Alternatives

Specifically,  Second Life alternative accounts. Once you have your main account, avatar, life going on in second life, some people will start a second account. I read on Facebook a poster upset over her partner who apparently created not only an alt, but an alternative life. Good reason to want to kick him in the Aeros!

I am infamous. I have had 7 alts, now defunct… retired… one dead.  I had a reason for these accounts, so i would like to defend the use of an alt.

My first alt came about because of my lifestyle. I was a sub, collared. My mistress had an app on my collar called Spy. Spy would collect every teleport i made and my side of any conversation. I discovered the next day she was dropping in on each teleport to see what i was doing and chatting with whoever was around asking about me. I may have been submissive but i still felt that an intrusion. I wasn’t doing anything i should be ashamed of. Not unfaithful. Just different music venues.

So i created an alt to feel free to get around. That one went off the rails and i caused pain to too many people. I learned my lesson with alts. As the FB poster noted, she was greatly pained by what her ex-partner had done. His was purposeful, and he was a bastard. Mine was accidental. But pain caused nonetheless. I apologized to those I interacted improperly with.

But after that! Oy. I am a writer as my profile will tell you. What a great way to gather material and try out circumstances. Thus, my next alt was created at first to meditate, contemplation on a historical Japanese sim. Great way to start the day. But i got a great idea… what is it like to sell yourself? A little Firestorm search and i found myself, kimono and all, on the auction board at PoD auction house. For a three-week period I sat on a cushion twice a day being interviewed. I have many pages of notes about the emotions involved. Nervous, am i doing it right, should i dress sexy like that barbie kneeling on the next cushion, do i have any worth… so many things filled my mind. (By the way, i didn’t go for much — L$1,500)

Then came a cute little fawn, a half-goat girl. What better way to experience discrimination. You’d think in a world where you can literally be anything you want everyone would be cool with it. Nope. I was a fawn for a month and made not one… NOT ONE… friend. So i kicked it up a notch… an African-American woman. I’m sad to say i still believe there is discrimination in SL. I may be wrong. But after a short life I gave up both of them.

And that’s how it went, my friends. A purpose-driven alt (1) because it is fun and a challange to built something (find the avatar look you like, find a style of clothing that fits, etc.), and (2) to achieve a set goal. Once that goal is reached, i simply quit logging on. They’re laying there, all lined up, hoping someday to be reawakened. “Do Electric Sheep Dream of Androids?”

So I’m sorry to that original poster for the pain her asshole of an ex-partner caused. Some folks totally forget that behind every avatar is a living, feeling human being. Emotions are SO strong in Second Life. We live in our minds which seem to magnify feelings. Be careful using alts.

 

NEXT POST: an update on my transition.