‘Tis The Season for Parties

With the advent of virtual relationships, global business, and email friends, what do you do when you want to hold a Christmas party for your friends, family, colleagues and fans, but they are spread out all over this great big world? Why, you hold a virtual Christmas party, of course. No worries about food or someone falling into the punch bowl. It’s prefect. Or is it?

You can’t see me very well, but I’m the gal in green with the blue hair. To say I was undressed is an understatement, and that was even before I took ‘off’ my hair and couldn’t get it back on. There were actually three of us who had the same avatar. However, nobody seemed to find it funny when we were all together in the same party venue (there were 4) and I yelled, “Hey look, triplets!” I guess virtual party humour is different.

So other than riding the dragon, the carousal, learning I had the ability to walk great distances under water, playing bumper cars by myself, wearing a big present on my avatar’s hips, and discovering that I could slam through a tree with a sleigh with nobody would get hurt, it was actually kind of, well…lame. I’m sorry, really I am. It was a great idea. It was just, well, virtual. Maybe if I knew someone, or if I had met the hostess. Or figured out how to get my hands on a dress so I wasn’t the only dame (okay, one of three) in fish nets and a skull t-shirt. Honestly, I did try to dress up, but my first attempt left me nude for about 15 minutes while I tried to figure things out and after that I was a tad hesitant to mix things up.

People mingle differently online. People didn’t chat much and often wandered around by themselves. You can’t tell affect and body language is at a bare minimum. Plus, everyone has weird names. So, it’s not like a real Christmas party in a lot of ways. Near the end of my time in the party (I got bored and wondered why I was there), some guy walked by and gave me 5 Lindens (Second Life money). Didn’t say hi or anything, just suddenly I had money. Weird. Maybe he thought I couldn’t afford a dress. Either way, I tried to thank him, but by the time I figured out what was going on, he was half way across the venue. Oh well.

So while it was an interesting adventure it was also an hour of my life that I will never get back. Maybe if I had figured out how to put on the skates. Or I had met someone to talk with for more than a second or two. Or even if I had gotten my numbers for the draw, then it would have been a bit more exciting. Or if I wasn’t naturally a wallflower in that sort of setting. Or…it was real.