Week 2: Behaviors

In my second week of Second Life, I encountered many different kinds of people. Some of them actually interacted with me, while others snobbily ignored me in favor of their friends. My first memorable run-in with a fellow player was interesting, to say the least. After entering a region, I began trying to walk up and talk to others. Many of them were either away from their keyboards or purposefully shunning me for being somewhat of an outsider to them, as indicated by their unresponsiveness. Finally, I found someone that would talk to me. His title and ownership of most of the objects in the region made it clear that he was the owner of the little chunk of virtual world I was in. He didn't have much to say about anything in particular, but soon enough made his intentions known that he was homosexual (perhaps not so much him as the in-game version of him? This was unclear) and was interested in "getting to know me better." I was not sure how to respond to this advancement besides "no thanks."

There is a person in a bunny costume stalking me...

The next day, I entered a different region. I was quickly approached by a random person in a bunny costume, who began a voice chat with me. It was made clear that this person was a girl that spoke very little English and fluent Spanish. After a minute of trying to talk to her, I politely told her I had to go and ended the call. As I walked into one of the nearby buildings, I happened to turn around and see the same person closely following me. I walked some more, and each time she followed. I caught a picture of my character sitting near a pool, with the bunny girl inside the castle structure behind, looking out towards me. I continued my study with her following me for the duration.

Couples dancing

In this same region, I found a ballroom setting which had a few couples dancing together. I stopped and watched for a few minutes, waiting to see what type of discussions they would have with eachother. To my dissatisfaction, none of them spoke publicly or possibly at all. When I approached a couple and tried to engage them, neither spoke to me. This seemed to be a trend. The next day, I entered a new region and instantly found something I had been looking for. There was a group of at least six people conversing with both text and public voice chat. I sat on the sidelines for a few minutes, just listening in on the conversations. There wasn't much substance to what they were saying, though the value of the connection was immense to me. I attempted to engage them. Since most of them were women, by their voices at least twenty years old, they began chattering about how attractive I was. I couldn't understand this since my avatar was simply one of the generic default ones available to everyone. Later, two other men walked by, to which the women called their looks out as well.

Later, I visited a new zone modeled after New York City. The streets were lined with shops, each one selling a different type of good. They all had something in common, though. They were all gender-specific goods, such as revealing clothes for women and overzealous jewelry for men. This was not something unique to this zone. Most of the shops I had passed in other zones appeared to cater to people that wanted to be flashy and stand out. Beyond Victoria Secret-esque clothing for women and gaudy bling, there were also shops for hairstyles, food (there isn't a point to it since in-game characters don't get hungry), and even vehicles. I found a motorcycle on sale for 399 Linden dollars. According to The LindeX, 399 Linden dollars is equivalent to $1.61 USD at the current exchange rate.

Hairstyles and facial art on sale

These experiences conclude that people in Second Life play the game in two different modes. The first and seemingly most common mode is social detachment, where the person only ever interacts with the friends they have already established. The second mode is social exploration, where the person acts flirty or otherwise enticing to others. This is similar to real-world social behaviors in the case of introversion versus extroversion. However, usually these behaviors are established and held to. I ponder if the same is true for Second Life, or if the two may be swapped as found appropriate by the person.