Second Life Romance

Well, you guys know I am crazy, right? Then you won't be surprised to hear that I started yet another project to take over my already full, saturated, overflowing life.

Recently, a wife divorced her husband because he cheated on her. The girl he cheated with was not even real, she was an avatar in Second Life! This case for some reason came up in the news but there have been other instances like this. You can read about it in detail here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/nov/13/second-life-divorce

Now, you guys know already that I am quite a Second Lifer, as in I spend a lot of time in there. I have never been married there, nor do I intend to but it's still a lot of fun! If you want to see what's so fascinating about it, check out some really (not virtually) mind-blowing pictures here: 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rafeal/

So, while reading that, something clicked in my mind (no, there was no real click, just a virtual one). I thought about the fact that Second Life (lovingly called SL... well not true, sometimes it's used with disgust but still that's the official short form) has millions of users (seriously, more than 10 Million) and people come across each other, (just like in the real world) in stores, clubs, parties, interest groups and just plain walking down the street. 

However, there is a shortage of this walking-around-and-doing-life-stuff in Second Life. You login to SL when you want to do something specific and usually this is followed by going to the place where you want to go. This is done by "Teleporting" which is just as it sounds, very StarTrek - you disappear from here and appear there. So, no walking around, no coming across your neighbors or the cute girl who just moved down the block. 

Even when you meet someone it's not always ideal because even though you might like them a lot, there might be something called Timezone in your way. She comes online when I am already asleep (think Australia and UK), so no matter how much I like that girl, I would find it very hard to meet her other than in the dreams (call it 3rd Life if you like). 

Or worse. You really like her gorgeous avi, she has the legs, the hair, the these and those....but she's married! :( What you gonna do? 

So, having a website where one can actually search for people, nearby, single and interested in meeting others....I thought that would rock! 

And hence was born www.SLRomance.com.

With me, to think is to act; so even though the idea was conceived sometime Monday afternoon, the site was up and running before Monday night midnight. 

Do give it a go, I would be really interested to know what you think. 

EDIT:

Due to Trademark reasons I had to change the domain name. Now it's called SecondDating.com. Lots of re-work.

Second Life Keyboard

All Second Life addicts will appreciate this one -

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pradprathivi/2875112613/sizes/o/

Virtual Good Work

You know my time-wasting, just-for-kicks pastime Second Life, right? Well, unlike me some people do a lot of good work there. One of them is my friend Jaxi. She does profile pictures for people and devotes almost all her time to it. Today she won a contest with a picture of hers so I thought I should share that with my readers.

Here is the link to that, just a take a look at that picture, isn't that amazing,?

http://blog.koinup.com/2008/06/sl-portrait-contest-announcement.html

Virtual Parting

There's this stupid little virtual world game that I play, called Second Life. I have talked about it quite a few times in my blog. This is not a game but a virtual world as in you are free to do what you want once you are in it. There are no aliens to shoot at no points to collect or stuff of that sort that makes up a video game. There are games "in" the game but SL itself is fully free-form. It has its own economy and many types of businesses. People meet, chat, have relationships, marriage and everything.

It is quite an engrossing thing, this game and so addictive that some people have this text on their profiles, "Remember, it's just a game!". I don't agree with them. It's a game, technically and for the purposes of establishing that I am a sane person, I'll concede that it's a game. But it's not completely a game. In a game when you shoot at the alients, or the villain's henchmen or the enemy army, they don't hurt, they don't bleed, they do bleed on the screen, but not in real. Just pixels. Lighted dots on the screen. But in SL, behind the pixels there is always a human being. He may not be as ruggedly handsome, or she may not be such a ravishing beauty but they are human, with a mind that thinks and a heart that feels. Some people, not necessarily the people who claim that it's a game, but some people do not fully realize that they are interacting with humans. Humans with feelings. These people can be really mindless jerks at times.

On my friend list are some people I have not talked to in a long time, but I still can't bring myself to delete them off my list. It's not much different from the way I always call my friend Harry, my real world friend Harry, on 9th Feb without fail, even if I have not talked to him the rest of the year. And there are some people I talk to almost every day on Sl. Just like in RL, I will call my real friend Fazil at least once a week no matter what corner of the world I have taken refuge in.

In this world we form friendships. Do they matter any less than the "real" friendships because the medium of communication is different? I don't think so. The joy of new connections is the same. The partings have the same kind of sting and the feeling of loss. The partings are quite real and painful they are depends on depth of the relationship not the medium they were made in. Well, I am feeling the pang of such a virtual parting today so I just thought it might help if I rant about it.

Gotta love Helium

Wow! You gotta love Helium, in only 2 months with 3 well-written articles I have earned 31 CENTS! Isn't that incredible? 31 whole cents! In just 2 months.

On the other hand, in Second Life, with every sale of one of my fashion articles (I am trying hard not to say "My dresses", I am a man, dammit! :D ), I make about 3USD. One sale 3 US$, another sale another 3US$.

Hmmm, I am having a real hard time trying to figure out where I should focus my efforts!


[If you are interested in making money in SL, here is my article on it. ]