush makes people eat more candy?

What is an avatar really? The answer to this question shows how we might answer this question. If it is just pixels on a screen, then it cannot dream - but if it is a part of our own subconscious, then of course it dreams within our own minds. Alycia tells me that she does not dream, that she fades to black and then returns with a vague memory of what I've been doing and thinking. Perhaps this is because she does not remember her dreams? Maybe when she is not "alive" in SL, she continues to wander through my mind as an alternate self, reminding me that I could be more like her in my RL if I chose to be? My 2 other alts don't hold as much of my imagination, though I sometimes wonder how playing the role of a female in this RL incarnation has made me different from the view I get of myself as a male alt in SL. Unlike others on this thread, I don't think it's foolish to believe in magic, only that magic is not what most people think it is. As a RL practitioner of witchy arts, I think what we call magic is actually the metaphysical connections between thoughts, feelings, spirit beings and physical reality. Looking at SL from this perspective, I don't think it's impossible that a virtual creation could act as a kind of spirit-possesed item or even a servitor, but the limits to such a thing being able to work make it generally unlikely. Since an avatar doesn't stay inworld when it's logged off and is controlled by us when it is inworld, that makes it an unlikely link for a spirit to use. I've had a couple of virtual pets that I left running around inworld while I was not there, and thought they could have housed a spirit. Oddly enough, the one with less sophisticated scripting seemed to have more of it's own volition than the heavily scripted one did. The virtual world of SL itself is unique in having literally *existed* in cyberspace for nearly 20 years, with only a few regions going down from time to time, let alone having existed in the imaginations of millions of people for all this time too. I think that makes it a very likely place for spirit beings to at least visit from time to time, since such beings would not be limited to existing in physical reality. If a physical place can be inhabited by spirits, then certainly a long-term virtual space could be inhabited by some kinds of spirits too. What kinds of spirits would be attracted to SL? Probably crossroads deities, deities of creation and communication, and those lesser spirits that are attracted to and feed on human desire and lust. I don't think any of those above mentioned spirits would be likely to inhabit an avatar though, nor do I believe a spirit of a dead person would either. I think our avatars are for the most part projections of ourselves, of both our conscious and subconscious thoughts, so if they dream it is only within our own minds that they do so.

I'm curious what it costs a store to be in a Shop and Hop event. Is it less expensive than other events because it's sponsored by Linden Lab? I've noticed some top stores have been absent from some of the Shop and Hop events, so they must not need the exposure that much, yet one of these stores is still very active in the FLF & weekend sales. I used to love the Fifty Linden Friday sales and would make a point of hitting all the stores on the list before going to work. Lately I just do the Shop and Hops, some anniversary events, and an occasional interesting themed event. With over 13 years in SL and over 75, 000 items in my inventory (many still unpacked), there is very little that I actually need to buy. I mostly go to grab the gifts, then buy a couple items that grab my interest. If it weren't for updating my avatar every few years with a new mesh body or head, I would buy hardly anything. Now that I'm wearing a LeLutka Evo X head though, I'm looking for new skins, makeup, and even fingernail polish to spruce up my look. It's annoying to have to sort through and toss out old skins and makeup, but if this keeps the SL economy going, I'm all for it. What we need are more specialized themed events, like We ❤️ Roleplay and those for specific body-types and aesthetics. I'd like to see an event for Classy / Sophisticated looks, more for Sci-fi and Post-Apocalyptic themes, and more for different time periods. I have plenty of clothes for regular wear, but I can always use a few things for visiting different RP sims.

I hope a few of the women on this forum take you up on your offer. Unfortunately I don't have an SL house that needs cleaning, because I wouldn't mind having a robot maid. ( A male avatar wearing nothing but a maid outfit would be unsettling though.)

The hole in the smaller section goes down Alice-in-Wonderland-like to my reBourne skybox, with a modified 2-story Apple Fall New York Apartment skybox in it. The larger area is for rezzing large objects and checking run animations.

^ This is the solution. I see that hair halo all the time when my avatars are standing in front of the semi-transparent wall of my sky platform (trees with transparent sky above them). I only need to right click on the background wall to make it disappear.

I usually send my avatars home before putting my RL self to bed. I don't even have a bed out for them currently, though I have put one or the other to bed when I had a new bed for them. If they have been standing by some lucky boards or recently gone into a space that was hard to get into, I may leave them there on purpose, so when they rez in next time they will be right where that lucky board or sale item is.

