Driving around Second Life

Having now been in Second Life long enough to have become completely bored by sex here I have recently been searching around for something else to tickle my fancy. Apart from parachuting accross Gaeta, (and almost making it accross the straits to Corsica, only let down by lack of altitude) the main appeal recently has been driving. Given that there are 473 pages devoted to car related products on the SL Marketplace website, I'm surprised that the A&E departments in SL aren't inundated with injured avatars. However, the reality is that owning and actually driving a car in SL are two completely seperate things. Lack of a decent road network is one obstacle, as many of us cannot access a road because of banlines on land over which we must cross to access a road. Another obstacle is the road infrastructure itself. Take the continent I live on, Gaeta. We do have SL Route 7 and 7A, which do, in theory, go around the continent, but frustratingly there are large sections where SL Route 7 becomes a canal, and unless your vehicle is of the amphibious, or submarine variety, you won't be able to do a circuit of Gaeta.

Things get much better on Corsica, as I discovered very recently. The road goes round the continent. Completely. Corsica has a more European feel to it, (a nice change from the dominant North American influence in SL) with reassuringly European road signs, many of which give warnings of 20% inclines/declines (that's 1:5 to you who have yet negelcted to go metric!) indicating the hilly nature of the central region of the continent. Obvious attention has been given to roadside landscaping, and informational signposting is well provided, giving distances to rez zones and upcoming sims. Whilst it's great to have well signposted and marked rez zones, confusingly this information is provided on both sides of the zone itself, so one is never quite sure if one is in the rez zone or not. Why not indicate this by putting a diagonal red line through the rez zone sign indicating the end of the rez zone, rather like that great European idea of doing this with places along the route, you know when you're leaving, as the sign with the name of the place you've just driven through has diagonal red line through it.

On Gaeta, there isn't much local traffic to worry about, as there seems to be little organised traffic. (Though I did see a bus drive past my house the other day, which may not seem unusual, excepting the fact that my house is on the water's edge, facing out to sea, and the bus went past on the seaward side! The marvels of SL). It's different on Corsica, as there is actually quite a bit of organised traffic, local buses and a refuse truck being two, and a tank (!) and a farm truck being the other vehicles likely to be encountered on the continent's roads. All these vehicles, with the exception of the tank, sadly, are rideables, which is a pleasant, if slow way of travelling the highways. The tank, whilst not rideable, will shoot you if you stand in the way, though it will also confusingly, apologise if it bangs it's sides into you. I have yet to meet any other vehicle, other than the automatic variety, such as the four just described, it would be nice to meet a fellow traveller engaged on a similar quest, at least it would mean that I wasn't alone in my questionable sanity.

My choice of vehicles may seem, to those who do not knwo me, a little strange. I have several vehicles in my inventory, but at present my favourites are a tracked rideable car that was either a freebie, or very cheap on the SL Marketplace, and a representation of a motor scooter that has a bit of a cult status in Germany. It's an SL renditon of the Schwalbe, (Swallow) scooter that provided basic transport in the former GDR. Of course, being SL, the Schwalbe has the ability to fly, rocket assisted, (who said the German's don't have a sense of humour?) though in my inexpert hands, this has proven to be more of a liability than anything else – I tend to crash a lot. The tracked car is now my firm favourite, it has three gears, and can be persuaded to climb almost any obstacle, including the pier, just off SL Route 7 at Frostar. First gear is a little slow, so I usually change up to the medium range gear as this allows decent progress. It's a fun vehicle to drive, and the tracks have a very realistic motion effect. It's just a pity that it's a single-seater, as it's make the basis of a fun vehicle to take friends out in.

