SLUniverse Forums

LittleMe Jewell

It looks like the OP left the thread in the other forum, so I'll post the same response here:

I have been totally blown away by the intensity of the emotions that I have felt here. I have never done a lot of online stuff before - no online games, a tad bit of AOL and Compuserve in the early days, but no real chat rooms or forums for years before SL. I was amazed at how I have come to care so deeply for some of my friends and at how much the ending of a virtual intimate relationship could hurt.

The emotions are real for me - my inworld profile even states that. I have felt emotions all up and down the spectrum and I would not give it up for anything. The joys experienced make the pain worthwhile.

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-Lil
~~~~~~
Life is all about "ass" -- covering it, kicking it, kissing it, or trying to get some.

Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it.
(Mark Twain)

Arwen Hykova

my two cents on this.

whenever you interact with someone else, your going to get emotionally involved, to some degree, its human nature.

even when your roleplaying, and by that i mean, places like tombstone, fantasy sims, crack den, midian .. your still getting heavily involved emotionally everytime you play a scene.

The more time you spend with someone, the more you tune into their feelings. I've had some friends who i've known from day 1 in SL and i know when their feeling down even through the way they talk/type, and so i'll do my best to make them happy, or let them talk about it.

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I am giving you a 7.1 on the Troutenheimer Scale of Sluttitude. Your inner slut is hiding inside, waiting to emerge. Congratulations and shame on you!

Ned Easterwood

"Joy and woe are woven fine
Clothing for the soul divine
Under every grief and pine
Runs a joy with silken twine

It is right it should be so
We were made for joy and woe
And when this we truly know
Safely through the world we go."

William Blake, adapted for the UU hymnal

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Ned
Take 'er easy for all the sinners of the world, dude. Abide. And amen. http://www.dudeism.com/
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: The Claymore of Loving Kindness Unitarian Jihad

Arwen Hykova

the mental experts banned me from their sims, they said i scared them

Brenda Connolly

I came to SL with no online experience be it games , forums, chat rooms, whatever. I was drawn in by it quite heavily, my first year was definitely an experience. I experienced, and caused my share of heartbreak. When I walked away and cancelled my account in April, I used that time to get a better perspective and came back.

SL to me, is like a big theme park. I consider myself a Visitor as opposed to a Resident. I come to the park to be relaxed and entertained, not looking to carry anything out of the park when I leave. Everyone I meet I accept as they present themselves, who or what they may be in RL is of no importance. But they all are real people, and i try to treat them just as I would anyone I meet in RL.

Derek Tafler

An interesting viewpoint, which possibly also applies to myself, since I don't 'own' anything tangible in SL, other than my avatar and clothing.

As an aside, I was thrilled to be contacted in IM inworld yesterday as a direct result of this thread, well its equivalent on the 'other' site. Social interaction is not the easiest issue in my book, I tend to lean towards the 'loner' category, so any communication is regarded as exciting, unless its inane posts from someone hellbent on being miserable of course !!! (We won't go there )

Huns Valens

They are avatars, but most of the ones you interact with have actual human beings behind them. I've had a lot of emotional highs and lows that can be traced to interacting with the PEOPLE in SL. In many ways it's "safer" than interacting in real life. I used it at one point to work on my social skills, which are better today than they were when I joined, partially because I joined. I visited a girl I met in SL twice. I met friends who I love(d) like brothers. I saw the whole spectrum of human emotion - love, hate, despair, elation, boredom. I saw everything from coquettishness to lovers' mind games to shrewd business sense to manipulativeness to bullying. I went to parties where I got away with shit that would get you arrested & possibly committed in real life. I met some of the chillest people I have ever known. I used SL to keep my programming skills sharp, and to prove to myself that I can do EXTREMELY tricky shit without anyone to lean on.

Right now I am finding it more interesting to do all these things in the real world, but maybe someday I will make SL almost as big a part of my life like it was before. It was the majority of my social scene for close to five years, which I honestly think is a little unhealthy, but with a proper first life as an anchor I could enjoy it again someday.

I will tell you one thing. Having someone to hold every weekend beats the shit out of having to get on a jet liner a couple times a year. SL love has turned into marriage for some people but it def. sucks shit in many ways compared to dating people who live nearby.

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Decadent

I love my friends in SL like I love my "real" friends, because they are real. I hate seeing them hurt, love seeing them happy, and find them to be funny, sweet, intelligent and complete pains in the ass sometimes.

That's where I draw the line at emotional attachments in SL.

I may miss the good parts of my one big SL relationship and I may still not be over it completely, but the pain and reality of having my emotional vulnerability turned against me far outweighs any "What if?" scenarios I may entertain. I'd much prefer to work on the tangible relationship that I do have and foster only friendships with others.

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Some day we will look back on all this, laugh nervously and quickly change the subject.

--

Tears stream down your face
When you lose something you cannot replace
Tears stream down your face
And I..

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you.

Colette Meiji

Waitaminute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All of you all are REAL people?

I thought this forum was some kind of video game.

