As someone still relatively new in Second Life, I've made my share of mistakes recently. Some of them have been pretty funny, some pretty expensive. In the interests of helping other new residents avoid some of the pitfalls, and providing the more experienced players with a cheap laugh, here are five lessons I've learned the hard way in Second Life.
1. When Shopping, Check Prim Counts!
To kit out a new office, I recently spent near on $60 on the most beautiful chairs, tables and planters to impress my guests. My landlord came to investigate my complaint of object creation problems and pointed out that I was 6x over my prim allocation on the land, my gorgeous office chairs were 76 prims each! He gave me a chair I could copy freely, for free, that's prim count was 4 -- Sure it didn't look as pretty, but really it's not about pretty, it's about people sitting down and talking.
2. Beware of Terraforming Tools
I own a small plot of land on a beautiful moutainside in the Bel Highlands. It has breathtaking views and gorgeous terrain all around. Just this week I wanted to rebuild on my land, and had need to flatten out some of the ledge im on to put in tables and chairs for our Twitter Users meetings and the upcoming Metaversed get togethers. Having never used the inbuilt land tools, but having heard that they were tough, I invested in a landscaping tool (trees, plants etc) which came with a free terraformer. By the time the owner of the Island responded to my distress call, I had a 50ft tall stalagtite in one part of the land, and a 10ft deep hole in another area, neither of which I could repair. Lefty, my landlord, told me the tool I was using should be banned from the grid, it was that bad! -- Lesson here? Get an expert to help you, or at very least advise you on the tools to use.
3. Shop Around
Like many men, and most geeks, i have a short attention span, and low patience for shopping. I'm fast learning however that it pays to shop around in Second Life. What you see now, at $L1000 may be on sale somewhere else at half the price, or may be entirely the wrong thing. Often you can get tools, furniture, even skin and hair for free, so it pays to look around. Im an impulse buyer, I see, I like, I buy. Usually in a matter of seconds. Here's a classic example: I recently felt the need to buy some new skin, to try (in vain i might add) to get my Avatar appearance a little more me-like. I'd seen something I wanted to try on Second Man, a style mag for men in SL that I like, so went along to store. I found the skin i wanted, clicked "buy" (i'd been in the shop for 30secs, max) and confirmed. Kerching! $L10,000 Lindens lighter! --- That's $40! On further investigation, it seems I bought a complete set, whereas I could have purchased just the version Im now using for $8. What an idiot.
4. With Land, Pay a Little More
One of the fun things you can do in SL is buy a plot of land and develop on it. Maybe you just want a spot with a house where you can entertain, maybe a meeting area or office, whatever the case, the land you're on, and the neighborhood around you will determine much of the experience. If you want to avoid garish spinning FOR SALE signs right next door to your property, or a strip club opening up next door, check the sim ownwers policies. Talk to your prospective neighbors about their experiences and be prepared to pay a little more than bargain basement prices. Sim owners that take pride in their Islands, and genuinely want to provide value to their clients tend to be a little more expensive than the types that wil take anybody, and allow them to do anything. Really, pay a little more.
5. Never Assume the Sex of the Person You're Talking To
Second Life is full of many interesting people. The breadth of culture and freedom for expression is amazing. Trans gender avatars are common, so be careful not to offend your fellow players by assuming their real life sex matches their avatars. I've not had any problem in this regard, and in case you're wondering, I dont cyber, and have little interest in the adult side of SL other than in the pure pursuit of journalistic knowleget (honest guv..), but I have met a few very pretty women who were actually men, and I'm sure I've likewise met men who were actually women. You can see the potential for disaster here right? It always pays to be just a little cautious, and a lot respectful of those around you, just like real life.
As someone who's learned nearly all of these the hard way I can say that these are all great lessons.
You might want to look into getting a prim-rezzer for your office. They rez prims as temporary objects so they don't count against whatever your prim limit is. The one I bought cost around 250L and it works very well with desks and chairs as well as some ornamental elements you might otherwise skip if you're low on prims. I'd avoid using them for large structures though since that would probably contribute significantly to SIM lag.
Hey thanks Ronin! I've seen prim rezzers, but not used one..
I'll look into it!
I have commited numbers 1-4 as well. Glad to know I'm not the only one. Thanks for sharing your experiences.
Ha--these are funny, and very kind of you to share with us. Numbers 3 & 5 especially hit home with me.
Never assume the sex of the person you're talking to--I know you're right about this, but this is so hard not to do, especially if the avatar is human looking. I end up being a little confused by the men (?) who come up to me who are sporting beards AND breasts--I don't know, my mind is just like "Whah?" and I have trouble concentrating cuz I'm trying to figure out if they're looking like that on purpose or if they just haven't figured out how to modify their appearance. It can be confusing sometimes! Yes, it certainly pays to be cautious and respectful.
Re: shopping--we are *complete* opposites, because it takes me forever to buy anything. I always want to look at every store, compare prices, then buy the demo to see if it looks right, then walk around for a while wearing the demo, then sleep on it, then after much agony make the purchase. It's amazing I've bought anything at all!
BTW--I am confused about the rate of exchange in-world--when I see $L100 I've been assuming that equals $100 USD, but it's not an equal exchange, is it? What is the rate of exchange?
I think it's currently about 260:1 RK, you can get an exchange rate pretty quickly by clicking your balance in the top right. You can also get better rates from other exchanges but i like the convinience of just having my CC on file with Linden...
Thanks for that info 57-- Now I'm wondering why I've spent so much time agonizing over buying stuff that costs $L 99 and $L 250 when in fact that amounts to less than $1 USD.
This is a relief! Moving forward I won't worry so much about my little purchases. :-)
Heh! I wonder if we bought office stuff from the same place as I have one of those 76-prim chairs.
I had a similar rude awakening in my new place which is a rented office. The building owner alerted me a couple days ago that my prim count was way, way over what I'm allowed without penalty.
I discovered the single biggest culprit (after that chair) was an attractive little vase and flowers on my desk - 37 prims!
So it's out!