Sim crossings are a constant source of complaint, and up until now it's a problem that hasn't affected me too much, but now it's starting to, big time. It is extremely frustrating to have to stop every couple of minutes drive, and wait whilst the servers do their stuff, and you can continue on your way. It's especially frustrating when there are two sim crossing very close to one another on the road, as this can cause you to become stuck on that crossing, and no way out other than to dismount, take the vehicle back into inventory, and then seek out the next nearest rez zone, and hope you're on the correct side of the sign. Even at relatively low speed sim crossings can be a problem, at high speed they become positively dangerous for one's sense of inner calm. I don't know, and maybe it's one of those chicken and egg scenarios, but maybe we see few vehicles on the roads of SL because of the frustrastions caused by lag and sim crossings? It also has to be said that many of the vehicles seem to be very difficult to control, and certainly most seem to oversteer quite badly. Some seem to have no sensible speed control, as one car in my collection seems to have only one speed: amazingly fast, for a car that is supposed to be a rendition of a famous early 20^th Century car. All these problems are capable of being solved, and I suspect relatively easily, but maybe, just maybe SL is an analogue of our RL to come, where most of us will be able to afford to buy the shiny status symbol that is the motor car, and park it proudly on our driveways, to polish it on high days and holidays, and perhaps, every once in a while, go out for a drive in it, if we can afford to put fuel in it, or, if we shall indeed be able to find any fuel, at any price at all?

I wonder what the railways in Second Life are like...?

My New House

SL can be a strange place, and sometimes it's easy to become bored, or just lacklustre in our interactions with it. I have had a home in SL since almost the time I started, nothing fancy, just a 2048m sq plot that I built my own home on. After a while, and a major change in my inworld circumstances I decided on a rebuild, but kind of ran out of steam, and for weeks progress on the rebuild was zero.

Then, last week, my landlord informed me that he was selling the land, due to issues with lag, which had become quite bad on that sim. In it's place he offered my an alternative plot, I had a choice, one that was slightly larger, but just a piece of greensward in the middle of development, and another plot, this one slightly smaller, but right on the edge of the ocean – so it was no contest really, I went for the plot on the seashore! OK, it's north facing, so there aren't the spectacular sunsets that there would be with a westlardly facing plot, but it's seashore nonetheless. It's amazing what a change of scene can do to invigorate a being. In the three days since I've been here I've not only rebuilt the house, but I've furnished it, and created a nice environment in the garden, and built a quay, so that I can moor my two boats. And one of those days I couldn't even acess SL due to being ghosted at the bottom of the ocean some way offshore. Thankfully today I contacted my landlord in the guise of my Alt, and he got in touch with Tech Support of LL, and they very kindly restarted that sim, very kindly releasing me from a very watery gaol – heartfelt thanks to all who helped me.

I think I'm going to enjoy being here, it's already boosted my flagging enthusiasm for SL, and engaged me in learning a new SL skill, that of boat management. OK, so every time I go out at the moment it ends in me sinking the boat, running aground, or running off grid, but I guess one day I'll get the hang of it... Eventually.

I'm planning a housewarming party, that should be fun... I only hope I don't manage to crash the sim.

Technical Developments

Mmm, well I guess it's high time I posted again. Many apologies for my month's absence... Real Life has been impinging a little just recently, but it does have a very positive edge in that I can now build my new killer computer. So far I have all the component bar the cube case, which will arrive sometime early next week. For some reason cube cases are a rarity in the UK, and I had precisely two to choose from: an iCute offering at a fairly reasonable £45, and an Antec offering at twice that. I went for the iCute as I know it's a good case, has plenty of room in it, and is double decked so it keeps things nice and clear so there are no air flow problems for when things get a little heated. It comes with a nice big 12cm fan, though no PSU which is just as well as I need a 650 watt beastie for my new computer. I've been using an iCute case identical to the one that I've just bought for about eighteen months now, and can say that I'm impressed with it, the fan is not really that noisy, and it has a useful LCD display on the front panel so temperature monitoring is easy. The only gripe I have about it is that it has about the brightest blue LED I've ever seen – it lights up the whole room!

Apart from the case, described above, the list of components are as follows:

Asus M4A88T-M/USB3 Motherboard

AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Processor (six core)

8GB of Corsair DDR3 1333 RAM

Samsung DVD writer

Zotac GeForce GTS 450 1GB DDR5 Graphics Card

CiT 650 W PSU

Seagate Barracuda 500GB HDD

I'm going to be using my present monitor, a Hanns-G HW191D which has done me proud for the past two years, though I think it may gain a twin very soon as I am increasingly using GIMP and am getting fed up of moving docks around the desktop, plus I'm very tempted to start doing a little video editing for which two screens will be a boon.