I'd like fewer events, but as was said above, let the free market sort it out. It helps to have a list of YouTubers who review events and then watch their videos before deciding if you want to spend time at another event or not.

Look what happened to the avatars in Sansar when the folks from Linden Lab were controlling the standard there. https://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2019/09/04/sansar-with-avatar-2-0/

In RL, someone *could* buy an expensive designer outfit and then ruin it by dying it a different color. In SL one simply needs to tint a modifiable item to see for themselves if that would ruin it or not, and if it does ruin said item, they can untint it. If they change the texture and thus ruin it, well then they should have had enough sense to make a copy first, or maybe they'll be lucky and have a redelivery option. I believe customers should be allowed to make mistakes so they can learn from them and so they can appreciate the work the creator has put into making that item. I'm all for allowing *most* items to be modifiable, but not scripts, because once a person can view a script, they can copy and resell it ad infinitum. When one is about to buy something relatively expensive in SL, look for the permissions and try a demo. If that doesn't work for you, then you have one less shop to shop in, but there are plenty more to choose from in SL.

I actually take exception to your use of the term "bored and wealthy elderly housewives". I don't think you actually understand this demographic that dominates SL. I think RL women are the biggest spenders of money in SL, as well as the majority of SL creators/merchants. As such, we drive the SL economy to a large extent and shouldn't be trivialized. The RL women of SL come from a wide range of ages, from collage age to working age to retired, and I don't think many of us are actually wealthy by US standards, but more often middle-class. We're wealthy enough to afford a a decent computer and internet access, but not wealthy enough to be able to afford servants or even going out to expensive restaurants all the time. Second Life lets middle-aged, middle class women relive their youth in the form of sexy avatars with nearly unlimited access to new clothes and etc., but free of all the social messiness of real life. For what we would spend for one outfit or one trip to the beauty parlor in RL, we can enjoy this fantasy world for months in SL. Those who have the talent and drive for it, have harnessed our fantasies to make their own RL money, as well as to exercise creative drives that may have been limited in their RL jobs. Some people will always be content to repost gifs of kittens on Facebook, but for those who want a bit more, there is SL.

^ I love this post too. This is basically how I see my alts too, they are sides of myself that I use when I don't want to be bothered or when I'm feeling not quite like my "normal", regular self.

Alycia and I have had some trying times with each other, but I think she knows that I do sincerely care about her and wish her the best in her virtual life. I've tried to make up for giving her such a horrible creation story by giving her a lovely new look and all the clothes and things she's really wants. I tried giving her a cat once, but she got bored with it. When I had a big house, I gave her her own bedroom. I think she wants one again now, so I'm thinking of giving her a small skybox apartment of her own. Once she has a place of her own, she never uses it though. She says she doesn't actually sleep like we First Life people do, but rather just fades out to blackness and then reappears again later with a vague dream-like memory of what I've been doing and thinking. This is how we communicate with each other most of the time, though sometimes we also send IMs to each other, like Post-It Notes left on the refrigerator door between housemates with opposite schedules. Evan is very agreeable and actually rather boring, truth be told. But he's an all around good guy who actually likes helping people, even if he doesn't advertise that fact. We don't talk much, but I do give him money for shopping and updating his look from time to time. Tasha is a darling who never asks for anything and is always sweet and cheerful. She loves being a wolf, but also enjoys dressing up as a human now and then, to see what it's like to be one of us.

^ I love this post. ❤️

The simple answer to most of your questions here is *money*. Every business needs to be profitable in order to survive. I'd say being profitable should be the # 2 priority of every business after the #1 priority of being safe an legal - so they don't get shut down by regulators. # 3 might be to be ethical, but ethics are a tricky area sometimes. Being innovative or customer focused is great, but mean nothing if the company gets shut down for lack of funds or legal problems. Thus Linden Lab has continued with a clumsy, glitchy platform because they rightfully loathe the idea of breaking existing content and losing many of the paying users they already have. I think it will take a surgeon's touch to excise the buggy parts of SL, rather than a butcher's chop. In the meantime, those "bored and wealthy elderly housewives" are keeping SL profitable and alive.

