Kowalski's Korner

Finding My Other Self

I don’t think I’ve ever felt more attached to my av than I do right now. I’ve always been one of those folks who keeps a “healthy” distance between me and my avatar. I guess that’s a shield I put up years ago, back in my old Dungeons & Dragons days (the paper and books version, not the computer games). My friends would get so attached to their characters, and I’d have to keep reminding them, “It’s just a piece of paper!”

That’s the mindset I took into Second Life. I may have even started off less attached, because you can at least touch a piece of paper. An avatar is just computer code. A collection of 1’s and 0’s magnetically “remembered” on a hard drive. I created Kowalski for work, put a company t-shirt on him, and kinda thought of him as a walking billboard. He was a piece of office equipment, not an extension of me. He was more than my mii avatar, but mostly because Second Life allowed me to do so much more with him. He was just a computer generated extension of a figment of my imagination. And then…

Well, I quit my job the other day, and today was my first day at home. (Don’t worry… I’m a trailing spouse, so my paycheck was just the frosting.) Anyway, I changed Kowalski’s shirt, activated a different group, and poked my head in-world. What I found probably won’t surprise most of you, but it was a neat revelation for me.

Kowalski is connected to me!

My in-world friends don’t think of him as an extension of my employer. There were no questions about who I would be next or how I would find everyone with my new av. Just as my real life friends asked what I was going to do next, my in-world friends asked Kowalski what he was going to do next.

And this was no game interaction. This was honest, real-life compassion. Their avs weren’t role-playing concern for my av. The real people behind those avatars were expressing concern for the real person behind my avatar… me!

So what do I think of Kowalski now? Well, I’m still sorting that all out, and I guess that answer will continue to evolve. I do think I want to keep that shield up a little. I’ve known people in role-playing situations who have lost the line between reality and fantasy (I actually had a guy come over a table at me in a D&D game in college). I don’t want to head in that direction, and I’m pretty sure I won’t. But I feel a little freer to let more of me shine through Kowalski now. I guess if I had to find a way to express it (which of course I have to or this article would have a lousy ending), I’ve come to think of Kowalski as a personal communication tool. Just as the phone, or IM, or texting, or even snail mail can help you communicate with someone over long distances, Kowalski lets me communicate around the world.

But it’s still different, because of the immersive nature of Second Life. Kowalski lets me communicate in so many different ways. He’s like the coming together of so many previous forms of communication technology. Text, audio, video, and now even body language and facial expression!

And even better, Kowalski doesn’t have to know someone before he can communicate with them. It’s like living in a world where you have 10 minute conversations with someone who called a wrong number. Heck, some of my best in-world friends are people that Kowalski just walked up to so I could say “Hi”.

So what have I learned? I’ve learned that my av is an extension of my personality, not an extension of the situation under which I created him. I’ve learned that there are real people behind those virtual faces, and some of those people really care about me, not just my av. And I’ve also learned that when the Bell Telephone Company said that calling Long Distance was ‘The Next Best Thing to Being There’… they hadn’t seen anything yet!

Kowalski’s Korner

To Shop or Not to Shop – That is the Question!

I had an interesting experience the other day. I guess really it was more like a string of small adventures and small revelations. And since I’m a writer, I figured I’d ramble on a bit about it for your entertainment.

We’re setting up virtual offices for the VR Review, and I needed some supplies to put on my desk. Now, those who know me know that I’ve been the King of Freebies since before my Second Life began. So I decided to hit some of the more popular freebie locales. If you ever want to see a good cross-section of Second Life, hit a freebie store. But not just any freebie store… hit a big, crowded one. And don’t just look at the avs; look at the items as well. It’s amazing! Where else can you see a 2 ft. teddy bear buying a 4 ft. bazooka?

Unfortunately, today I was going to be partially freebie-disabled. It was a heavy lag day. If there’s two things we all know don’t mix, it’s an overcrowded island and a heavy lag day.

But I wasn’t going to be discouraged. I’ve been around and learned some tricks. After all, I’m almost two years old! So I rolled my mouse to the upper right corner and hit the handy-dandy search bar.

I figured this would be easy. Search “office supplies”… find some free ones… grab em… rez em… score! Got caught on that second one. Couldn’t find any free ones. I searched a few more terms, poked around a few more stores. Nothing. And this is where I faced my dilemma.

“I’m the King of Freebies,” I told myself. I have never understood the concept of spending real money on virtual stuff. I mean, uploading images sure, but that’s a necessity for building. This is different. Spending real U.S. dollars that I had to work for on stuff that doesn’t actually exist, and that I know I’m perfectly capable of accidentally deleting after spending real money on it. Oh wait… technically it’s not real money. It’s Linden dollars… and I didn’t actually work for them; I’ve earned all my L$ doing stuff in-world. And why do they abbreviate it as L$? Wouldn’t $L look more like SL?

At this point I realized I had digressed. Though the $L thing was a good point. Anyway, I still had office supplies to get. So I thought through it once more (trying to leave out the $L part) and I decided that I owed it to myself to spend some money in-world. I had decided that the self-proclaimed King of Freebies could let himself become the self-proclaimed King of Cheapies! I admit it wasn’t much of a promotion, but I think a virtual-psychologist would have considered it a break-through.

But this was new territory to me, and the lag had chased off all my friends. I was alone in a new world. But, I explained to myself, I had been alone in a new world when I first arrived in Second Life, and that had turned out great. I can make this work!

I had to step out of world to start, and ask for help from that weird guy who keeps changing my clothes. He’s cute, but not near as cute as me. And as for style… I’ve never quite figured out how he can make me look so good and still dress the way he does. But I was digressing again.

I had him do a search for “Second Life Office Supplies”, which took us to XstreetSL. XstreetSL is an interesting place. It’s where VR meets RL. Where my world meets his. A few minutes later we had found what we wanted. It was inexpensive and had copy perms! This was it. Together we clicked “Buy Now”. We both felt a rush of adrenaline. But it was short lived. What do you mean I don’t have enough $L or L$ or whatever?!?!? I’ve got L$342 and this thing only costs 30!

Now I know at this point those of you who use XstreetSL all the time are laughing your little animated backsides off, but for those of us who
are new to the experience …

you have to transfer money from your SL account to your XstreetSL account at an in-world terminal before you can buy anything that way.

Just for a heads-up, it does take a couple of minutes for the money to transfer, so don’t freak out while you’re waiting. I can tell you from experience… the freaking doesn’t make it go any faster. And ditto for the item appearing in-world.

But it was done! I had my office supplies! Now came the fun part. I unpacked my stuff and started setting up my desk. Did I say "fun"? Well, maybe fun isn’t exactly the right word for it. I don’t have OCD, but like everyone else I have a few occasions when those tendencies come to the surface. I think I spent more time arranging the desk than I did buying the stuff. And come to think of it… the tape dispenser still isn’t in the right place… we can talk more about this later… I have a desk to finish.