wherefore art thou

Where are they all?!

All those tens of thousands of people on SL inworld at any one time, where do they go? Frequently I’ll log on and see on the opening screen the numbers on how many avatars, or avis, are inworld right now which can be usually anything between 25,000 and 50,000 and sometimes even more, yet I barely see, meet, bump into a single one of them. Although, that’s an accidental lie, I do, a few, but literally only a few on my travels, in ones and twos, threes and fours here and there, sometimes tens of people, occasionally a few dozen at best, but that’s pretty unusual.

So, even if you add up these avis scattered across the plethora of sims that exist in SL there’s no way they can account for the tens of thousands, surely. It’s baffling, a conundrum, an enigma, a Mobius strip-shaped wrapped up in a Schrodinger’s cat sat a box wearing a hat.

But then, what I’m really wondering is, where are all the real people? Where are those who aren’t bots or zombies? I’m not talking actual zombies, by the way, that although being real people with real accounts, they don’t actually do anything other than stand or sit around, often just to camp for money or goods or whatever. I’m convinced their real-world owners are often not even at their computers, logging in only to go afk (away from keyboard).

Many of those I see around aren’t actually anyone at all but Bots, or SmartBots, but are nevertheless included in the numbers online because they are actual accounts. They are usually of one of two types of Personal Bot, ‘Standard Bots’ which function as such things as greeters, AI support, inviters, notice-senders; and then there are ‘Model Bots’ which are those used as mannequins, dance models, beautification, and usually moving in some way. These tend to do less than the Standard ones, but, in saying that with respect to both, they are actually real avis, it’s just that there’s no one behind the keyboard, no one at the wheel. Some can even be set to automatically log in and out like being on a timer. But, like I say, being actual accounts as such, they are included in the number inworld at any one time.

But these bots aren’t anyone you can have any meaningful interaction with, and that includes another relatively new thing I stumbled on the other day, another kind of bot in a way, “Smart-Mates”. There really is such a thing, I know, weird. They may sound a bit rude or naughty but nope, they aren’t, sorry to disappoint. They hang out with you, follow you, always want to be with you, which can be regarded either as welcome company, or, a bit creepy and clingy. Some have been lovingly called, ‘bodyguards’. Like the other kind of bots, they too are actual avatars with real SL accounts and also like them there’s no one at the wheel, so to speak, and you rent them as opposed to buying them. I think anyway, I am not totally clear on how it all works. How much control you have over them I’m not sure but might feel a bit like owning a blow-up doll.

Some days can really feel you’re wandering around an abandoned world where all the people have been stolen, kidnapped, abducted. So, where are they all? Or, have I got it wrong and in fact we the real people are actually outnumbered by the bots and zombies, and now, ‘smart-mates’?

© Anan Eebus

 

 

no words

 

window shopper

I do a lot of window-shopping, in SL that is. I do it for real too and it’s for similar reason in both cases, I’m poor, both in SL and RL, plus I’m also fascinated with the whole art of the shop window; and it is art. It’s something that’s usually overlooked, taken for granted or not even seen at all.

I think they influence us more than we think, even if you think you haven’t paid any attention to it, I reckon, at the very least,  you’ve probably registered it at some subliminal level. It’s the first thing people see on approaching a shop or wherever it is, not just the name of the shop but how the outside looks, is dressed, and the window-display is all part of that.

I can’t say I know what makes a well-dressed window, what elements make it work, but I know when I see one if it’s good or not, or if someone’s made an effort, been creative, clever, imaginative, and also who they’re appealing too. I especially enjoy Christmas time for this. Some go to amazing lengths to make a window that draws you in, even if it’s not a shop you usually or ever go into, their display can still be a feast for the eyes.

It’s something I find the online world just hasn’t got to grips with and can’t quite do anyway in the same way. Most homepages, which is like the shop window equivalent, are so often dull, bland, or over-crowded, messy, with way too much going on, or confusing or simply useless. In SL, window-displays are not as common as you might think, not many people seem to bother with them. Sure, they have signs and such, but actual window displays, something to initially grab your attention, are lacking. I’ve found a few on my travels and I know there are more but one has to rely mostly on chance to find them.

By extension, I also know window-shopping can simply be browsing instore without actually buying anything, but the term itself has come from the window-display, almost a digest or summary of what that store is all about.

I’ve posted a few photos here of window displays taken during my window-shopping travels, and I’ll be doing more for future blog posts. Rather dimly of me though, I forgot to label what shops these actually were, so in future I’ll try and remember to do so. It’s important to capture the moment as some displays change regularly, and once they’re gone, they’re gone.

 

© Anan Eebus

free cookies

I’m not sure this should be a blog at all, being that all I’m going to say is as I haven’t been hugely active on SL of late, even though I log in every day it’s only mostly briefly, so I haven’t got much to blog about, so here I am telling you in a blog I haven’t got much to blog.

It’s not I don’t want too spend time there, as such, though right now I haven’t really felt that driven too, particularly as my RL is so all-consuming right now. It even makes me think back and wonder how on earth I managed to spend as many hours of every day that I did, and managed to come through all the stress I seemed to put on myself in the process. In fairness to me though, other people were often to blame for that stress, which is, from my point of view at least, not the point of SL or in fact should be for any online game/world/alternate reality.