I'm also in the throes of building a new desk to fit all the above into, thus creating something approaching an ideal workspace, it'll all fit into a convenient alcove I have in my living room. I plan wall mounting the monitors, and to make things really ergonomic the scanner will live in a well under the main worktop of the desk under a lift up lid. The keyboard will be on pull out drawer under the desk top, which will also be wide enough to take my Wacom Bamboo graphics tablet and the mouse. So that I don't get back strain and so I remain comfortable for all the hours I tend to spend in front of the computer, I'm buying myself a Markus swivel chair from Ikea – I know they are good, I sit on one at work.

About all I'll need after all this is a half decent broadband connection. Currently the UK stands either 31^st or 25^th in ranking in a list of 66 countries that supplied information to a survey done worldwide last year. This wouldn't be so bad if the UK were surpassed by places like the USA, but when places like Romania and Bulgaria blows you into the weeds, and the likelyhood that other places not even on the radar yet could easily leapfrog the UK in terms of broadband speed, it gives pause for thought. The UK government has stated that it is their policy that all UK subjects will have access to 'fast' broadband by 2012... fast being 2 mb/s. The South Korean government has promised its citizens connection speeds of 1 Gb/s by 2012, which kind of puts things in perspective, but then the South Korean government doesn't still live under the illusion that it's a world power, and absolutely needs to have a replacement for its ageing fleet of Trident nuclear capable submarines at a cost of £20 billion, (well, that's what they tell us, I suspect that's a very conservative figure). Yes, it would be expensive to bring the UK up to speed, something like £27 billion, which is a lot of money, but given the amounts wasted on illegal wars, not to mention the lives, it would seem to me a much more worthwhile investment in the future that armaments. The rate things are going, the UK will in the new Third World as we find ourselves being surpassed by China and Africa. All that said, I'll continue to manage on a connection speed of around 3.3 mb/s of a potential 8 mb/s because I live so far from the exchange, (copper wires you see!) and pray that my local exchange is soon in line for an upgrade so that I can get something more like what my supplier offers new accounts, which is 'up to' 24 mb/s. But then, maybe, they'll decide to forgo that and go straight to fibre-optic :)

I'll post again in a few days once I've got my new killer machine up and running... Are you all green with envy yet?

Ubuntu Linux

People who know me will know that it's not long before I start talking about operating systems. They will also soon know that I don't use Windows. Now, I've nothing against Windows, if you discount the time it takes to boot up, or the fact that it's susceptible to invasion by all manner of nasty worms, viruses, trojans, malware or spyware. Which means you have to have the security of decent anti-virus. All this slows the system down, and leads to bloat. Just when you've got your system up and running nicely, Microsoft in their wisdom decide on bringing out yet another version of Windows... Even more bloated than the previous version, you also find that you need a hardware upgrade, because the new OS requires it. All this is fine if you are aware of making a choice, but the majority of ordinary users aren't. It's more than likely that the original computer they bought came with a version of Windows pre-installed, and so the logical step is to upgrade to the newer version of Windows, more than likely also buying a new computer. The plus side is of course that Windows has ubiquity on it's side, it's literally everywhere and is installed on about 95% of all computers worlwide. The rest have a mixture of operating systems installed, the best known being Mac, but amongst the rest are the various 'flavours' of an operating system called Linux.

Many of you will have heard of it, and some of you will have tried it, possibly many years ago, and been distinctly unimpressed. Many found that various bits of hardware that performed well under Windows refused to work at all under Linux, or if it could be persuaded to work at all, it needed fairly developed knowledge of editing scripts etc. To a certain extent, that's still true, but for most things, most versions of Linux are now much better supported, and it's easier than ever to have a real alternative to Windows. It's always had a bit of a 'geeky' image to it, and sadly, that image persists. It can indeed be very techie indeed, if that's what you want, but there is an easier way. It's called Ubuntu.

