I was exploring earlier on and having a look around at some of the newer creations by my favourite prefab creations. At one particular location I stumbled upon a voice chat on the local channel between a Second Life couple who were shopping for a new prefab. What I could gather from this conversation is that they live on a homestead that they share with at least one other couple – the male half of which is a dude with the surname Hax. Basically, Hax and his Missus moved in recently and got a better looking house and a jetty and a yacht. This couple were unamused. I quote:

“Babe if we don’t get a better house we have to move off that sim.”

I’m not joking. I did wonder whether or not she was joking, but I knew that he knew she wasn’t when I heard the cha-ching of a Linden Dollar purchase through his mic just moments later.

Wow. This is ‘Keeping up with the Joneses,’ on a pixel level. Which got me thinking about neighbourly disputes you get in SL that you’re unlikely to ever experience in RL.

Your Prims Are On My Land

We’ve heard of people kicking balls onto lawns… but what you don’t get in RL is people being able to strategically place the ball in such a way that it is sufficiently (and in the right place) on their own lawn but overlapping their neighbour’s lawn – thus making it impossible for the neighbour to move it.

Your Skybox is too Close to Mine

I was once asked to move my skybox. The guy who had moved in next door did actually put his at the same height as mine after mine was there but asked if I would move mine because it (and I quote) “It took me a real long time to get it up.” My response… “Alright, providing you never tell me about your troubles getting it up again, I will move my skybox.” But that’s definitely a complaint you would never hear in RL: “Excuse me, your floating box is next to mine and I am concerned that you will be able to see me having sex with my partner. Fancy moving it?”

You’re Camming in at me Changing

In RL, if someone did “cam” you in your own home, it would be an offence worth of rather more than a nasty IM, I’m sure….

Your Bird Noises are Annoying

When I worked in real estate in Second Life, this was a common complaint. It seems people are not always awareof how to restrict sound to their own parcel. So people would complain about their neighbour’s bird oises or waterfall noises being irritating quite a lot. If someone went to their neighbour in RL and said, “The sounds of the birds is driving me crazy,” they would get a weird look to say the least.

“Alrighty… so what would you like me to do about that? Get my birdsong dictionary out and ask them to hush?”

“Your Castle Looks Out of Place on the Beach”

If someone came to my door telling me my castle looks out of place on the beach, I would give myself a giant pat on the back for a) having obtained land on a beach and b) getting a castle built.

Woot.

Unfortunately, it isn’t likely to happen this side of the year 3000!

Hmm… have I missed any?? C’mon… let’s have your “neighbourly disputes you’d only get in Second Life.”

Categories: Second Life

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 at 10:14 pm and is filed under Second Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.