by Dianna Defiant, Guest Writer

From Iggy: Di’s advice on making money rocked my (virtual) world, though I’m a lazy-bones and laid down an annual fee to the Lindens (well, I do have to pay Pappy Enoch something, or he’d shoot up UR Island).  Expect to hear more from Di soon!

#3 – The Kindness of Strangers & Friends: Dianna has a free apartment courtesy of a very nice man from Denmark whom I met in my 1st week of SL. He owned “land” and had a house, and he started experimenting with building and created an apartment in the sky. He gave it to me because he had no one else to use it. I am still friends with him today, and Dianna still “lives” in the apt. Most apartments in SL run about $350L a week. I have other friends who bought me things when I was starting out, as they were more established financially in SL than I was. I have returned the favor to others as I go along.

#4 – SL Jobs (ugh) – Yes Dianna has had a couple of SL jobs, but she just can’t stand them for long. It’s hard to be anything other than a dancer/stripper or escort. Even though it’s not real I don’t do the escort thing, but have fallen back on the dancer job. There are so many clubs in SL it is hard to get customers in any of them, so the money isn’t always reliable, but if you can find a good club it will work, if you can stand it.

#5 – Contests (my favorite) – Most clubs in SL runs contest. You can find them going on 24/7. They offer up to $1000 prize money. If you dress really well for the theme (best in black, 50’s night, etc..) chat/flirt it up in the club, and get all your friends that happen to be online at the time to come vote for you, you can win anywhere from $250L - $1000L in 2 hours or so. For example – I won $1000 with Iggy’s famous Gorilla outfit at a contest. Easiest money ever….how often do you see a gorilla in a mini-skirt?

So now that Dianna has most everything she needs in SL, there are not a lot of lindens flowing out of the bank account. With a positive cash flow and no real bills (rent, etc.), I keep a good balance, buy anything I want, and even treat my friends (and sometimes strangers) to gifts whenever I feel like it. Were I so lucky in RL…. So – am I contributing to the SL economy? Like I said – it’s a GAME people.

This is monopoly $ to me, and earning it and spending it is all part of the game itself. I choose to play by finding creative ways to earn my in-world $ instead of slapping down my VISA to buy that monopoly money. The day they ban me from playing because I don’t pay real $ is the day I quit SL.

I’m not about to moderate this, but I’ll add that after fretting about avatars “breaking into” my cabin I just pulled the door off and locked down the contents. At that point, I agreed with Kevin Galbraith who runs UR Island that we should just open it up to all comers and boot the creeps off by banning them after a warning.

If people want to come in and hang out or even have sex in my cabin, so be it.  I’ll boot them out, or sick Pappy Enoch on them, if they are still there when I get home and won’t leave.

But Di and I see SL differently; like Ida Keen (who keeps her house open) I don’t see SL as a “game” but as a “world” without rules.  Part of that open world is a very different notion of property—ban-lines around land really tick me off.

I wonder—is trespassing even one of the “Big Six”?  Cecil, your films make it plain that you are an avid reader of all SL rules

Its’ not right that you break into people’s “houses.“ I know it’s not real but still, if something is going to give the appearance of being real then that’s how you should play it. Like if you can’t get in the door or aren’t invited in, you should respect that as part of the game and go somewhere else. And thank you but no one has “asked for anything in return” from me, and if they did I’d tell them where to put their apt or whatever. And that does not make me beholden to anyone. Apparently you have never had or been a good enough friend to anyone to do the “gift” thing…

I always said it is great to be female in SL. Guys will give women just about anything they want.  What the guys ask in return….well, I suppose it is up to the woman to decide what that could be.

As for me?  I live on a bench in SL. I need not worry about getting wet or getting too cold and don’t feel “beholden” to anyone’s “kindness”.  If, for some strange reason, I need a bed, there are a myriad of unattended homes you can break into and the best thing is, you need not wash the sheets when you leave!

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