Four years ago today Alidar Moxie was born and became my main Avatar.  I say my main avatar because I rarely log in with my original account any more (Alidar Marten) despite the fact that I actually prefer her last name more to some degree (not enough to go through the trouble of buying her new wardrobe and so forth).  So why do I have more than one account at all?  Why are they so similarly named?

I joined SL way back in 2003.  At that time I was still in school but thought SL would make a pleasant enough distraction.  In those days (you young whippersnappers) you bought land, paid a tax on your prims in world, and got a bonus on your allowance based on the amount of traffic your land got and your ratings and other factors.  Chances were you knew a good number of the people online at once and if someone was having a party you went because it was polite and because if they liked your clothes or something they would give you a positive ranking on something.

I chose ‘Alidar’ mainly because I am Alidar on most everything else I do* and ‘Marten’ because it sounded like a real last name.  When I created the account I pretty much made up all of the other details on the account.  It strikes me as odd now that LL took my paypal account with these made up details, but I digress.

I ultimately left SL because I could not cope with it and going to school and decided to put it on hold for a while.

Fast forward a few years and a couple of degrees and I’m ready to play SL again, except for the fact that I cannot remember my password, at all.  I try resetting my password but cant remember any of those ‘made up’ details.  I e-mail LL and get no response after a day or so and I’m impatient, so, new account.  I again choose ‘Alidar’ because, ‘I am Alidar on most everything else I do’ and ‘Moxie’ because it started with an M (sort of pining after Marten) and away I went.

A year or so later I upgraded to a premium account, go concierge service and IM’d a nice support lady who was patient with me and managed to unlock the account, but it had been long enough I even had a product on the market and didn’t want to confuse things so I stuck with it.

I’ve seen SL change quite a bit and it still amazes me with how far things have come (really? we have prim hair now? and sculpties?) I can’t wait to see how things keep changing.

The amount of stuff I have done in this world has also surprised me.  I’ve joined RP communities, left some.  Started sims, left them.  Started businesses, sold them.  Started other businesses, and am working on other projects that I can’t wait to tell everyone about.  This, from someone who is a confirmed introvert.

* This is true to the extent that in college someone else in RL had my same first name.  Once my friends found out I went by ‘Alidar’ or ‘Ali’ online I was almost never called by my RL first name again.