Friday, August 03, 2007

My First Second Life Experience

Not so good, I must say.

I spent about 25 minutes trying to make my avatar look sort of like me. It's sort of me-ish.

Then I wandered around Orientation Island, which gets boring fast. And then I teleported myself over to Brandon Hall's Education Island.

I starting talking with another newbie for about 2 seconds when we were accosted. The short story is within my first 5 minutes of exploring an island I was called a "bitch" and this guy was claiming to own "this world" and wanted me to pay him to get off the island. Coage Boucher. Avoid him.

I probably should have reported him, right? Well, I didn't. I just quit. Had to come back to my real computer and review a proposal anyway.

5 comments:

Christine Martell said...

Sorry you had that experience, but I'm glad to know I'm not the only one. I didn't even get out of the newbie area before I was accosted by a cyber-creep. Lots of you're hot, want to hook up, and other obnoxious comments. They were coming at me in the chat, then IM, and when they started coming into my email I quit the program.

My original intention had been to visit the Brandon Hall island. Part of me just wants to ignore the first taste and persevere, but I can tell you I just haven't seemed to find the time to try again.

Cammy Bean said...

Thanks for commenting, Christine. I think it's these kinds of first impressions that will be keeping a lot of people away from SL.

My experience has been the talk of the office this afternoon. Apparently, the same thing happens in World of Warcraft. My co-worker called it the "12 year old Syndrome".

So perhaps my harasser was just a bored 12-year old looking for some kicks. Nonetheless, I felt violated. It's virtual, but I didn't feel so safe all of a sudden.

Anonymous said...

Bummer Cammy. Just to be clear, Brandon Hall Research does not own Education Island. We have an office on Education Island which is quite different. Kind of like saying someone in Boston called you the 'b' word when you were actually in Massachusetts. Better luck next time! I'll drop you a note re: meeting up in our office next week.

Anonymous said...

It's awful that you had that experience in SL, but I can understand how you feel. I've been into SL several times but I'm very daunted about attempting to talk to anyone, so usually wander around by myself.

Cammy Bean said...

@ Janet -- thanks for clarifying Brandon Hall's relationship with Education Island. I did not know that -- and just assumed from all the branding that it was "yours". So who does Education Island "belong to" -- if anyone?

@ Kate -- I don't know if being on your own makes a difference to whether or not you get approached or harassed (as was my case). I was actually talking to someone when we were both confronted. I think these are the challenges with the public nature of SL. We're going to have to put up with a few assholes here and there...