Limited limitlessness: the invisible barrier

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It all starts. It may take a couple of hours to find your way around. Eventually, though, you find yourself talking to someone, or touching that whatever-it-is object over there.

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- SIM OWNER: Hey! You can´t be here without wearing a combat HUD!
- POOR NOOB: Sorry, a what?
- SO: Did you not read the notecard?
- PN: I don't know what you are talking about, dancing is the most complicated thing I've learnt so far...
(Noob dances)
- SO: Are you laughing in my face??
(Noob is ejected form the parcel and permanently banned)
- PN: Hey, wait, wait! What is going oooooon!?

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Have you ever experienced something like this? If you are new to SL, you probably have, in some way or another.

Ever since I started wandering around Second Life, I had mixed feelings about the world and their inhabitants. On the one hand there were all the good (amazing!) things that SL provides us with: a plataform for global communication, a magical place where to turn dreams into (virtual) reality... On the other, I noticed an awkward “something”, silently inherent to the residents and their particular spots: the smell of private property, human liking for possession and prohibitions.

At this stage of development, I don't think there are many people left thinking that the economic dimension of SL has not contributed greatly to its success. This economic dimension entails, of course, private property, boundaries and numerous constraints to the potential of a virtual existence. And this is also why we should not forget that the world itself belongs to every single resident when lifting barriers to seal our properties off. After all, what is the point of being able to fly if you keep running into invisible walls which destroy the illusion of freedom?

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Also, if you are a sim owner and would like visitors to act according to your rules, remember to make them logical, practical and actually possible to obey. Find the way of making it easy for people to "walk" around your place, don't just overuse your power over your own sim for the sake of it. Above all, don't make your guests (sure they are!) remember an awful experience they won't like to repeat.

Let us control our (real life) impulses for (real life) needs that are not necessary in SL and keep it open and magic. As anything new, learning SL may be hard. Let us try to make it enjoyable for everyone, including the newcomers, and not more complicated.

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Enjoy and let enjoy.

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