From the very beginning I had rented virtual land from a furry sim-owner (who, in the interests of avoiding drama, shall remain nameless – as shall all other characters in this saga). I had often puzzled over why land ownership was such an important part of Second Life, especially considering that none of it actually exists. Nonetheless, it seemed as reasonable an offer as could be to obtain over 1000sqm of virtual estate for a mere L$800 per week. Having a full time job, ’n’ all, this was hardly going to break the bank. What I quickly discovered after taking ownership of said plot of land was that I had absolutely no idea what to do with it!

After hearing (though not necessarily understanding) the opinion of the smattering of friends I’d managed to acquire along the way, I came to the conclusion that I was supposed to have a house and fill it with assorted stuff in order to recreate the surroundings that most normal human beings have. A fair point, though once again the realisation appeared that I hadn’t a clue where or how to buy all of this stuff. A shopping spree ensued and being the soft southerner that I am, I quickly scampered off to the most elaborate-looking establishment I could find in order to purchase the surely far better quality wares. When this bubble was promptly burst I rejoined the group and settled for some passable “budget” furniture.

The subsequent journey back to the house revealed another slight detail that we had missed – there wasn’t one. Sensing that this might hinder my plans to avoid having a garden full of furniture, a further trip to the shops was arranged. Another hour and we had erected a splendid futuristic construct, just perfect to house the assorted fancies we’d bought in the previous trip. After another merry two hours of furniture shifting, the thought suddenly occurred to me that I was getting a little too into this. My slow descent into appreciation for Second Life had apparently begun.

Now that I had a house (with furniture, no less) I then had to deal with the task of deciding what to do with it. If the endless publicity that surrounds Second Life is to be believed, my home should have quickly become a popular social venue where all of my friends can hang out and we can will the night away with our suburban yuppieness – or something like that. As with a great many things in Second Life, this turned out to be either untrue or practically impossible to put into play. The result was a couple of weeks of sitting in my empty house, watching my YouTUBE television set, wishing that I had friends…

I think that’s enough for this second instalment. Keep your eyes out for episode 3, and remember to follow MittFox on Twitter :3

I had always taken a keen interest in Second Life ever since I read about it one dull Saturday in the Telegraph Magazine at the breakfast table. I was perplexed at the elevation to God-like status that this “simulation” had received so swiftly from the masses, particularly since they seemed to profess that anyone would be able to make ludicrous amounts of money by creating “items” for use in-world. What perplexed me even deeper was “what on earth was an “item” anyway?” The example our Prophet the Telegraph Magazine touted was a pair of roller skates which were reportedly making their creator vast sums of virtual currency with almost no effort exerted. Suffice to say my attention was piqued.

So, after a merry few minutes downloading and installing, I was ready to break into the magnificent world that so eagerly awaited me. As a general rule-of-thumb, anything that elicits “What the fuck?” as my initial response to it tends not to be terribly good. This set the scene rather well for my experience in Second Life.

In the space of mere minutes, I found myself sky-swimming around vast, user-created structures, beautiful pristine gardens and a plethora of other delights to my senses…Ok so it was absolutely nothing like that. I spent my entire first ten minutes in Second Life wandering around looking lost and frightfully noobish as I wondered precisely what the hell kind of world I had sauntered into. As far as the eye could see, every inch of free ground space had been littered with the beloved “user-made content” that everybody rated so highly; and it was all awful.

Having quickly grasped the basic controls, I was quite merrily zipping around the skies in search of the real stunningly-crafted content, since obviously the starter zone wasn’t the best place to find it. After another ten minutes, I hastily abandoned the search as it turns out that the starter zone is the best part of Second Life if graphical wizardry is what you are after. Being the stubborn guy that I am, I continued trying to find “the point” of it all, though to my dismay this was similarly unforthcoming. It was at that point that I decided to log out and consider writing to Linden Labs to ask for that small portion of my life back.

My story doesn’t end there, you’ll be pleased to know. I could quite easily pen an entire novel on the subject of Second Life were I so inclined (it’s still a possibility). Rather than subject you to a painful wall of text, I think I’ll serialise this epic saga for easy digestion. Keep an eye out for episode 2 soon!

I am MittFox, fresh out of Second Life and making my first edgy steps into “real life” furdom…be nice to me!

I don’t have a great many amusing stories that I can share with you…yet, though I hope with time that this blog will be of at least some entertainment to those curious/pitying enough to read it! I’m planning on being at the next London Furmeet, so hopefully I’ll be able to bump into some of the interesting and great people I’ve met so far!

As for a little about me, I’m loathe to give away too much info about myself on a static page on the internet (I mean, where’s the fun in that?) I will say, however, that I am a friendly (so I’ve been told) and pretty open-minded guy. I am also exceptionally geeky, though I like to think I don’t practise said geekiness to the level where I become socially inept! Before you run away in fear, let me assure you that I’m also pretty good at just hanging out and getting to know people. If you ever feel like chatting, I am quite happy to cram more people into my admittedly quite empty MSN contact list. I refuse to be the billionth fur to use the phrase “I don’t bite…much.”

As I’ve been composing this first post for around six hours now, I think I’ll take a break and work on a slightly more interesting post. I hope that you’ll keep coming back and checking this blog!