Ubuntu came to life in 2004, not very long ago really, and since then has become recognised as the easiest way to become familiar with Linux. Sure, it has it's detractors, and playing games on a Linux machine, apart from the few that are written for it, is out of the question, (though some games will run on something called Wine, but that's beyond the scope of this post). But Second Life does run on Ubuntu, and runs well at that. It seems to be more stable on Ubuntu than on Windows.

But crucially, Ubuntu will run on a machine that has fairly modest specifications. I have a few friends who were almost resigned to buying a new computer so that they could upgrade to the latest version of Windows, until I passed them a disc with Ubuntu on it, saying 'Try this'. I left it at that, letting them make the crucial decision. Many have been amazed at the lease of life it's given their machine, and they discovered that they didn't, after all have to go out and buy a new computer, and they've avoided buying yet another upgrade to Windows.

Ubuntu is free. No, no catch, it's free, as in 'free beer' and in the sense of 'freedom'. It's Open Source, which means that all the code is accessible, and anyone, (with the knowledge, of course) can look at it, improve it, change it, even make their own version of Linux, if they want to - as long as they agree to the terms of the licence – that the version they release is free for others to copy, change or distribute in the same manner as they acquired it. It's true that Ubuntu does use some closed-source stuff, drivers and certain codecs, but only the purists get upset over that, not that I'm decrying them, but most of us want decent graphics and the ability to watch DVDs or play mp3 files.

Ubuntu is easy to use, and though there are a few differences from Windows, anyone familiar with a computer desktop will soon feel at home. There are literally thousands of programs available, all with the same cost as Ubuntu itself, nothing, zilch, nada. Sceptical? You're of course correct to be, I bet you're still wondering what the catch is? You can pay something for it, if you want, most developers have a PayPal button on their site so that you can make a donation, which I recommend that you do, if you have downloaded their package and like it. After all, they do have servers to pay for etc, and most seem to do their stuff in their spare time, as a hobby almost.

You're still sceptical, fear not, you don't need to lose the security of Linus's blanket, (for those in the know, pun intended), you can install Ubuntu inside Windows using the Wubi Installer.

http://wubi-installer.org/

This will allow you to try out Ubuntu without losing Windows, plus giving you the option of easily uninstalling it in the unlikely event of you not loving Ubuntu. Most people I know end up uninstalling Windows. (Though many eventually do as I have done and settle on having a dual-boot Ubuntu/Windows set up)

Ubuntu isn't the best thing since sliced bread, but it does at least give an option to choose an operating system that isn't Windows. It's not perfect, no operating system is. But many of you are using Linux already without being aware of it. Many of the servers running the World Wide Web use a Linux operating system, mainly because of its stability and reliability. If that's not enough, does the fact that Linux is basically a version of Unix tell you anything? Unix can be installed on a desktop, but usually you'll find it in a mainframe. It's been around for years, and will continue to be around, as it is just good at what it does.

Linux has a future ahead, and as more and more people realise that Linux is increasingly user friendly, and when major organisations start to consider their IT costs in this recession hit world, more and more of them will make the change. Some already have, the French National Assembly, the French Education Department and the Gendarmerie National (French national police) have all made the change to Linux, the national police making savings of US$700,000 a year. Guess what operating system they changed from?

Unlike Windows, you are encouraged to get involved, and as a result there is a healthy support community who will do their best to help you when you get stuck.

So, what are you waiting for? Try it, you might like it, and if you don't, and you've done the best thing for Windows users and installed through Wubi, just uninstall using the Add/Remove facility in your Control Panel. Simple. But, you will love it.

There are few viruses or other nasties written for Linux, which logically is odd, as anyone with a bit of knowledge could easily do that. But not many have. As Linux becomes more popular, this may change, but for the moment, it's very secure. If you do decide to try Ubuntu, please do enable the anti-virus as you wouldn't want to inadvertently spread a virus to a Windows user, now would you?  And, yes, the anti-virus on Ubuntu is free too...

