Dana in Geeksville

In Case You Thought SL Is Just for People

In case you thought that Second Life is just for people, here is proof that it's not. Although, you probably didn't really care either. Even so, I've been quite impressed with the non-people avatars and SL citizens I've come across. Today when I discovered this new meditation center I had not seen before, I found this sleeping kitty on the floor. His belly rises and falls with his breathing, and now and then he'd lets out a little purring.

I'm not normally a cat person, but this cat I like. He's not making my eyes itch or my nose run, and he's not climbing into my lap unwelcome and doing that weird clawing into the leg thing that cats often do. Instead, he is lying there, looking like an adorable kitty, peacefully sleeping. He is a Second Life citizen and I suspect never leaves this zendo. But there are non-human avatars running around in Second Life too.

One of my favorite avatar sightings of all time was a Christmas Ham. We were having a developer chat, I think on Solaris, and in drifts this Christmas Ham avatar. My coworker Heidi had to pull up an extra stool for him to sit on because he wouldn't fit on the benches that the audience was sitting on. It was really funny and creative during the holiday season.

I also get a kick out of seeing the many Transformers walking about inworld. Now I can understand the appeal to this avatar, especially given the popularity of the movie. I've also seen comic heroes like Batman and Superman flying about, a lot of wolves, and some unidentifiable creatures and aliens. There are quite a few fairies, elves, and demons of various kinds as well.

In Second Life we can't use the typical judgments we tend to use in RL with people. And maybe that is a good thing.

Posted at 02:59PM Sep 08, 2008 by dananourie in Virtual Worlds  |  Comments[1]