You have to explore, its the wild west

All the virtual world work I do, whilst having a playful side to it is still all about business, my Second Life interactions in particular I have some very good friends but we are all in the business. We talk about making things, persuading people, and share some experiences we have had. Travel in virtual worlds also broadens the mind. Having explained in my previous post, and in the presentations this week that places like Second Life mean lots of things to lots of people and those things can coexist it was by chance I read New World Notes and saw about a roleplay sim for Deadwood. This is historical recreation, there are actually more rules than you would find in a business meeting, to ensure the immersion of character is not broken. Now I love westerns, and I really enjoyed the Deadwood series. So… I joined up.

It was interesting of course that I had to alter my look in order to enter. So the fun of shopping and choosing at least the first outfit and getting a hat to fit was taking me back to the first days in SL. However, I am still maintaining the high degree of honour and strength that one would associate with the scifi predator. i.e. don’t prey on the weak.
So, in the course of a few days I have spoken in world in at “serious” work event, jumped over to a feeding edge consulting piece of work building some very advanced training facilities, and now slipped into something that made me feel slightly nervous and gave me the sense of exploration I had nearly 4 years ago.
I literally bumped into a community leader as I arrived in Deadwood, and those initial conversations really set the tone. These role play arenas have a fascinating feel to them as once again they are more like acting than gaming. Even Eve and Wow there feels a detachment for the purposes of the game. Who knows how long I will survive or how much I can immerse myself, but I am intrigued (and unarmed I should add!).
This is of course work in some sense, in experiencing this type of use of a virtual world, and being in it, whilst at the same time being part of the industry I am soaking up anecdotes for other people to hear about.