It should be like in western movies when a gunslinger enters a new town to be told that all guns have to be handed in before he does, and that he’ll get them back when he leaves. Or more simply, when you insist someone takes their shoes off to come into your house. Well, similarly with SL and suchlike, before entering you should leave all your RL hang-ups at the door/login. Although I don’t meet as many people inworld as I used to, even though I still do on and off, I have a feeling that generally this is more the case now, much less grief going on. Either that, or I’m very good at avoiding it. It could be a phase though, SL, like anywhere and anyone goes through them, good and bad.

I wonder if, for a while, SL for me was like a crutch at a time I was going through a rough patch (which is a polite way of putting it, lol). Perhaps not all ‘rough’ as such, just difficult and was looking for ways out, or time away somewhere where I wouldn’t have to deal with the hassles and stress. It didn’t really work. That, I suppose, is the twisted psychology of it, even though there were periods at the time when I convinced myself it was. In fact, what did happen was my life became that little bit more complicated because I’d now added SL. Not just this but I’d also inadvertently ended up taking on responsibilities here when actually my aim was to have none.

I can’t help it though, seems it’s in my nature to take things on. I don’t know why or what compels me, again maybe it’s just my nature and that’s something that very tricky to get your head around, even though a lot of it is going on in your head, or actually most of it.

I did say at the start I had not much or nothing to blog; seems I was wrong, in part at least. There’s not much about SL in this, I admit, but that’s because, like I said, I’ve barely done anything lately inworld, that is, aside from setting up two art exhibitions at two different galleries which actually just involved me hanging my artwork and a little decorating.

So, ho hum, I’m sure you’re bored now, even if you’ve even bothered reading this far. But if you have, well done, you get a gold star and a freshly-baked cookie, plus a nude photo of me! That last one’s a joke, by the way, the cookie might be too because I just checked and I’ve eaten them all.  

 © Anan Eebus

 

live and let bite

 

Well, it’s a new year here in Second Life and I enter it with two exhibitions going on at two different art galleries and I’m hoping to be hanging some new works at both very soon. Welcome also to my first blog here of 2022.

I used to have a little hideaway but wasn’t any longer able to afford it, even though it was really cheap, almost peppercorn, it was still tricky, so am once again effectively homeless in that I’ve nowhere I can call my own. This doesn’t really bother me though, it’s been a while since I was a nomad, of a sorts, and I quite like it, plus I don’t have to work about that weekly bill for rent. I did like my little skybox but needs must and change happens: one just has to go with it, such matters economic are still a hard reality, even in SL.

I’m still a vampire, and a few others things too, artist, photographer, mermaid, model, explorer, pole-dancer, and I’m still head of my own vampire clan, veiled Fang, which once upon a life was quite active yo-yoing in numbers depending on the whims of vampires who have just as many whims as non-vamps.  I set up Veiled Fang years ago after having spent a lot of time growing in other clans the length and breadth of SL and we’ve done okay, although now not exactly dormant as resting in peace for now as most of its members, I’m pleased to say, seem quite content with, especially as the majority are no longer active either on SL or in vampire roleplaying terms but have chosen to remain in Veiled, something I’m also heartened about and happy they have.

I probably suffered a bit of burn-out a few years back when pretty much hyperactively running the clan. I felt enormous pressure to keep up with other clan and what they do, and more importantly in what was expected of me by those in the clan as the leader or head. Not many realise what a huge responsibility it is to do so, and even fewer would take such a role themselves even though they complain when something isn’t being done to their satisfaction. Of course the buck always stopped with me as I had and took overall responsibility of all clan affairs and its member, that is until I realised, hey, everyone is their own person, or vampire, and as such are responsible for themselves, even if they are in my clan, I can’t hold them to account. This is SL after all where fun comes first and aggravation, last, or not at all.

I used to spend so much time worrying about people, fielding complaints from some people miffed about this vampire did that or that vampire did the other and instead of talking to them and them taking it on the nose they come to me and it was usually, pretty much always, so blah-blah trivial. Eventually, having gone through what I’d call a year or two baptism of fire- yes a very long baptism indeed- I had a lightbulb moment: this shouldn’t be this stress, so I stepped back slowly one step at a time to the point where the clan now no longer even has land, or a home, or Sanctuary as we used to call it. We are now just a clan bonded by blood, not by property, not by hassle, not by commerce, not by anything other than simply being, which I believe is something that should come naturally to a vampire, simply being.

I’m a much happier SL’er these days even though SL itself and even the vampire games I play have changed a lot through the years, and how others in SL perceive them. I’m much happier because I rediscovered its core: fun. It’s easy to just walk away from people being annoying or pushy or petty or basically just stupid. There are many stupid people in SL as there are in RL and because it sometimes harder to get away from all the stupid people in RL then it’s good to know that when I log into SL I am totally free of it to be a fun-loving cuddly avi-vamp that I am, and don’t stress over losing a little blood to me, be flattered, after all, one, you won’t even know it, two, it might even tickle, and three, I’m very choosey about who I suck.

© Anan Eebus