Conversation With Morpheus

As interesting as it is to wander around and explore the different realms that are created in Second Life, I often find myself spending an hour or so without meeting anyone with much to say. Today however, I did not set out to find anyone interesting, but just to simply explore the landscape and see if I happened upon a place of interest that would inspire a blog post. After about twenty minutes of going from place to place (virtual London, a trip back to another incarnation of a virtual New York, and finally a very well put together beach resort called “Hapuna Beach,”) I had almost given up on trying to find something interesting to do on Second Life and figured I’d try back during mid-afternoon. Not many people who spoke English seemed to be online in the morning which is both an understandable and enviable thing to realize in my situation of being awake at 9am on a day that I don’t have class. However, it seemed as if my luck changed as I saw a character being rendered and I figured that I should stay for a while and see if anything comes out of this.

Thankfully it did. I ended up talking to someone who had been an active participant of Second Life for two years, and he agreed to answer a few of my questions, but wanted me to refer to him as “Morpheus,” which was neither his real username nor a name that fit his appearance, one of a younger looking dark-skinned male using a hair pack that was non-standard and was dressed in mostly black. I think he was just trying to set himself up as Morpheus from the Matrix with an intricate knowledge of how the game works. I wasn’t in a position to turn down a few good sound bites, so I laughed at the name and moved on.

Taking some good advice. 

Djelephant90 (Me): So, Morpheus, what brings you to SL today?

Morpheus: meeting up with a friend.

D: A friend from real life?

M: not really. i met her online yesterday and we agreed to meet back here in 15 mns.

We started to talk about this woman he was soon to be meeting up with. Turns out, she wasn’t a woman but a “forest fairy” whom he wanted to impress. He had just went to Wasabi Pills to get a new haircut to show off to her. For someone he just met on Second Life, I wasn’t exactly sure as to why he would buy a new hair pack just for a relationship beneath which the cement is still wet.

D: Do you know if she is interested in you?

M: no...

D: So why go to the lengths of buying new hair just to impress her?

M: i’m not buying the hair just for her...I figured i needed a change anyway.

D: I hope you don’t mind that I’m asking, but how much did the hair cost?

M: Not at all...it was L$250...not a problem for me [less than US$1.]

D: How often do you buy all of this new stuff then?

M: usually I change my hair and AO [Animation Override, a pack which changed the way your avatar moves] about once a week, i just like to switch things up so i don’t get bored.

We then talked for about ten more minutes about how much he actually has spent on second life. He goes on usually once or twice a day for an hour at a time to talk to people or meet new people for interesting conversation. In his two years he said he has spent “a couple hundred thousand $L” which amounts to a few hundred US$, but “it’s not in vain. You need to spend money to be really accepted in the community. People approach me, not the other way around.” Maybe that was a jab at me, since, even though I’ve already bought a new hair and Animation Override, I only spent around L$300 on them and i still looked like the new kid. Maybe I’m going to have to invest more of my gift of L$2,000 for the remainder of this project.

Morpheus then had to leave to meet his fairy, and even though I tried to tag along to see what she looked like, he faced me and said “This is private.” A pretty clear indication that it was time for me to leave the two of them alone in one of the many private, secluded coves this beach had. However, it got me thinking what I would explore next -- the darker and more “adult” nature of Second Life, where people can go off in private and fulfill their desires, no matter how taboo they are.