interview | Hunain Bellic

Posted on October 28, 2009 by Ana Lutetia | No Comments

Second Life name: Hunain Bellic
Rez Date: 5/19/2008

1 – How did you discover Second Life and what made you create an account?
—Back in 2007, I was bored of the normal Internet life, the browsing and the e-mailing and the chatting..I had randomly read on the internet about virtual worlds and was holding back on having a look since some time, well, one day I just sat down and searched for it, found Second Life, came on just to see how things are and got hooked!

2 – How did you come up with your Second Life name?
—Not much of a brainer, my RL first name coupled with one of the SL default second names.

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?
—Well, in the first few months, I was experiencing it, learning new things, making friends, talking and enjoying SL, what motivates me now are some of the great people I know, some of the great places I enjoy visiting and offcourse, business!

4 – What have you been doing in SL? Tell us your story: what have you been up to or what have you created.
—My story…hmm…well, first stage was ‘understanding’, I wanted to understand how things work, it wasn’t much of a brainer, with help from some of the great people I met when I rezd, I understood SL pretty fast. Next stage was me ‘enjoying’ what I understood, like going to places, meeting people, dancing, dating, a little bit of flirting..*blushes*…well, then the third stage was ‘creating’, I was always concerned about my looks, always buying stuff, one thing I desperately wanted, was a tattoo on my chest, which said my name, lol…I could not find one…and did not like any of the custom ones I could get made, no offense, but they all looked like a type written font thing rather than a tattoo…thats when I thought, I should make my own, hell, SL is all about us, the residents, creating stuff…

5 – Have you found, developed or improved any skills because of SL?
—Being from Asia, the first thing I developed and improved was my English, speaking and writing, I was good before I came on SL, but SL really polished me, living in Asia, I didn’t really get a chance to speak with Europeans or Americans much, but after joining SL, I have conversed with Americans, Britishers, Portuguese, Egyptians, Asians (of course), Germans, Dutch….I can’t even name all of the nationalities and cultures…that really uplifted my speaking ability and enriched my experience about people, cultures and nationalities. Apart from that, SL gave me creative freedom, I could fully realize my creative skills, like fashion, art and construction. Dressing up and designing avatars, creating Buildings, textures, objects….it is all a truly rewarding creative experience and development.

6 – Could you share a funny or awkward story that happened to you inSL?
—Apart from the usual, dragging the folder on myself by mistake and ending up naked…lol…when I was new, some person dropped an LM on me, and well, I tp’d there to find some sort of adult club, and it was very embarrassing for me at that time, specially if you have people around you in RL, lol! Other than that, I found it weird when someone told me I had to purchase genitals…

7 – What would you change or improve in Second Life?
—The avatar template, the mesh, the way textures show up on the avatar, skins, clothes, tattoos, the development needs to be more user friendly, specially I would like to point out the issue with Arms, you can only design one arm for the avatar, the other arm is a mirror image of that one arm…if they make that process easier, alot more people can start creating things and definitely higher quality things!

8 – Can you share your current and/or future projects for SL?
—I recently opened a store called HUZ-TATS (cheesy I know), I’ve worked on a lot of tattoos since I made my first one, I was actually not in to being a store owner but some close friends actually pushed me into it, can’t say I can complain though. In the future I would want to expand more, both in terms of size and creations, perhaps venture into clothes, skins etc, alot depends on time and resources, but we can all dream, its free!

9 – Have you ever had any issues whatsoever within Second Life? If so, how did you reported and was the feedback positive?
—Issues, hmm, Ive had issues with griefers, spammers, abusers, have had to endure harassment, some of the problems I did report, the feedback has always been positive for me, prompt response, action and solution, I think LL are doing a good job so far, we need to consider the amount of work load etc, but over all, It has been positive for me.

10 – Is Second Life merely an online game or do you consider it more of a metaverse or a virtual world?
—It is definitely much more than just an online game, no doubt about that, it is a virtual world yes, for some people this world holds much more importance than any “game” ever would, I have not seen any other game have such noticeable effects on peoples real life, I have seen hearts getting joined and hearts being broken, people getting rich, people being happy, people being sad, all of that from this virtual world to the real life…so yes, its not merely an online game, its a living, breathing world, albeit, virtual.

11 – Imagine a new resident asks for your help. What would do? What would you tell him/her?
—I remember when I was a new resident, how thankful I felt when I was helped and guided, so yes, I try to reciprocate and help new residents when ever I can, share any free items with them, give them information they need to get going, guide them about how SL works etc, we were all new at some time.

12 – How would you describe yourself in one word?
—One word is not enough, lol, but okay…”Aspiring”

Your urls
Blog: http://huztats.wordpress.com/
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/huztats
SLurls http://slurl.com/secondlife/Fusion%20Crossing/54/201/24
Mentions: I would like to mention some special people, sorry if someone is left out, Libby Hudson, Awoken Mcgee, Razialdark Malick, Nibru Arai, Trant Eschor, Minni Fall, Morgan Hush and the three people without whom I would not be able to reach the place I am today regarding my business in SL, Jori Watler, my dear brother Hasnain Bellic and my very special friend and manager, Strawberry Singh! I would also like to mention the support from the blogging community, it is very encouraging and motivating! You people are too kind! Thanks alot, and finally I would like to Thank my fans and supporters!

PS: Life is short and by the time it ends, you realize, nothing really matters and somethings really matter…so don’t hold back, listen to your heart and go which ever direction you want to go, trust the good inside you and never regret!

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