This afternoon I logged onto my Second Life account with one goal: chatting. Using the Destination Guide to locate “hot spots” where avatars tend to congregate, I bounced around from place to place to find individuals with whom I could instant message. Was I successful? Sort of.
Second Life has great resources in place for people interested in socializing. At any given location, I can use a tool called the World Map. The World Map depicts green dots that represent residents nearby. To visit other people, all I have to do is click on a green dot, select the teleport button, and after a few seconds, I’m by the side of other users.
Though finding people was a breeze, getting them to engage in conversation was… frustrating, at best. Especially strange was that my social struggle today differed greatly from past experiences. Previously, while exploring new territories I’ve encountered numerous avatars that have come to me to initiate instant messaging. In fact, this has occurred so often that today was my first attempt to start a conversation, and it proved to be a relatively difficult task.
Multiple people flat out ignored me. Others responded with a few short words and then moved on/teleported away. I first asked myself, what’s their problem? Then I asked myself, what's my problem? Am I doing something wrong? Approaching individuals incorrectly? Possibly violating chat standards? I have no idea. I even went so far as to change my avatar’s outfit… ridiculous, I know (and to no avail). Perhaps it was just a fluke, and as luck would have it, I ran into a slew of grumpy avatars. But next time someone approaches me, I’m going to pay attention to the way they do so.
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