interview | HawksRock Gunawan

Posted on October 24, 2009 by Ana Lutetia | No Comments

Chillaxin, originally uploaded by HawksRock.

Upskirt, originally uploaded by HawksRock.

1 – How did you discover Second Life and what made you create an account?
I found SecondLife through an article in The Economist magazine that talked about how SecondLife was going to change the way business was conducted on the World Wide Web.

2 – How did you come up with your Second Life name?
I have used the name HawksRock for as long as I have had an online persona, dating all the way back to card games and icq. It actually references my love for our local university athletic teams of the Kansas Jayhawks.

3 – Lots of people only stay inSL for a week or a month after creating an account. What made you stay and what motivates you to log back in?
I was quickly drawn into a larger social network when I discovered Tringo, and joined up with the Bad Azz gaming group as a player, and later as a host. I found a network of friends who kept me wanting to log back in. After that it was all about the SLex. Eventually I was lucky enough to meet miss JellyBean Madison, and that turned my entire SL and ultimately my RL upside down in an incredibly positive way.

4 – What have you been doing in SL? Tell us your story: what have you been up to or what have you created.
The only thing I could be accused of creating in SL is mayhem. I am probably most well known as a blogger. Since Jell introduced me to blogging about 2.5 years ago I have written for such blogs as Verbal Stew, Are We Not Men, Free State of Mind, and now most recently The SLRevolution. I also enjoy machinima as a hobby. Luckily we have very talented friends who can build, script, pose, or animate us in about any way we need which are all crucial to be able to make decent machinima.

5 – Have you found, developed or improved any skills because of SL?
I have rediscovered my interest in writing, although I am pretty lazy about it when I blog. I enjoy it, but I know that I could write better if I worked harder at it (and sometimes actually read back through things before hitting post.) I am fairly good at Tringo if that counts as a skill anymore, I am pretty well known in those circles.

6 – Could you share a funny or awkward story that happened to you inSL?
I remember quite vividly my earliest three or four days on the grid. I had numerous wild encounters during that first week, from wandering directly into nympho’s paradise sex club on my first flight away from the orientation landing point to trying on numerous outfits that were to be found in freebie boxes everywhere and ending up with a spiked tutu and cuffs.
My single biggest embarrassment though I remember was that when I first tried to put on clothes I put on something that read in the description as “black dress shoes.” Of course I didn’t know how to use cam controls to look at them, but I figured that sounded harmless enough. It wasn’t until about my fourth day of wearing them that I caught a glimpse of my feet and realized that I was wearing a girl’s mary jane style shoe. I mentioned it to one of the people I had latched onto for those first few days, and she responded to me that yes she had noticed, but didn’t want to embarrass me so she didn’t tell me. Good times, good times.

7 – What would you change or improve in Second Life?
I see the biggest limitation for me being the lack of ability to get a lot of people in one sim, both physically and without serious performance issues. I mean any decent sized party or club event and you have people banging up against the sim limitations and people having to wait outside as they keep trying to TP in. It makes things like Hair Fair or big charity events a major pain in the ass.

8 – Can you share your current and/or future projects for SL?
In complete honestly I am currently in a holding pattern for SL – the lifestyle. My first couple of years I was super involved in everything and kept trying to learn new skills and push myself, anymore I pretty much stay up on SL happenings more through plurk than through actually being in world. Obviously the Rev is still near and dear to my heart and is an incredibly successful blog. One thing I like to do is to keep an eye out for fresh writing talent so we can keep evolving and having new perspectives to keep us from getting stale. I have started and killed so many blogs now over my virtual life, that I feel like we have settled upon a very solid format with the Rev and people seem to really respond to it and our awesome group of writers.

9 – Have you ever had any issues whatsoever within Second Life? If so, how did you reported and was the feedback positive?
Obviously as a blogger, an opinionated blogger that is not afraid to voice my opinion, then yes I have definitely had a few interesting issues over my time in Second Life. Overall though I can’t think of anything that has ever been blown totally out of proportion for an extended period of time. I have never to my knowledge had to file an official complaint with anyone from Linden Labs. If I have an issue with something, I write about it. I have taken on ad farms, boisterous neighbors, people with integrity issues, and the sheepification of SL on many occasions, but always through the blog rather than through any official channels.

10 – Is Second Life merely an online game or do you consider it more of a metaverse or a virtual world?
SL is more than an online game, meaning with the potential it has to throw you into any sort of storybook setting there is a tremendous potential for emotional connections that you don’t see in other MMORPG type games. There might be a nakkie patch for WoW but that orc bending a tauren over a bench just isn’t going to do it for me like SL does it for me. SL mimics RL in that it can be just as boring at times, and people still log in to sit there and be bored. Many people have a tendency to get sucked too far into it, as a means of escape for something they are lacking in RL.

11 – Imagine a new resident asks for your help. What would do? What would you tell him/her?
I always start by setting the dudes down and going okay, here are the 15 signs that she is a he! lol I explain to them that you have to make an investment up front to get your avatar right. Buy the skin and some clothes, and then watch how your world turns around for you. Be true to yourself, and be a little leary of people, because unfortunately there are a lot less cues to go by to understand people’s motivations and intentions in a virtual setting. Then I give em some suggestions for some fun sims to check out, and proceed to ban them from my land cuz there is nothing I hate worse than clingy noob syndrome.

12 – How would you describe yourself in one word?
Honest

Hawks Vacuum 2, originally uploaded by HawksRock.

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