Monday Meme: Twenty Questions

Strawberry has twenty questions for us this Monday, and a gorgeous look (love the braids), and spoke a little about those initial meetings. Weirdly, people rarely ask me questions - I'm not sure whether they're not interested or they're intimidated; I have rather a history of intimidating people in my personal life (professionally I seem to be able to tap down whatever it is which overwhelms people, but it's not sustainable all the time).

1. When and how did you discover Second Life? – My friend Ro-chan enticed me to stay in August of 2008. I actually have an account from before Deoridhe Quandry, Deoridhe Starr, who was part of an abortive attempt to join in 2006. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I met people and stuck around then.


2. Did you know about virtual worlds before or was this your first experience with them? – Oh yes, I'd played a number of video games, including World of Warcraft (FOR THE HORDE) and various Final Fantasies. In neither of those settings was I particularly concerned with avatar appearance; in WoW it's about the stats, and you have very little to no individuation in the standard video game.


3. Has Second Life met your expectations? – My only expectation was to be able to dress myself up, so it lived up to that pretty well. It has not yet led to me being universally adored, but I think that expectation is pretty much Dead on Arrival.


4. If you could teleport back to the first ten minutes of your avatar’s slife, what would you tell yourself? – Try opening your own store with that early drive to build things. Later on you'll have much less time.


5. How long did it take you to master avatar flying and driving vehicles inworld? – Flying I'm good at u til lag eats me. Driving I slowly started mastering during the brief time that Imagine was levels of streets, so I had a lot of room to practice, but I just don't do it much.


6. Do you have a mystery alt? – Depends on what you mean by mystery. I have Alphabet Alts, so it's not like I announce them to everyone, but if we're stalking a lucky board or chair as a group, people will see a large chunk of my retinue. I think of them as extensions of myself, really, since they're rarely logged on when my main isn't.


7. Is your SL avatar a reflection of you, or someone you wished you could be? – I'd say usually Deoridhe Quandry is my bouncier, sillier side - especially when I roleplay - but that all of my faults continue to exist with her. I have a couple of alts who inspire different behavior due to roleplaying through them, and I'd say one is my Shadow and the other... probably closer to an Animus figure, of sorts. Me as a carrier of power.


8. Is there an individual you met in SL that inspired you in your RL? How? – I don't know if I'm insensitive or just arrogant, but I usually don't feel inspired by people in the way other people talk about. I rarely want to suddenly change everything, and if I am inspired to change it is usually some idea which has built up over time from a variety of sources, rather than something localized in another other individual.


9. Do you feel it is easier to create stronger bonds/relationships with people you meet inworld as opposed to the real world? – I don't experience much difference, to be honest. It takes as long to get to know people offline, though you might get some early cues as to what kind of person they are through body language which might be concealed online for longer. Sometimes I miss hugs a lot, though, and it's harder to ask people to drive you to the airport.


10. Did you ever imagine or believe people could fall in love with someone they never met before Second Life? – Yes, absolutely. There have always been a subset of people who fell in love before meeting in person.




11. How has your perspective of dating changed (or not) since you started playing second life? – It hasn't really changed; I'm pretty much as undatable online as off.


12. How has your perspective of employment changed (or not) since you started playing second life? – No real change; I grew up with computer people, so the idea that you could have non-local work or work from home was always part of my consciousness.


13. Name three things in both your lives that overlap each other significantly. – Personal exploration, seeking of the sublime, and a subset of friends who cross over worlds.


14. If you could live your life more immersively in a virtual world, would you? (Kind of like the Matrix) – I would love it in brief bits, but I also really like having a console and being able to do other things - like right now I'm watching JP the Beeman videos as well as answering these questions. I usually have a few irons in the fire.


15. How do you think behavior changes for people if they’re inworld vs in real world? Why do you think that is? – I think people are more honest. People who have to conceal their delight in annoying or hurting others are more likely to express it. People who try to act tough and protect themselves are more likely to become vulnerable. I think the added barrier of safety from immediate consequences shows us who we really are.


16. How has second life consumerism changed your perception of spending habits, the value of money, the need to be “bleeding edge” with fashion? – When I feel an urge to spend, I tend to come to Second Life, where twenty dollars goes a lot farther. I'm leaning now toward being more individualistic with fashion - coming up with a coherent style which remains consistent across many changes int he details.


17. Do you think virtual worlds like SL drive and redefine human interaction or do they narrow and limit it? – I think it's just another means of interaction. Humans are highly adaptable and responsive to change, and a lot remains consistent even across different media.


18. If technology progressed tomorrow to allow you to send emotions to people the way you’d send text or voice messages, would it enrich your SL experience or infringe on it? – I would want there to be a means to refuse the transfer; there are way too many people who would use it to torment strangers; anythign that intimate should have controls put in to ensure it's consensual.


19. Name three skills you attribute to having learned or honed in second life alone. – Marketing, fashion styling, and writing copy.


20. If your grand kids googled your Second Life Avatar’s name, would they be intrigued, disgusted, proud or something else? – I really don't know. I think I'm fairly consistent between worlds, so I doubt they'd be surprised.

( More pictures here. )