Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style
If you don't poke around the Second Life website much these days then you may not have noticed the Answers section, a place where the concerned and confused can go to have fellow users answer basic questions they may have. It's a bit like Yahoo Answers but with a lot less trolling. In fact the infinite, cheerful patience of the folks toiling away in SL Answers is kind of refreshing to behold.
Even some of the silliest questions you can imagine earn sincere and straight-faced responses. Questions like...
It's the lack of context that makes this question funny, to be fair, and not the asker's inexperience or anything they've done wrong. If you've been around SL for a while you can probably tell that this question is about the enduringly popular Bloodlines vampire game, which at its peak made it next to impossible to visit a crowded spot in SL without getting a dozen different bite requests from random Bloodlines-playing strangers nearby. The garlic necklace is a pre-emptive "Thanks but no thanks" to Bloodlines players, but what do you do when you're ready to settle down and raise a little vampire clan of your own and you're already on the Do-Not-Bite list? As the asker wistfully puts it, "I'm not looking to get bitten yet, but I want the chance at some point." Don't we all?
She's already received several answers as well, each entirely serious and respectful of her dilemma. I salute you, noble answerers, for being way more decent and helpful than I'll ever be. If you want to join the noble few and contribute to the co-operative support effort, roll up your sleeves and dig in to the Second Life Answers forum here.
TweetJanine Hawkins (@bleatingheart on Twitter, Iris Ophelia in Second Life) has been writing about virtual worlds and video games for nearly a decade, and has had her work featured on Paste, Kotaku, Jezebel and The Mary Sue.
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