What is your earliest memory of Second Life?

[Daniel Voyager]

I joined on 31st October 2006 and my first memory was walking up to the welcome area then trying to work out what to do next

There was a bunch of scary Halloween people around.

Here are my first snapshots and adventures..

Daniel Voyager

 

[Bea McMahon]

I got talking about how I found it, but not what I did.
I remember changing my shape, very early - changing the face to basically what it is now. I was horrified to find out that the skin had no nipples. instead of asking anybody, I did a Google search, found a fashion blog, and read about skins. There was an article about Skin Within, and I went there and bought a skin - a pretty good one, actually - that I wore for quite some time.

 

[Ryanna Enfield]

December of 2005. I joined on the suggestion of my boyfriend because we were looking for a "game" that would allow us a more visual roleplay environment. I remember being awed by how much I could customize my avatar and must have spent hundreds of hours messing in appearance and then later the building menu creating things. At the time, I was also into industrial and gothic music. Somehow, I found my way to the Transylvania sim and The Wall, where they had a DJ. I got hooked, and the rest is history. Some of my fondest memories are helping to create a roleplay sim with friends I met in SL.

 

[Chav Paderborn]

My memory is of not joining for ages because a friend told me you started out naked and I thought you had to like scavange for gold and food and it didn't sound fun at all.

(Ironically I now live in a post-apocalyptic estate with an optional scavenging game.)

 

[Han Held]

In 2005 woman I met in THERE told me about it and she brought me in, showed me the basics. and I somehow got set up with a place. After a couple of months I wound up cancelling because I wasn't sure if the recurring charge would make me overdraft or not -then the computer I had got fried and it became irrelevant.

As far as memories from back then I only have a couple; one was wandering around and following a woman to a giant fuck-ass goth club/castle thing, the other was hanging out my mentor and having her stalker find her out of the blue.

I wound up coming back and making Han in 2008, eventually I restored my trial account and use him from time to time as a get-away-from-it-all alt.

 

[Clara D.]

NPR did a segment on it.

Being somewhat of an internet veteran I stuck it out through the
Ahern trolling and sandbox griefers

 

[sldenizen]

On the bus to work, I was talking about games and recreation with another regular rider and she mentioned Second Life and later I looked it up and couldn't really figure it out and was kind of put off by the warning that "you can never change your name". I read about it online and eventually downloaded it and created an account and did Welcome Island and then just decided to fly in one direction (east, I think) to see what I could find. Someone gave me a bottle of Jack Daniels, and some people were dancing on a beach and invited me to join them. After a while, I continued east, and ran into Lusk and Tehama, which were interesting. I saw a red and blue poseball at a bench, labelled "sitter" and "friend," respectively. I tried both and concluded that the friend was engaged in an oral sex act with the sitter.

And the scales dropped from my eyes and I immediately started working on improving my avatar's appearance, getting better skin and clothes, editing appearance obsessively, and learning how to use that "search" function.

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

I don't remember how I heard of it, but I remember what was going on when I did and first made an account [that I don't remember the name of]. I was getting very frustrated with the Sims Online beta, and I heard about SL and it sounded more like what I'd wanted from TSO. And my earliest memories were winning costume contests with my system only outfits.

 

[Ziggy Starsmith]

My head swims with memories of my first time on SL in 2007. Dance pads where I earned 1 Linden every hour lol. The discovery of something new every minute and some of my best memories was playing with strangers on the old Help Islands etc. When I feel bored or stagnated in my SL I get back to those days of exploring, especially mainland.

 

[Puretone]

Back in 2009, I lost my job. One night I found a story I really liked on BDSMLibrary. Having written erotica on a few gaming websites, I recognized an in game RP turned into short story form. I contacted the author to praise her writing style. Thus began a short email exchange with her explaining SL to me. I made an account that night, and spent about a week learning the controls and improving my AV.

Once I finally got a hold of my new email friend, I joined the D/s sim she was part of and have been involved with it to one degree or another since.

One thing I strongly recall was that the first time i turned on RLV, my hands were literally shaking with excitement. Best. Rush. Ever.

 

[Cristiano]

My earliest memory of SL was trying it out after my cousin gave me an account he had - he hated SL (my original SL account is Martinito Starseeker from 2002). I tried it a little bit, but I never saw another person and then I managed to get stuck under a building and could not figure out how to get out. I gave up on SL, but tried again when I got an invite to make my own account (which I did in 2003). Early days of SL were actually pretty magical to me - I remember them fondly. Once it clicked with me and I had that a-ha moment of what SL could be, I never looked back.

 

[Essence Lumin]

My earliest memory of SL was trying it out after my cousin gave me an account he had - he hated SL (my original SL account is Martinito Starseeker from 2002). I tried it a little bit, but I never saw another person and then I managed to get stuck under a building and could not figure out how to get out. I gave up on SL, but tried again when I got an invite to make my own account (which I did in 2003). Early days of SL were actually pretty magical to me - I remember them fondly. Once it clicked with me and I had that a-ha moment of what SL could be, I never looked back.

Martinito made the wall in Plum! Seems Cristiano did not. I'm bored so read the list of names on the wall to see who I recognized or spent time with.

