It’s been quite some time that we hung out together in “↑Second Life“ (SL) for longer, so it was high time to do it again. Accordingly last weekend Miss Audrey Hepburn and me went to (SLurl:) ↑Sphynx, a classy ballroom with a bar and a restaurant. The latter feature of the place was our incentive to go there, as you actually can sit down at laid out tables and watch your avatar eat—at the sight of this I, for approximately the third time this day, nearly spat a good portion of coffee over my keyboard. Halfway through dinner Audrey wondered if ↑Detect Surface‘s piece of art, the mighty ↵Kravatac, could actually sit down at the table. The result was the 21st Century reenactment of “Beauty and the Beast” you can wonder at above.
    After dinner we went over to the ballroom’s main attraction, the dancefloor, and had a healthy dose of Waltz and Tango. Although being an absolutely charming person, a real sight, and a movie legend, Audrey was forced into the role of the invisible girl. the dancing robot-giant was the talk of the whole place, people approached, stood in front or beside me, took or had taken their souvenir picture with the huge Kravatac, and I got literally bombed with IMs.
    Getting into talking with people is integral part of the core of the anthropological approach. In the case of attempting to do online-fieldwork within SL, I only can recommend getting hold of one of Detect’s ↵Cyvers. Believe me, people will start talking to you—the rest is up to your individual conversation and multi-tasking skills.
    The regulars and staff of Sphynx were very friendly, enjoyed the spectacle, and we had a great time. Later we went to (SLurl:) ↑Phat Cat’s, maybe the most known ballroom in SL, to repeat the show there. But staff asked me to change, as my appearance was not deemed to be appropriate. Well, I complied, and immediately got an IM from some other guest: “Can you put that on again for a moment, please?!?” I replied: “Sorry, they don’t want it in here—robot racism …”
    [The true reason behind their asking me to change, I presume, is a technical one. Phat Cat’s is very frequented, and they have big problems with lag anyway. The Kravatac is a complex construction, quite prim heavy, 1200 plus, and I guess they simply fear it to slow down the region drastically. If they’d have a glimpse of the things Detect is creating right at the moment, they’d drop dead instantaneously.]
    Besides being tremendous fun, and a didactic play on getting into contact, I hope it was also an inworld promotional success for Detect’s wizardry in, and out of (SLurl:) ↑Sector 13. Happenings ;-) like this may well complement Web-publicity like ↑Wagner James Au’s recent write-up on Detect’s work and the City of Abaddon. [Do you read my blog, Wagner? ;-]
 

Some day I will convince the Sector’s posse to don the whole Cyver series and go on a night-out tour through SL’s most frequented clubs and ballrooms together …