Second Life VS. OpenSim

I put the VS. in caps to emphasize that many people see it that way. Not me.

I don’t think of it as Second Life VS. OpenSim. I think of it as Second Life AND OpenSim. Why not? I have more choice that way.

There are all kinds of reasons that people prefer one over the other and that’s okay, I just think it’s more fun my way. 🙂

For example, I have friends who won’t consider leaving SL for OpenSim because they don’t think there are enough different, good ways to make their avatar look stylish. I like my SL avie – I think he looks cool in a reserved, 19th century way – which has been his main time period (he is a time traveller though, so he gets around 🙂 ) but I just don’t worry about what my OpenSim avie looks like. I use Linda Kellie’s creations and I think he looks nice of course, but I just don’t worry that a lot of other people have the same skin or hair or clothes. Someday, when there are many more options, I will spend time on my av. In the meantime, I explore or get involved in group projects or personal projects and just don’t worry about my avatar.

In fact, lately when I get to a new world, I look for Linda Kellie’s freebies and create the same look I have in Kitely. Adam skin, Eric hair, Eric shape, Blue eyes. Then I don’t think about it again. I just recently started wearing a different shirt in each world though. That way, even though every time you see me in Virtual Highway, I’m wearing the same thing, since I was wearing something different in Kitely the day before and will be wearing something else tomorrow on some other grid, I feel like I’m changing clothes every day. LOL. That way I don’t even have to spend time looking for clothes in shops or in my Inventory. Day 1 in a new world, Boom! I’m done with the avatar look. Let’s go explore!

The avatar is just one reason people won’t leave SL. There are many others. I think one is that they feel they have to choose just one grid to be on. I think there is peer pressure involved in that, among other things. It’s perfectly fine to say, “I just WANT to be on one grid” for whatever reason…but to feel you CAN’T or SHOULDN”T be on more than one grid is unnecessary and I really do think there’s a lot of that among SLers. OpenSim people are much more willing to experiment. Not all of them, of course, but the majority for sure.

I suppose I am an explorer at heart and so, for all the different things I do in virtual worlds and projects I get involved in and even those periods when I just chill for days or weeks, I always end up going back to exploring in one form or another. So I can’t confine myself to one grid – at least not for very long.