Dang I'm gonna have to start watching what I post now.

Lila

I had my fair share of emotional ups and downs when I first joined SL. I "fell in love", was heartbroken and had forgotten about them the next day. That was newbie Lila.

When I had been there for longer, I met this guy, a boy really, 21 years old and something about him. I really felt for him something I hadn't felt for anyone before. This wasn't to be in love, it was love. He became the brother I never had.

He had a miserable childhood and I cared about him deeply. When he was down I stayed up with him until the morning, cried with him. Helped him with his increasingly complicated SL relationships. He had a tendency to be involved with more than one girl at the time. And they all knows about it and are lining up to be his second or third girlfriend at the time.

I had to stay on top of every little drama and complication. And it started to involve the rest of his SL family too. I helped them too, talked them through difficulties. Made my life a hell really. Think you can get too much involved in people too. I started to care about his girlfriends too and thought he was mean to them, expecting them to share him. I told them that, and they went straight to him and told him.

I was cut off from most of my SL friends after that. He accused me of being too curious and should stay out of the family's (his SL family) business. I got really upset, but not as upset as I had been the other times when he had done that to me before. Now I hit mute and deleted him and the rest of his SL family. But it still hurt. My SL life changed after that. A lot.

Troy Vogel

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Charlemagne Allen

The bridge is out. You'll need to complete the quest to leave the town.

The bridge is out. You'll need to complete the quest to leave the town.

The bridge is out. You'll need to complete the quest to leave the town.

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Colette Meiji

Ahh okay it was a false alarm

Damn they always try to trick ya.

Where the heck was that bridge clue again?

Derek Tafler

Not left it, LittleMe, just got fed up with Pep's behaviour, I am surprised that type of trolling is tolerated, but its a Linden forum, so who knows, I am still monitoring the thread though.

As for your post and others, it leaves me staggered just how intensely someone can get involved, because the people shine through, regardless of the avatar ...

I also have comments in my in world profile to define my attitude to my emotional sensitivity.

Aodhan McDunnough

Well I'm just an imagination of your figment.

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Karl Herber

I was going to say something similar, but you beat me to it and so much better. I was going to say how I don't really distinguish between SL and RL. My SL avatar is still me, the people I interact with in-world are real people sitting at the keyboard. Only the tools of communication are different.

The only situation where i'd say SL and RL are distinctly different, is if someone creates an avatar for roleplay that is deliberately different from themselves. And even then, it's difficult to immerse oneself in a roleplay character to such an extent that there is no presence of your real self in it.

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Horse Tales - and - Free For Men

Derek Tafler

I see SL as a subset of RL, so being in SL is similar (as an example) to being at, say guitar classes, or doing some other (RL) activity. There is a particular mindset involved with any activity, that is why we enjoy some activities more than others, SL is no different in that respect. The only point is that SL offers so much flexibility in how to approach it.

stpaulsub Clio

oh yes there is emotional involvment in SL..
to me, it can be as deep or even more deep emotionally,
in RL we can be passive, in relationships, and in life in general, but in a virtual setting to really be part of a relationship i have to actually activly participate, i have to open myself up in ways i may not need to RL. The can be both good and bad, i have learned much about myself in SL and not all of it positive. i believe that opening myself up this way leaves me vulnerable to emotional hurt but it also opens me up to incredible emotional highs. The biggest danger i see in Emotions in the Virtual worlds is the speed in which everything seems to happen, we joke that 1 month of a SL relationship is equal to a year (or more) of a RL one, but it is true we tend to go thru all the phases of a relationship in very short order. i know this has been a rambling post, because it is a area that i am still exploring so many of my own feelings, as i have tried to detach myself somewhat from Sl because i was in way to deep for way to long, but i treasure the friends i have made and would not give up any of the experiences i have had in teh last 4 years.

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Mocksoup Graves

I get emotionally involved in SL, because it has crossed over into my RL as well. There are people who will be always SL only friends, and then there are people who are both.

Usually about the time we exchange real first names,email addresses, or cellphone numbers. Some people that has been extremely fast (within safety limits), and others it hasn't been at all. I have met probably the best RL friends I have ever had, in world first.

I am grateful for my SL experiences, both good and bad because this is another medium for me to live in. For reasons I don't wish to elaborate on, SL makes things possible for me. And it has ALSO done things for my RL that I couldn't have imagined in my wildest dreams.

Mocksoup is me, the me that I would be if I were not hindered by illness, limitations, distance or the laws of nature. She is my mind, personified. My conciousness made form. My Avatar.

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I think that hyperbole is the single greatest factor contributing to the decline of society. - Someone named Pat.

Trout Slut Rating : 4.3
You have the potential to become a slut, given the right conditions, but it will take a very special person to draw that out of you, and, let's face it, you are perfect just as you are.

MockBlog
The Bargain Bin

Ann Launay

/me pokes Mock and runs away

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Mocksoup Graves