Personality Goes a Long Way (with apologies to Pulp Fiction)

One of the first things I noticed about SL is that it doesn’t seem to take too much to have a good looking avatar. Those with fashion sense can design or assemble an avatar on the cheap. For the rest, there are a variety of pre-packaged avatars to choose from. As an example, 350 Lindens can turn you into Demi Moore, 1500 Lindens will turn you into a David Hasselhoff wannabee, and 2000 Lindens will enable you to send Tyra-Mail to all your SL friends. Lots of good looking avatars of all shapes and sizes roam the grid.

Long ago, I concluded that Second Life could be described by, “In a land where good looking people are a dime-a-dozen, personality is the coin of the realm.” Your avatar can get you past preconceived notions, and your personality is what allows you to stay past it.

That personality, of course, may not be what people see in RL. For instance, the “Alan Hearn” avatar is about 70-80% of my RL personality with a couple of the dials turned up to 11. I can’t speak for people engaged in SL role playing and how that reflects their RL personality.

Finally, on an administrative note, I realize that this blog looks pretty “generic” right now. I hope to have a blogroll up and running soon, and I plan on eventually revamping the theme. I’m guessing this blog will wind up as a perennial work-in-progress.