Second Life: Exploration

There was no limit to the places available to explore in Second Life. There were the well-known places that everybody knew of that should of course not be missed, like the works of AM Radio. One would go there once in a while, stand on the train or perhaps float in the air. In my early Second Life days, when I didn’t yet have a home, I would head over to AM Radio’s wheat field and just stand around. Predictably, I would get into conversations with people, perhaps even make a new friend. At some point it become clear that “regulars” visited this place. To most of them I did not speak, but I was always aware of their presence; they had sort of become part of the landscape. If they for some reason would not show for a few days, things would not be the same.

It was great to go to a beautiful place that most people knew of, but I loved even more to discover a place on my own. Roche was one of those places; a simple place, really, but for some reason it struck a chord with me. Once I had teleported in, I might jump on a bike and bike around on the narrow roads for a while. If I remember correctly, one could hear the sound of the bike wheels as they touched the ground. I would also take friends to Roche, we would sit in the house on the hill and chat, at times for hours. Sometimes we would just sit quiet for a while and listen to the music. Occasionally, random people visiting the place would enter the house and stare at us for a while, perhaps say hello, but then take off and leave us alone.

Then there were the places that other people took me to, like the Missing Mile. This was a place were I would be guided around and not only be excited about what I saw but also witnessed  the pleasure of the other sharing what they had previously discovered themselves. Missing Mile was an incredible place, there was tons to explore; I would take many other people there, sharing with them what had been shown to me previously. Each time I brought someone new there, I would be reminded of the first time I had been there myself.

Places would come and go in Second Life. One friend would not get very sentimental about it when one of his favorite places would suddenly disappear, saying, “It’s just pixels!” But I felt differently. Each place was meaningful to me in its own way and simply knowing that I could no longer go there because it was gone was at times sad. Later on, talking about certain places with friends, one would say, “Oh, remember that place!” and we would compare what we had seen and experienced. And in the end, that’s all that remained of those places we had explored. Memories.

Photos above by Flora Nordenskiold.