Asset servers and old friends
Despite some clunking and thumping about in the bowels of the colocation facility housing Second Life (yes, the infamous asset server was acting up again), I still managed to get in a few good hours of general lolling about. I gazed in amazement at the new, super-tacky field of cubic doom in the neighboring sim (-no picture available at the moment; Cristiano’s got Snapzilla down for a move to a new server- picture here on Snapzilla), discovered a brand new plywood box hovering above 250 meters near my airfield, and got in a bit of flight time over the northern continent in the biplane I’m building.
I had two of my best friends in SL log on about the same time, both of whom I keep managing to miss. We caught up and generally shot the shit most of the evening. Even on a night that’s not conducive to much building, it’s nice to know I can still have an enjoyable time in SL.
I’m amazed at the deep bonds of friendship I’ve developed in SL. I’ve been in online environments for half my life, but before Second Life, I never really formed any lasting online relationships. There’s some magic underlying this little virtual world, some bit of shared experience, that somehow makes the people I meet in the Second Life community more real to me than those I’ve met in other virtual worlds, games, and chat environments. I don’t know what it is, but I’m thankful for it.