Angel Leviathan - Umm. She was interesting.
Candie Apple - I spent loads of time with her Tringo or whatever it was
Darwin Appleby
Pituca Chang
Evie Fairchild
Stampshady Grimm - Umm. He was interesting.
Zoey Jade
Teeny Leviathan
Eggy Lippman
Hey there are Lumins on the list! I only knew one other. I don't remember her name now. She isn't listed. Viola?
Mistress Midnight
There are Protagonists but no Nephailane
Ananda Sandgrain
There are Romulus's but no Siggy
Juani Wu
Baba Yamamoto

 

[Knutz Scorpio]

My oldest account is 8 years 10 months old, and it was several years before that when I first heard of SL (Can't recall exactly)

First I heard of Second Life was while on a MUD (text only multiplayer worlds). Occasionally someone would bring up SL and all the cool things they could do there, what most stuck in my mind was being able to create and sell your creations. But most of us were on MUDs because we had to make do with crappy local internet connections and we typically gave them the response "text works just fine". Still I found myself hooked often researching SL and even occasionally lurking on the Linden Lab forum.

First time actually signing onto SL I had put aside my animosity towards my local phone company and signed up for newly available DSL and cobbled together a computer that probably skated the line of lowest minimum specs for SL. That first login was so horrible performance wise yet still thrilling. I learned to just leave the computer alone for a while as things loaded then maneuver my avatar in short bursts so that the horrendous input delay didn't cause me to mow down too many people, and laboriously I explored the orientation island.

A side effect of SL was discovering the enjoyment of building and upgrading my own computers. I still refuse to spend huge bucks on a new computer that in a year will probably be outperformed by a newer computer that costs significantly less, but often I enjoy hunting down a newER part or system.

 

[Lucifer]

I think I read about it in Dan Savage.
I am an old-fashioned paper and dice RPG'er. I was playing then - still am - a character in a SF game - GDW's 2300 - who is from the Isle of Skye, named Siobhan Beathag MacLeod. I thought it would be fun to be in this virtual world and be like Siobhan. She is short, with ginger hair and freckles. I wanted to take the name Siobhan, but that wasn't available with any of the Gaelic surnames. So I became Beathag. I may well still be the only Beathag in SL. (Beathag means "child of life" (feminine - a male would be Beathan) in Scots Gaelic. I'm still short, freckled, and have ginger hair.

You end up on some backwater shithole with a bunch of Kafers bearing down on you in a box canyon with no ammo, and no fuel in your luftkissen?

Fucking bugs!

 

[Bea McMahon]

You end up on some backwater shithole with a bunch of Kafers bearing down on you in a box canyon with no ammo, and no fuel in your luftkissen?

Fucking bugs!

No, this one is set on Earth. Done the other,though.

 

[Kaimi Kyomoon]

I had been making custom content for the Sims and Sims 2, having fun and earning enough every month to take Bruce out to eat somewhere fairly nice. Then my son told me about "Snow Crash" and SL and we both joined. It was all about making things for me. Right away said son talked a developer into hiring me to do signs and some construction. I worked for her in virtual San Diego and Dublin. I also stared selling clothes. I was really into it for a few years but then I lost interest. Now I spend almost no time in world. But I still love everyone here. Thank you Cris. My earliest memories involve getting my avatar looking better - I wanted to make everything myself.

 

[jauani wu]

there was a little cottage and a wishing well west of the welcome area overlooked but a medieval japanese fortress.

 

[Tigar]

I logged in one day at the urging from friends from a different online game, and then they kinda drifted away. I stayed and took Saucey Barbecue shopping and found some curly red headfur I liked and then... oh look! I has a box on my noggin!

 

[Spirit Lapis]

Everyone was a tourist, and the place looked desolate. There were barely any content and the avatars looked like crap. I first started SL maybe a month after they opened their doors. Lost my first account back when the major account hack happened. Probably for best- looked like crap anyway lol.

I remember the flying mario brother lag poofers all over the grid, the sonic the hedgehog sim crashers and the spongebob squarepants stuff, i remember the massive intrusive crappy looking adboards all over mainland, for sale signs and other advertisements, specifically ones for adult content and gambling, I remember getting my head stuck up my ass when falling in water areas, and when flexi was introduced i remember how bloomin awesome that was ... then sculptie....

I still have my phillip linden avatar gun.

 

[Amelia Freund]

I remember hearing about SL on another unrelated forum. It was in a social support subsection (on an ASD forum) so of course the topic revolved around using SL to make friends. I clicked on the link to the official SL website and saw that you had to pay a subscription fee so I wrote it off as a scammy rort.
Went to the same website again when I was bored during the xmas holidays in 2006/2007 and saw that access was now free so I joined up with this very avatar name. If free accounts never became a thing I wouldn't be here I reckon. Maybe I'm a cheapskate LOL.

First memories inworld were of me making my first avatar shape while still on Help Island. Then when I was ready to leave I was teleported to Isobel infohub where I believe a came across my first nudie man (didn't stick around to see if he was just having trouble with his outfits or anything!). I logged off and finished my first evening at The Shelter nearby. I even placed my avatar in the corner out of everyone's way because I didn't want my avatar standing there being an obstacle until I logged in again.