Needed: A Potterverse Presence in Second Life

[msbeadsley]

I used to be pretty active on HPfGU and OTChatter and even stuck a toe
into TBAY a time or two; then RL got in the way and I lurked, then
stopped.

But I had to come back and post about Second Life, which I discovered
on Monday, 2/27/06 from reading a writer's* blog. (I've already rented
an apartment there. For about twenty cents a week. Less than any
resident's automatic "government" stipend. Weird.)

www.secondlife.com

Tweak yourself an avatar (young, thin, doe-eyed and possessing killer
cheekbones, or muscle-bound with a full head of hair; chubby, a crone,
even non-human--be a dragon) and walk, fly, or teleport over and
around several square miles of virtual landscape. Buy land; build
yourself a house. Make a product and sell it. Modify the landscape.
Make mountains. Or just sign up for the free trial and meet people.
Wander the woods. Dance. Talk. Fly through clouds. Wander one of
several malls and buy virtual clothes, shoes, and whole visual
personas for little...or nothing, if you troll for the incredible
freebies available. Walk the ocean floor, which has little detail;
come and build some fish and coral.

It's like chat with ski lodge (or hot tub, or dance club) graphics and
 presence. There are even Groups there. Sardaukar. Furry Fandom. Art
groups. BDSM. ("Mature content" being an optional check box on your
radar.) Book clubs. But there's no Harry Potter I can find. And there
should be. The things you could do with a wizard or witch avatar
there...oh, man! Oh, man, talk about _magic_! It would be so perfect;
and although I've acquired a hover disk, I haven't seen a single
broomstick! And they are eminently doable, although my skills won't be
up to it for a while.

I'm told that technically, Second Life is a MMORPG: a Massive
Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game. But the rules are only those of
any civilized, capitalist society. It's closer to a WORLD. 

There are also claims that some people are making a living doing stuff
solely in cyberspace in Second Life. There are certainly many RL
dollars changing hands via the exchange of Linden (Second Life)
dollars (the rate is currently something like 233 Linden to one U.S.
dollar).

You do have to have broadband or something like it to do this, and a
hefty chunk of RAM. (This is like *seeing* TBAY; and boy, it sucks up
MB and BPS.)

I hope to see (see!) some of you; and no, I have no real stake,
financial or otherwise, in this, just a lot of raw enthusiasm and
eagerness to see Witches and Wizards among the Furries and Vampires
and Zombies and winged folks! Look me up once you graduate orientation!

Sandy aka msbeadsley aka Rebecca Tully

P.S. Under eighteens are welcome in Teen Second Life (about which I
know almost nothing, as I am not able to be admitted). ;-)

*Sharon Lee/Steve Miller/Liaden space opera, anyone?