When I was told that I was going to have to go back into Second Life and change my race and my gender, I was a bit skeptical.  I was barely used to the avatar who looked like me.  The thought of changing my appearance made me feel insecure and all of my original feelings about Second Life started to come back.  Relief from these feelings was not aided by the article written by Wagner James Au about Erika Thereian.  In this article, Au reports about Erika's experiences in Second Life after she changed races.  With this article in mind, I was ready for anything.  I was ready for the name calling and people ignoring me.  I was pleasantly surprised by what happened.  Even though I expected to be treated worse as an African American avatar, I was not treated any differently.  

In each of the places I visited, I was not treated any differently than I would have expected if I was in doing these same interviews in real life.  Each of the people I talked to, though, gave me different responses.  I was happy each of the avatars I talked to gave me responses, becuase I was afraid I would not receive any once I told them it was for a project and their responses to my questions would be published to a wiki.  

As I visited each place and met each of the new people, I would always revert to the same question to release my nerves and get my questions flowing.  I was nervous because I was a newb and some of the people I talked to had been in Second Life for four for five years. I hoped that the people would answer me back as I know this is probably a question they receive all the time.  The question always was "Why do you use Second Life?"  I found that each of the people that I interviewed said they did Second Life for fun.  

One of the places I visited was the freebie store, Milky 9.  I chose it because I knew I would be able to find people in there.  One of the avatar I met and the the most responsive person to my questions was a kind, blonde haired avatar named Pepper.  Pepper said she also did Second Life because she liked "exploring, freebie hunting, chatting with anyone from anywhere in the world, roleplay, etc."  Pepper also answered my questions about discrimination and personalites in Second Life.  Pepper said, "Discrimination is not very prevalent in Second Life, but in regards to personalites of people in Second Life, I have found people to change for the worse."   After I was done with my questions, Pepper proceeded to teach me a few tricks about Second Life.  She taught me how to turn off the typing animation on my avatar and some special tricks regarding the usage of my camera. 

The only negative feedback I got was from a very promiscuous woman(pictured below) under the avatar name Crazy Fierce.  I also met her at Milky 9 and found her to be quite standoffish and take a long time to respond to me questions.  I also explained to her that this project would be published to a wiki and ner name would be used.  I also told her that I would change her name if she wanted me to.  I did not really get a response, so I proceeded to ask her questions.  She answered the question and then asked me why I was asking her the questions and where her responses were going to be placed.  I was under the impression that she may have been very unaware of the internet and maybe had never even heard of a wiki because of all of her responses took some interpretation because many words were misspelled or the grammar was terrible.  The one thing was different about her about her responses than any of the others.  Crazy Fierce had a family in Second Life.  She also had a relationship going on in Second Life.  She was also the only avatar to describe discrimination that appears in Second Life. (the real response) "yes not all peopel but most of them...weapons is at one with cages they will be unable to walk now and then so on so many stupid guys to use this and one is from one common one is **CENSORED**" I interpreted this as women are very likely to be discriminated in Second Life.  Also, guys take advantage of women in Second Life.

The final person I met was a pirate.  I found him interesting because I was really interested to see why he dressed and talked like a pirate and if he was discriminated against because he dressed and talked like a pirate all the time.  I found that reason why he dressed like a pirate was because he enjoyed dressing up.  Also, this was not the first thing he dressed up as either.  Vinjo Swordthain said in regards to what he had dressed up as, "well I was a jedi then a smuggler now I am a pirate."  In regards to the discrimination, according to Vinjo Swordthain, he had never been descriminated against.  

Looking back, I do not understand why I was not discriminated against.  Many other people in my class had been called names or ignored.  Maybe the reason I was not ignored was because of the suit I was wearing.  Thanks to my teacher, Iggy O, I was able to wear a suit that was not traditionally "newbie" suit.  Not being looked at like a newbie made it easier for me to ask questions because the people would not blow me off immediately just because of my looks.  Because my experiences as a African American avatar were neither positive or negative, I do not think I would change back to a white female avatar right away.  I think I am still going to do some research regarding gender changes in Second Life. 

Caroline R's wiki