Stepping into a new world…
This is me. Honestly, it is! Or perhaps I should say that this is my avatar in Second Life. All three of those statements are true, but some of them may take some explaining.
As I mentioned before, Second Life (SL) is a virtual world that rivals our own in terms of the myriad possibilities open to us. Really, the only limit is your own imagination.
Many “residents” of SL are happy to call it a game. It certainly shares many traits with MMORPGs already cramming the interwebs that waste untold man-hours every day, but the differences are what I want to focus on.
See…unlike the people who joined SL to play a game…I joined the community to learn and teach. I didn’t know much about the “game” aspect of SL. All I knew is that real-world people were using the program to connect with other people like me. Those of us stuck in the small towns, or the big ones, for that matter. Those of us who would benefit from a more diverse community than our home towns allowed.
In my “first life,” I was only able to attend writing seminars at annual conventions. Professional, and local, workshops were out of the question as well. Using SL, however, I am able to bridge the gap between my office desk and the industry professionals who can help me the most.
When I heard from Mike Stackpole that he was developing a free, writer-based community using Second Life, I had to check it out. With thoughts of easy access to workshops, networking possibilities with other industry professionals, and potential new-media publishing possibilities, I signed onto SL for the first time and found that most of my expectations were met.
Setting aside the fact that I was blown away by the scope of SL, I found that it offered a lot of potential for advancement within my targeted field of writing. There were industry professionals, there were writing groups, there was lots of marketing being done, but there was also room for improvement.
Mike had been working hard, not just marketing, but publishing inside SL as well. He had also begun the early-days of community-building with the founding of Third Life Books alongside his friend Kat Klaybourne. The Third Life concept was to bring first-life people into SL for the purpose of making something bigger than either of those individually (first life+second life=third life).
Nearly a year has passed, since those very early days, and Third Life has grown into a fully realised community. Third Life Books has now expanded to include FarPoint Media, a group of first-rate podcasts, Third Life Interiors, offering furniture for your virtual home, and various resources for the newly-minted resident.
I am happy to say that I also play a role in this new community. Not content to wait around for things to happen, I took the initiative and, with Mike’s and Kat’s help, began to organise the Fantasy & Science-Fiction Writer’s Workshop. The workshop is a real-world tool for real-life writers to meet, network, discuss, learn, and teach. This is a group of serious writers who, for one reason or another, have found that using SL as a learning tool works for them.
In future posts, I hope to tell you more about Third Life Books, the F&SF Writer’s Workshop, and my experiences in Second Life. For now, if you’re interested, you can check out our workshop bio by using the link at the top of the page, or just clicking here.
So, rather than think of SL as a game, I suggest you think of it as a tool. As with all tools, what you do with it is up to you.
