the article in the Globe spotlighted a woman who teaches at the Harvard Extension school. She's standing in front of the real building--a building I've walked by a million times--and then you see her avatar in front of the virtual Harvard building, which looks exactly the same as the real one!

I almost want to go there, and see whether I can walk home.

Although, I'd get very nervous if I found my apartment and discovered an avatar of myself typing on a PC....

NOW THAT IS FUNNY!!!

Melody

Hey Melody,
I'd want a new spine, new knees, new feet, aw heck, I want a new body and I don't care if it looks like Pamela Anderson Lee or not. I just want it to work!!

Billye

From what I've seen in Second Life (and believe me, this is no Nintendo game), he's going to be filthy rich.

Seems a lot of people like to live in fantasy worlds.

Me? I'm just happy to get up without pain in the morning.
melody

to get on the site, but must be doing something wrong. I managed to register, but can't seem to get anything to come up. I am on a Mac though, so maybe this is the problem. I have never heard of anything like this before. Or maybe you have to have a paid registration, which I did not...

Like Billye, I would love to have some new body parts, preferably just working ones that don't hurt...

Cathie

I like to fly, around. I have not been approached for anything funky yet, but some guy did try to offer me something sort of gift, like a biscuit or something.I declined. Another guy wanted to chat,and I declined.

I just like to fly....

I have been on there with my son,and we enter the little virtual stores,hotels, lots of little shops. It's fun. I saw some naked people too,and we had a bit of a giggle.

Hi, for anybody who wanted to go and look at Second Life yesterday, the grid was down for maintenance and an upgrade from 7 in the a.m. till 3 in the p.m EST.

It was working fine as of last night. I had to ugrade my software. Took me all of 5 minutes.

And it's completely free to sign up. unless you want a paid membership.

I truly believe that the people who pay for it are the ones who are really really in to the virtual role playing games. They hunt for treasures, and they design their avatars with skins and costumes that would rival a special effects company.

When you have linden dollar (virtual money in SL), you go into virtual stores and purchase skin (the color of your body), you can purchase body shapes, ears, (other private body parts as well). You can have an animal head, an animal behind, tails, etc. That is in the animal body parts store (I kid you not).

You can also purchase wings and look like an Angel in this world.

But this kind of stuff is for the real gamers who take this to a whole new level.

I looked up my son's profile in their and there is a tab at the top of his profile that says "first life". I clicked on it and sure enough, there was his picture.
So there is the real world in which we live in which is referred to as First Life and you have Second Life which is (virtual reality).

So there you go.

Happy Teleporting!!!!!1

Melody

familiar... The Furry community had the same sort stuff only it was
not fee for service. It sort of seems like Second Life is an extension
of some other role playing groups. YOu know in those days the fast
connections were not available etc, to enable this type of game.

Furries required more imagination. The "furries" all were animal icons...
and I found it really strange, but my creative type son, says this is an
archtypical human trait--long buried in our modern world. But he outgrew the concept
pretty quickly. I even saw a CSI episode with a furry plot line, and also an ER one a while back. So that may have been more popular. My son said some people got really into it, dressed up in private time and had conventions. This aspect never appealed to him. He was not into it that much.

I had asked him about Second Life a while ago...and he said it was very slow
getting going. He went there a long time ago. It must have changed? Perhaps, I can visit and
egg him into showing me...but next month I am working only weekends, so I don't have the time off to travel --he works week days! He has Comcast, high speed.. I don't have high speed at all!

I am finding these posts of yours, Melody, fascinating!

Mrs. D.

When the nintendo crazy hit, and then there was playstation, well these video games had role playing aspects to them. Not only could you play karate, and tetris but there was a game called Everquest. My son had all the games. I looked it up online and there are Everquest Conventions.

The people who go there are exactly like the trekkers who go to Star Trek conventions. The everquesters dress up like their characters in the game.

they go to conventions dressed like Nanook of the North, with polar bear skins and large blades. I would drop dead if a guy ever came up to me at a convention and looked like that. I'm much prefer Klingons. They seem tamer.

I've never been to a star trek convention. I know people who have gone and they've taken photos with Zulu and Checkhov and other guys from the tv show.
That would have blown my mind. I should have taken the time and gone.

I'm not into that anymore. Probably I outgrew it.

But Second Life, well the graphics are out of this world. Everytime you enter a world, the graphics start loading as you stand there and the world you are now in is literally building itself up around you as you stand there and wait for it to load up. Whoever designs these graphics most certainly knows their stuff. Some worlds have waterfalls that so exquisite, I just walked around and admired the view. It was actually like going on vacation and sitting on a log by various waterfalls. Absolutely breathtaking and very calming.

You should try it.

Melody

But this is very interesting. Melody, my curiosity got the best of me. I tried it, but found it very difficult for my brain to comprehend. Probably due to my fear that there was something wrong with being there. A little on the scary side. I fear that this site and what it offers could become very addictive and a person with addictive tendancies to spend money, experience sexual fantasies, gamble, etc. could become very hooked on this place and possibly get into real debt. For example: I spent my 200 "dollars" on a dress right away and futher adventures were difficult in the wee morning hours. Forgot to add a person with terrible curiosity too (wink)! I don't think I'll go back.

Billye