I think it's more likely because he will not be an *employee* of Linden Lab, but rather an independent consultant.

^ This is great to know. Now I can delete my Catwa Freya head, old Catwa skins & makeup, and just keep my Queen HDPRO head, skins & makeup. I'm using LeLutka Evo now, but I like to keep a few other heads & skins just in case. Any new knowledge that helps me reduce my Inventory is good. 🙂

No. My alts are more like characters I've created for a story that plays out in my imagination.

According to what he said on this video, he'd rather use his old avatar and he won't be using Linden as his last name.

My alts: Evan wearing the Lelutka Logan head and Alycia wearing the LeLutka Lily head.

There are times in RL when we have less privacy than we'd like to think too, so in these situations we also continue the pretense of privacy. I've worked in a job where there were cameras in most of the work areas (pharmaceutical production), but one ignores them after awhile for the post part. Employers can sometimes read our emails or even track our keystrokes on work computers, yet we still use the computers for non-work communications. One does not comment on another person's bathroom noises or on their overheard phone conversations. I currently live with 2 housemates in RL, so any of us could snoop into another person's bedroom, but social convention requires that we don't. I once had a roommate who would look over my landlady's shoulder when she was dressing her avatar or on a date in SL and comment on her avatar's appearance, like saying she looked hot! -- In SL and RL there are always some people who either don't understand social conventions or who choose to ignore them.

There is a parcel next to mine that allows rezzing. It's has a pretty little Japanese style teahouse on it, but I never see the owner online or doing anything with it. I rezzed a few trees on it, to pull it's landscaping in with my own woods. I know what you mean about griefers using rezzable land for dropping griefing objects, but I also like that random people can use this teahouse to rez packages and dress if they wish, so I don't want to use up all of my neighbor's unused prims.

In case people are not aware of it, there are a series of videos by a couple of gamers who are benignly messing around in SL to see how weird it can be, beginning with this very popular YouTube video. I think our ability to goof around and have fun in SL is essential to keeping people using this platform, and that as long-term users we may at times forget how much fun SL can be. It's not just a platform for dressing up our avatars, meeting virtual romantic partners, or doing serious roleplay. Its physics engine and our ability to manipulate prims and our avatars are also alot of fun to play with. I think we may also forget how much fun newbies have with elements we now find annoying, such as using gestures or tricking unsuspecting people. I want us to all remember that we were young and foolish once too, and far from ruining our SL experience, those stupid or silly things we did were a large part why we kept coming back to SL.

I think that online and in social media generally people put themselves at risk by exposing their RL name, location, job information and personal details. I don't do those "fun" questionnaires that ask random questions to give your fictional name or lump you into some kind of category, because your pet's name or the street you grew up on could be security questions somewhere. I generally avoid using my RL name or picture online or in SL, though I don't mind telling people what city I live in because it's a big city and I have a common first name, so it would be hard to identity me with just that information. I like to profile myself with my SL profile and like to look at other people's to figure out something of what they're like. If someone doesn't fill out their profile at all I assume they're either not smart enough, too boring, or too paranoid to warrant my further attention. If they happen to have an interesting conversation with me, then I'll re-evaluate my view of them. I don't mind being cammed on and do cam on other people sometimes, but I figure as long as nobody says anything about it, then it didn't happen. I do think it's extremely rude to cam on someone while their avatar is naked or dressing and then IM them to say they look hot or whatever. Because we don't have real privacy for our avatars in SL, I think this requires of us the social nicety of pretending that we have such privacy.

I have an ex boyfriend in SL who I'm still friends with. At one time he kept rezzing onto my land and just standing there. I think he may have been using a mobile viewer or maybe his wifi connection was just really bad. I got tired of him just standing around on my land, so I set my scripted dog to push him off the parcel. He didn't complain, but it was funny to watch him get pushed. Another time when I was still dating him but was annoyed with him, I modified a freebie noob mannequin to look like a vampire (because he was into one of those vampire pyramid scheme games), then used a pumpkin catapult to shoot pumpkins at it. I also shot pumpkins at some exploding noob mannequins. This was all on group land and didn't bother any one else, so it wasn't really griefing. One of my best tricks for people who grief me or bother me with unwelcomed proposition's though is an object I received with the name of "Scarf". I changed it's name to friendly little monster, because when worn, it animates like it's having sex with the avatar.