Through the looking glass

standing in my spaceship, surrounded by a prototype gun, photo backdrop, a half built speeder bike, and an old tv with a nintendo on top, I am still amazed to this day all that Secondlife has to offer. In no other world can one person accumulate quite so much junk or such varied and wonderful experience.
Secondlife has long been a bastion for creativity,self expression, and social networking. But the average SLer may not even know all that is out there. Today I hope to clear the fog a bit, and tell you about a few of the oppurtunities out there in SL. Imagine you are just stepping onto your first taste of virtual soil, around you are many others dressed in a similar manner, just as befuddled as you feel. Now, fast forward a month how much like that "old you" do you look like? If you are like most people in Secondlife you have found out you can shop and find something to dress your avatar in that is presentable, and even buy a skin that looks a tad bit more realistic than the skin you arrived in. Again jump forward another three months, and you have metamorphosed into something so far from the original mold that you find yourself trying to avoid even interacting with the "noobs". Secondlife gives people the chance to make themselves into whatever they want, and with a little ingenuity and lindens do whatever they want.

One such option would be the varied roleplay experiences out there. You can be apart of the ever growing Star Wars Roleplay community or SWRP for short, go to toxian and be a horned demon who slays vampires, or if you'd rather be the vampire you can wear a hud that lets you simulate living the way a vampire would...on human blood which you must take in regularly or risk harm or even a fake death.

Say roleplaying in that manner doesn't really suit you, perhaps you'd rather work as a dancer in the many clubs around SL or even as an exotic dancer, working for tips of the almighty linden dollar which you can then take and purchase more clothing items, gadgets, or other toys that enrich and enhance your virtual way of life. Perhaps you have crafted your avatar into a very attractive bit of pixels and you want to show the latest fashions off and be paid to do so, then maybe modeling is for you. You can enroll in modeling school, participate in contests, or just work as a live model in a few of the showrooms for major content creators.

If capturing those images interests you more than being in them, photography in secondlife could be for you, with the rate modeling is growing in popularity and clothing creators are rolling out new items, there will need to be someone to take pictures of all this.

One of the most addictive parts of Secondlife, aside from the shopping, is content creation. Any person can create objects, clothing, scripts, or even entire sims and it all starts with a single prim, a simple texture, a new script, or a blank slate. Content creation is one of the top professions in SL, with people creating everything from recreations of iconic Star Wars characters to the latest fashion which mimics the real life fashions we see in Paris or New york.

And even if none of the above interests you, there are still options available to you. At its very essence, secondlife is a three dimensional chat room. Allowing people from across the world to come together and chat, get to know each other, even fall in love. With all these options available to you, I would reccomend checking out Secondlife. If you are already apart of this ever expansive world, try something new, something that takes you outside of your usual boundaries and explore, see what else there is to offer out there. Happy hunting SLers.