Relationships and SL

It's strange, and many who do not know how SL can 'get under the skin' would probably think us silly, or even a little demented for letting our emotions get the better of us in what has been described as a 'game'. Those of us in the know of course are aware that SL is anything but a game, and it's an environment where emotional attachments of the deepest variety can be developed, and sometimes sustained over long periods of time. I've met avis who’ve maintained an intimate style relationship for three and four years or more, which must bump the average up considerably, however, statistics show that the average is about a month.

However, this is probably the most superficial way of viewing SL relationships, which are every bit as complex as those in RL... And every bit as consuming, and as full of 'drama' when it comes to an end. I see much animosity directed towards so called drama. There are of course 'drama queens' in SL as there are in RL, but if normal human emotion is drama, then god help those who say they aren't into drama. Sure, emotions can be messy, but if you think SL is an excuse for you to not feel anything, or not accept that others may feel emotionally, then you're probably in the wrong place, and need to have a bit of a rethink. Besides, in my experience, it's the very people who say they're against drama who are the ones who do drama the best, or is that emotion?

I don't do drama very well, but I do feel intensely. I'm often not always aware of how it is I may feel towards an individual, and perhaps it's only in my quiet times that I become aware of how it is I feel, and how deeply. This may make me seem a cold person, and perhaps a little unfeeling, but I do feel, it's just that I do not trust words – perhaps as a result of being a writer, I know how words can be manipulated to mean almost anything.

Until recently, I was in a very intense relationship in SL. It was almost everything I was looking for, and, to be honest, I'd started to worry that my RL commitments, and those of my then partner were beginning to make it seem that there might be little future in the relationship. I feared that, sooner or later either she, or I would find the lack of time together too much to bear, and the relationship would come to an end. Being a practical, no nonsense kind of person, I decided on telling my partner about my fears, and suggesting that we needed to talk about it. The context of that message should have been enough to indicate that it was a concern, and though serious, did not suggest that the relationship was under any immediate threat. I certainly didn't want that, and neither did my partner, as far as I was aware. However, her reaction was quite extreme; she had interpreted my words as a sign that I was terminating the relationship, and basically she ran. That in itself was a huge shock, as I had thought this person level headed enough to realise that our relationship had just reached a slightly wobbly bit, as often relationships do. That being so, I did not expect to be accused of infidelity to boot! (I had sent her a copy earlier of a conversation I'd had with someone who was 'trying it on' with me that I'd found amusing, and, OK, I do flirt a bit, but...)

Our relationship was intense, intellectually intense. Sex was as good as sex can be in SL, (and I'm still not sure I 'get' sex in SL, it does seem a little perverse to me, though I do still indulge, as it's not just about me, and others so obviously get a lot out of it) though perhaps a little too infrequent for her. For me at least, it was intellectually satisfying to a degree I have not experienced before or since in SL, though I do have some very stimulating friends, it's somehow different – when you're with someone who you can hold a conversation with about, variously, computer hardware/software, the aesthetics of modern architecture, culture and politics and still be on the same page you know you've found someone special, with whom you have something special. We had a lot of fun, sometimes just goofing about, dressing up as terroristas, complete with Castroesque cigars, (and guns) I often felt a little guilty at not being able to verbally express my feelings towards her, but as I've already explained, I mistrust words so, and given the swiftness of her departure, I have unfortunately begun to doubt the sincerity of her expressed feelings when we were together, though I have no doubt they were meant at the time they were said, perhaps they were superficial expressions? I don't know.

All I do know now that three weeks have passed is that I miss her in a way that I did not expect. It would be too much to hope for her return, as we both have accused each other of being less than serious, and have done some serious emotional damage in other ways.

I don't know if I'll allow myself to succumb to another SL relationship. There is something slightly absurd to the notion of falling in love with an avatar, or the person behind it, someone who will be, and remain, to all intents and purposes, a stranger. Yes, I did feel for that person in a real way, as I still do, and that is what will hold me back from forming such a strong bond with anyone in future. It causes too much hurt, too much drama when it goes wrong. I will undoubtedly forge strong friendships in SL, and hope that I'll be able to maintain them, but as I have difficulty maintaining friendships in RL, due to my wacky work pattern, I think I could have difficulty in SL too... though SL does offer some hope, as most of my friends are from a very different timezone to me, and that is a huge help. But, then so was my ex.

