Early this morning while sitting in a cafe, chatting to Ramblinglibrarian and some new friends, a man appeared out of nowhere. He took out a gun and fired it in my directon.
I didn’t realise what was happening until I saw sparks flying around me. I realised I might have been hit. Almost as quickly, one of the members of the cafe came to my defence and drove him off.
Fortunately, I wasn’t hurt. This is because it all happened in Second Life. (no, not Half-Life, which is what that jerk should be playing if he really wants to shoot people)
As in the real world, rules or guidelines are drawn up to ensure public order, but they sometimes get broken. While experiencing my first ugly encounter in Second Life, I was glad to see some redemption through the kind and decisive acts of another Second Lifer who had the authority to boot the gunman off the island.
I’m not really scared, because you can’t die in Second Life. Most people I’ve met so far are nice, or at least curious about this new world. I’ve met people from the US (of course), UK, Mexico, Greece and probably more I’ve lost track of. This normally doesn’t happen on mainstream chat channels like MSN where you just stick to your regular list of friends and family. We Second Lifers are also bound together through interest groups.
There will be a Singapore meetup tomorrow evening. If you are already in Second Life, join the SL Singapore group! I’ll try to make it for the meetup myself.