Each week in Second Life I go to the live recording of an SL tv show called “The 2nd Question“, hosted by Pooky Amsterdam and Hydra Shaftoe, shown on SLCN. It is a quirky combination of a talk and game show and one of the more interesting questions they pose to the guests is “What makes you stay in Second Life”.

As someone who almost left Second Life earlier this year it is an interesting question, but leads me to wonder Why people joined Second Life to begin with.

For me it’s been a little over 3 years since I joined Second Life and my reason for joining was a bit odd.  I’ve spent some time over the years wanting to be an Independant Game Developer, spent several years doing Tribes MOD’s and hanging around GarageGames.  Three years ago I saw an article on line mentioning a Game Programming competition in a free virtual world called “Second Life”  I signed up decided to see what it was like.

Shortly after getting in-world and through the orientation I stumbled out of the Welcome Area, found the sandbox and wandered around a bit.  Then I found search and like any geek I started putting in things I had been interested in.  One of those being Fantasy books, and I found several places based on books I’d read when I was in 7th and 8th grade, the Gorean sims being one such place, Star Trek, some early attempts at Pern…

But no matter where I went, the one thing every place had and what really is the heart of Second Life, was people.  People with common interests, people you could talk to, people you could play games with, and people you could care about.

I’d have to say I’m probably one of the most anti-social people around… I could go sit by myself for hours on end.  But even I have to say that the thing that is most attractive, and what kept me in SL and kept me from just leaving, is the people I have met.

Sure the grid may crash from time to time, the clients aren’t always stable, and I’ve lost some inventory now and then.  But as much as I sit with my friends in SL and bitch about all of those things… without Second Life, I wouldn’t have them to bitch with at all.