Resident (Second Life)

Residents engage in many activities, just as people do in real life. Unlike real life, there is no biological need to seek nourishment or shelter. Thus, some activities that would be necessary in the real world are purely voluntary leisure pursuits, e.g. living in virtual houses and enjoying virtual food and drink.

Residents explore, interact with one another, and create new "content". Exploration is like travel in the real world. One searches for places which might be interesting, and then goes there, sometimes even at random. There is a plethora of different destinations that one can travel to at the click of a button. Some of these destinations are real places like London or Paris, and some are imaginary places or places from the past. Individuals explore alone, but often small groups explore together. Some exploration is spontaneous, but there are also more-or-less organized tours, and there are even travel agents and reviews that are written about different destinations.

Interaction occurs via text chat, text instant messaging, or voice, not unlike popular Internet applications, except that full 3D visuals are usually included. Interaction is also behavioral, such as when friends and strangers assemble at a club to dance or flirt while listening to recorded or live music.

Creation is changing the appearance and behavior of the Second Life virtual world including the avatar itself. Building a house, gardening, creating new clothes, and creating a new dance are all examples of creation. Some advanced examples are publishing a magazine or making a movie or TV show in the virtual world.

The "Community" section of Second Life allows residents to use blogs and forums to share pictures and ideas with other residents. It also allows residents who belong to the same group to chat about current events within the community. The "Events" subset of the Community section gives the resident a calendar to plan upcoming activities or to create their own activity.

Second Life comprises various diverse, user-driven subcultures. There are few pre-determined structures, so what organization that exists has evolved to meet the wants and needs of the residents. Some residents will have an avatar that is clearly human male or female, and some will have an avatar where the gender is less obvious, or entirely androgynous; it is easy for a user to change the appearance of the avatar to either gender. Also, there are many non-human avatars, like "furries", or hybrids, like neko (feline), inu (canine), nezumi (mouse/rat), and kitsune (fox) that have more of human shape and features, but distinct skin markings, ears and tail. Robots and fantasy creatures, such as dragons can also be found.

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Wikipedia