We all know Metaverses such as Second Life are an excellent way to meet new people from all corners of the world and hopefully become friends with them. This is in no way something that has just become a reality with the technological advances of the last 20 years. Back in the days when your telephone line had nothing but a telephone plugged into it people used to reach out across the globe by becoming pen pals. For those of you too young to remember this, the concept was simple. You registered with an Agency, gave them a few details about yourself and they matched you up with someone that you could send letters to in the hope that they would reciprocate. Having the international postal infrastructure to contend with meant that conversations could easily take months, but, despite that friendships became stronger, feelings became deeper and eventually people fell in love, got married, had kids and lived happily ever after.

Now, apart from maybe the occasional “thank you” note to an Auntie who has only just made the quantum leap in technology to colour TV, we all rely on the internet for pretty much all of our communications. Getting in touch and keeping in touch with people has never been easier. However e-mail, IM and VoIP solutions are already looking a bit antiquated when compared to the social interaction offered in a 3D, free-roaming environment such as SL. Now you can wander into a club, bust your best moves and be chatting to people from literally anywhere in the world. That, for me is the true wonder of cyberspace. The friends and relationships I’ve forged with people that I would never encountered any other way. But most of us can say they’ve made some good friends online but what about taking things to the next level?
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It never ceases to amaze me when I see someone on a group chat or a forum say they are bored in Second Life. It reminds me of what kids say during the long summer holidays to their parents when surrounded by enough playthings to stock a small branch of Toys R Us!
Sometimes the problem is too much choice and not knowing where to begin rather than no choice at all.
So I thought I’d offer a few general suggestions to separate out the wood from the trees. Feel free to add your own in the comments section below.
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So you turn up for work one grey, overcast morning and a colleague asks you if you did anything interesting last night. You tell them about the birthday party you went to where you chatted to people from three different continents, there was a beach side BBQ, toob racing and sky-diving. Your workmate looks puzzled but doesn’t want to say anything in case the stress of the workplace has finally got to you and sent you right over the edge. Sensing this you attempt to clarify the situation by telling them this was all on your PC at home in Second Life. Then, as you feel the wave of relief from your co-worker who can now purge any thoughts of calling security to have you peacefully ejected from the building with as little fuss as possible, the inevitable question comes…

“Second Life? What’s that? Is it a game?”
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Linden Labs specifically and Second Life in general has come under a lot of scrutiny and criticism in the past few month over a broad spectrum if issues ranging from the stability of the platform to the corporate direction it’s going in. This has sparked a small panic in-world affecting land sales and some company sponsorship plans. It would seem the credit crunch isn’t just a millstone around our necks in RL.

Is this panic justified? I think not.
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