And what I do miss most of her, is the intellectual stimulation, the closeness that brought and of course the sharing of ideas, the learning together, the fact that we understood each others humour. If your out there, and reading this, please think about this – we have both lost in this, and whilst you said this more eloquently than I ever could, (and still sound convincing) we were good together, and we still could be. You are right to feel aggrieved by some of the things I have done, but they were for your eyes only, no one else's, and yours are the only eyes that still see that. I too have reason to be upset, but there is no apportioning of blame here, it takes two to make a relationship, and two to break it, and, no matter what anyone says, there is almost always a shared responsibility in the way a relationship ends, the only real exception to this rule is when one of the partners dies. If there are difficulties, it's best to face them, to talk about them as dispassionately as possible, and not let the inner child get the upper hand. Sadly both of us allowed that, and now we find ourselves apart, and poorer for that.

Intolerance and Prejudice

LL's ToS and Community Standards are pretty clear in their condemnation of intolerance and prejudice against any group, and rightly have been known to be pretty strict on this issue, if somewhat lax in other areas.

It's a rule of civilised behaviour to not cause offence to any national, cultural, linguistic, sexual, racial or gender group through negative or hostile comments based on ignorance or blind prejudice. Even in so called 'fun' this kind of behaviour is totally unacceptable.

Yet, there are places in SL where this kind of behaviour is not only tolerated, but through leaving it unchallenged, it is actively encouraged. Imagine my surprise, and sheer disbelief when I went this morning to Eden, the club for 'lesbian and bisexual women' to be met by offensive comments of a stereotypical and derogatory nature. I make no apology for naming, (and hopefully shaming) the club in question. My only 'sin' was to greet someone in a language other than English, which was followed by a lot of comments, and a pathetic attempt at parody by one individual. I of course challenged the behaviour, and was initially supported by one individual, who then went quiet, whilst the abuse continued. Even the threat of my filing an Abuse Report to Linden Labs did not completely silence some particularly ignorant individuals, who continued making comments that they no doubt thought hilariously funny, but which I felt to be deeply offensive.

I am not someone who actually lets prejudicial comments and behaviour get to me, I'm far too thick skinned for that, but I do not ever let that kind of behaviour go unchallenged. What is particularly galling was the fact that these comments were coming from the mouths of those who are members of a sexual minority widely discriminated against itself – surely logic should have informed those individuals that the behaviour they were indulging in was totally unacceptable. The general gist of many of them is that we just have to 'grin and bear' these kinds of things, but why should anyone have to accept the unacceptable? Sadly it seems, even individuals who are members of a widely discriminated against group are capable themselves of being discriminatory. Perhaps the application of logic, and the taking of that to it's conclusion is demanded here. Or even just the engagement of brain before opening mouth.

I don't care if my stance makes me 'unpopular', I do not seek to be popular, as my concern is with doing my bit to build a more civilised society where such 'off the cuff' comments, said in supposed 'jest' are not only challenged, but are sanctioned against if repeated after a warning. Just before I left the club in total disgust, one of the managers did rather meekly ask for and end to the 'discussion', stating the it was supposed to be a 'fun' place. Some 'fun' place that tolerates prejudice isn't my idea of a fun place.

I could have responded with like comments as a repartee, but that would have lowered me to their subterranean level, and besides, that is exactly what I wish to avoid.  It's socially corrosive; the thin edge of the wedge.

Some of you may ask why I have adopted a 'zero tolerance' of any kind of prejudicial behaviour. The reason is this, and students of history will recognise that I am not exaggerating. The Nazi onslaught against any group they viewed as undesirable started apparently quite mildly... the creation of negative stereotypes that in themselves might appear to be quite innocuous, mildly derogatory, and something that could be 'laughed off'. However, as we now know, this was a ploy to 'soften up' the populace to accept the even greater atrocities that were to follow. I don't for a moment mean to suggest that any of this morning's sad individuals had any similar game plan, but none the less, it is the thin end of the wedge... As the Manic Street Preachers sang, 'If you tolerate this, then your children will be next'.

