Admittedly this isn't really such a big deal in a virtual world where you simply vanish when you log off and can carry an unlimited quantity of crap about your person within your inventory. Indeed, it seems entirely possible to enjoy the SL experience without ever needing to get yourself a home. If push came to shove I could always sleep behind the camel over at AAi in an emergency, right? Nevertheless, for some reason my lack of a place to call home was starting to bother me.
For starters, I wasn't too happy about simply showing up at the last place I'd been when I logged off. In fact, the more I thought about this the more it seemed like some terrible faux-pas waiting to happen - I'm sure nobody wants some noob dropping in uninvited at an inopportune moment just because he'd happened to stop by the previous day. Also, where's a guy meant to change his clothes? Yes I know this last issue hadn't actually been a problem for me thus far on the basis that I'd been knocking about in the same freebie clothes for weeks now, but at some point these were issues I felt would need to be addressed.
The current entry level offer for land ownership in SL seems to be the Linden Homes program - a not so thinly veiled attempt to boost the number of users signing up for premium accounts. Frankly Linden Homes didn't appear massively attractive to me, but then if you happen to like high density pre-fab housing you may well think differently. There also appears to be a well developed rental market all over the grid, indeed a high proportion of people I'd met in my first few weeks were all renting space over in the previously mentioned Moonletters sim. I suspected that rental was probably going to be the better option simply on the basis that a lot of people who had been around SL far longer than I (yes, I realise this pretty much includes everyone) seemed to have gone with that option. Somehow though this felt like I'd be passing up the chance to experience owning my own little corner of SL and getting to determine for myself whether the Linden Homes thing was worth it or not. It might even give me something to write about in this weeks blog! So I took the plunge, upgraded myself to a Premium Account and made my choice.
A somewhat unexpected sight was to greet me on teleporting over to the home I'd just acquired for myself though. It appeared that I had become the owner of a property which came complete with its own all-in wrestling ring!
Had I been left with a bunch of wrestlers as squatters in my new home? Were they going to burst in at any moment and attempt to twist me into all manner of painful positions? Ah, I can almost hear Mericat Ireland uttering the immortal words "some people pay good money for that y'know".
Surely there was some mistake here? I elected to adopt my standard approach to anything which goes wrong - turn it off and start again. So I hit "teleport home" and lo and behold the wrestling ring was gone - this time I'd arrived at my actual home. Phew! Clearly just some kind of clerical error at the estate agents or something, although I will admit that I felt a faint tinge of disappointment at maybe having missed an opportunity to make a surprise challenge for the Second Life Heavyweight Championship.
Of course no sooner had I moved in to my somewhat spartan virtual abode I got an avalanche of invites (ok, two) to the far more spacious homes of a couple of friends, each of whom appeared to own their own entire island! Keeping up with the Joneses (or in this case perhaps more accurately the Josies) is clearly just as relevant here in SL as in RL.
Other than my first foray into the virtual property market this week, my Second Life as usual revolved around music, kicking off with Meri's set at the Pig & Whistle - a staple of Monday evenings already. These events also serve as an opportunity for the more experienced SLers (again, pretty much everyone) to continue their contributions to my learning curve, each in their own inimitable way. Already my repertoire of amusing gestures has swelled considerably under the expert tutelage of Jellie Arrowmint, although her contributions to my headgear has perhaps veered more towards the....unusual.
AAi's newest DJ, the one and only Pixie Arcana, added a few more new locations to my Landmarks folder not least of which was the FAB club where she played yet another fantastic set - this gal sure knows how to pick a good tune. The two real big positives for me in this first month of Second Living (don't like that phrase, don't think I'll use it again) have been the twin joys of meeting people who are just so incredibly friendly & welcoming as well as getting to hang out with a bunch of people that have the same outlook, tastes and passion for music as I do.
Outside of the music scene, this week was also my first experience of the Second Life Theme Park. Proving that my inability to drive a scooter around the Moonletters sim recently was not just some aberration, I managed to not once but twice (at two different locations mind you) drive go-karts so badly as to end up at the bottom of the sea with no way to escape other than ditching the vehicle and flying back to dry land. Not content with such mundane modes of transport, Josielo Ceriano then blew everyone's mind by introducing the superbly bizarre "Sperm-mobile". If I'm honest though, I think Graz's scooter proved the classier ride.
Congrats on the digs! When's the housewarming and how long before you buy a wrestling ring?
ReplyDelete