NMC Campus Observer

Gift Giving in Second Life

Danielle Damone (aka Danielle Mirliss) : Oct 6, 2006 07:48pm

As I prepare to bring students into the Second Life space I am always on the lookout for a few goodies that I can share.  Since new accounts do not receive an allowance without a credit card verificiation, many users new to Second Life are broke, left to seek out freebies.  I love providing them with a few nice items; a sail boat, BMW, magic carpet, clothes, etc. (if only it were that easy in RL *smile*). A recent article on Second Life fashion in the Wall Street Journal supports the idea of giving users things to own:

“We found out pretty quickly that people loved owning things,” Ms. Smith says, and many start by buying items for their avatars. “It’s not surprising that fashion and hairstyles and skins are as attractive and as exciting and as valuable as they are, because it’s part of individualizing” the appearance of a player’s online persona.

In my Second Life explorations I stumbled in to the store of Blaze Columbia. Luckily, friendly Blaze was present and we were quickly engaged in a great conversation.  After explaining to her that I was an educator and that I needed to find more “appropriate” clothes when exploring Second Life with students she gave me a beautiful leather suit (ok, still would not wear it to class in RL).  Then the very generous Blaze provided me with an outfit for each one of my students (all 15)!  I wanted to take this opportunity to thank Blaze - the generosity and creativity of the Second Life community is what makes it such a special place.  I know that my students will appreciate her gifts and hopefully visit her SL store.  Be sure to visit her store at Triumph and checkout her fashions at Blazeblog.  

Story filed under: People, Places, Things, Resources & Information

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