We are living at a time of increased social tensions, the far political right are gaining ascendency all over Europe and quite possibly elsewhere. These groups are trying to maintain a veneer of respectability, whilst at the same time stirring up mild tensions through the use of derogatory propaganda designed to inculcate the idea that it's acceptable to demonise individuals and groups in society amongst the majority: but who are the 'majority'? Lots of minority groups. We must take to heart the warning of Pastor Niemyer, and always speak up for the interests of others who are in a societally weak position being discriminated against.

About the club concerned here? Well, no doubt they have their rules, and they are entitled to run their club in any way they see fit. But if it were my club, (and it would be very clear in the rules presented on entry to every individual) anyone continuing the kind of abuse I was subjected to would have been unceremoniously ejected and subsequently banned with a warning that if heard indulging in further such behaviour elsewhere, an Abuse Report would be submitted.

But this did not happen, no one was ejected and so warned, so I did the only honourable thing left and ejected myself. I shall not be returning.

 

Intellect as a Turn On

Hands up those of you who find intellect a turn on? SL abounds with potential opportunities for casual sex, and no matter how perverse is the image of grown adults seeking out sexual encounters where their avatars can bump pixels, aided by sometimes laughably dodgy animations, replete with contorting faces may be, it does have an immense appeal. Though for me, the existence of 'automatic' emoters, that describe, and express what the avatar, and presumably the human behind it is experiencing baffles me. Where exactly is the connection between the two individuals? Presumably it's 'sit back and watch' time, though I suppose those with a penchant for animated porn are well catered for... 'Triangular Ted and the Botoxed Bimbo Boobed Bella Get It On'... yeah, wow.

I've nothing against any of the above, far from it, but for me, it's the personal connection that is the attraction, the ability to create in the mind of a partner the scenario, the sensations, (hopefully) and the feelings of being close, which in my view can be far better achieved through words alone; the visual is actually a distraction, though it can be a a cause of some mirth. The facial expressions of the animations are a godsend for the makers of Pixel Porn, both the still and the machinima variety.

Let's talk stereotypes for a moment. It's usually males that are 'turned on' by the purely visual, men supposedly being more receptive to visual stimulation than the emotional, which is usually the case with women. Women, by and large seek out more than just a simple fuck. Even if it's the 'one night stand' scenario, a woman usually wants some intellectual engagement, to be mentally and emotionally aroused, so foreplay is usually fairly extended, even by the standards of the compressed temporal environment of SL. 'Hi... wanna fuck' isn't completely unheard of coming from the mouths of female avis, usually suspected of being males in RL, though I'm sure that there are some genuine female adherents to this approach, (and one wonders how successful they are SL or RL?) though judging from the number of complaints about this opening gambit, it's not regarded as a huge turn on by the majority, and even most mature men will have tumbled to the realisation that it's perhaps not the best strategy if you want to get laid.

I did a little research, backed up by my own experiences in SL and RL, so this isn't really scientific. Women prefer emotional closeness, which then leads to physical intimacy, though often just the physical and emotional and intellectual closeness is just as valued as sex itself, sex is a bonus, not the end game. Kissing, and cuddling, and just chatting are often the highest on the list when I talk to my friends, with sex coming pretty low down on the list of priorities, it's a valued option, if it feels right.

I like sex, but strangely, perhaps, it's not often something I seek out. If I'm in a bad emotional state, as recently I was, the purely physical can deal wonderfully with the sense of pent up frustrations, it provides that tremendous sense of relief. But that is the exception. I'm more often seeking out friends, and sex is far from my thoughts. However, once I start to get to know someone, I soon realise if I wish to take it further, and let it be known that I'd like to take it further, but the relationship is primarily a friendship based on intellect and emotional closeness, with sex being that something special that happens when the mood is right. But the main attraction to me both in my being attracted to someone in the first place, and in the sustaining of relationships is the intellectual. A former partner described it well as 'making love to her mind', which to me is the best way ever of making love... even if it progresses to the physical, it's the intellectual that's the turn on.