interview | Jonny Tobias

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

Second Life name: Jonny Tobias
Rez Date: 7/28/2007

1 – How did you discover Second Life and what made you create an account?
I discovered Secondlife by accident, actually I was reading a thread on a forum I frequent and they had a massive thread where alot of the members on there came on SL in the early days and caused a bit of havoc. My computer at the time wasn’t up to scratch, so 1 year later after this thread died my friend from Florida logged on again one weekend and asked me to come on as well. I met a few cool people and then became addicted, lol. Then the story of Jonny continued on.

2 – How did you come up with your Second Life name?
It is a mixture of the characters of Jonny Drama from Entourage and the character of Tobias from Arrested Development (which I had been watching in the hours just prior to joining SL). Those 2 characters I guess give an insight into the way I ‘play’ on SL, with an equal mixture of seriousness and naivety, all with a good dose of self-depreciating humor along the way. That is essentially my character in reality I like to think, just add in a large dose of sarcasm.

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 log back in from time to time to chat to old friends and see what has gone on lately. Other than that it is pretty funny to see what people are up to, and I tend to profile browse and chuckle alot with close friends at how dramatic it all seems at times on here. Seeing people partner and departner sometimes reminds me of the old days, but I would now advise most people to not get involved with all that jazz, lol.
I have noticed that mens fashion on here pretty much hit a high then died off a bit with the creativity. Things that I see in RL don’t always transcend the gap back into the SL world sadly. I guess I have answered this question a bit backwards, but I guess what made me stay on here was the fact that I could have some good laughs and chat to people from all around the world. Getting an insight into how other people in some other places live their lives makes me appreciate all I have here at home in my RL.
I guess what keeps the people who come on here for only a week or month then leave is the same thing that keeps the people who stay for alot longer. That is, the people themselves and all they create, no matter what realm it be, from artistic to sexual to emotional, the things created in SL have some semblance to things in the real world in that they all can have effects on other human beings. I guess some closed minded people just come on SL and see it as being sexual or whatever with the noob sex stufff that I saw as a newbie and just leave, but if your mind is open to realise anything is possible here, then you can stay quite easily.

4 – What have you been doing in SL? Tell us your story: what have you been up to or what have you created.
I haven’t really been in SL much lately, I guess in some ways I was ostracized due to my truthful nature. I have always been one to call a spade a spade and I don’t really fuck around, and if something is on my mind I will say it. My story is pretty well known I guess, as I have told it a few times in my past, but lets just say I have been more busy in reality creatiing music and memorys with some people who are close to me. I recently bought a new guitar and amplifier in RL and have been pouring my energies into improving my abilitys and knowledge of the instrument, but I have learned the more you learn, the more there is that you don’t know. Also went and travelled around Europe during the past Summer, and that was rather fun for someone from the most isolated capital city in the world. In all I am loving my real life right now, I have everything I have ever desired and am creating new goals all the time. Getting older has definitely made me wiser.

5 – Have you found, developed or improved any skills because of SL?
Hmm this is rather tough but my typing improved greatly, even in RL I had coworkers comment on how fast I can type ahhaha. Other than that I would say in some ways SL enhanced a general distrust in people as those close to you can turn at any moment. In ways this benefits you but can also detract from getting to know people on a deeper level. So I guess, I should stick with the typing answer, haha.

6 – Could you share a funny or awkward story that happened to you inSL?
I could say so many that it isn’t funny. A funny story was the day me and Davey Hullabaloo went and were playing around as Shai’s slaves, that was a really funny day for me. I guess awkward would be the realisation that I spent so much time becoming a SL ‘model’ and then I realised that all these people had some misconception of me, then when they would talk to me they would comment something like “Oh you are really nice, I thought you would be stuck up” and I was in shock, like, seriously, I am just another flesh and blood human being, no better or worse than the person sitting in front of their monitor playing SL as well. I guess the fact I was honest was a refreshing change to some people, and the way I really got tired of the lying and asskissing involved in the ‘modelling’ world was the fact of a real life realisation in that my energys were better devoted to achieving goals in reality as I seemed to have reached all my goals I had set on here. Another funny thing to me was when Anessa Stine commented to me at the Runway awards that my tag had something about Cynthia (Smit) and that she thought I was crazy for having that as my tag at such an event lol. The most awkward moments though was when I logged on to all this gossip and innuendo about an ex of mine who feigned having (supposedly terminal) cancer then was rather pissed off that I exposed her ruse when she returned as a new alt. That was a rather hectic time, answering IMs and everything, and in hindsight, I have no regrets about coming clean with that one. Cancer is a serious issue (and claimed my 15 year old dog just as recently as last week) and to see some SL ‘game player’ come on here and make a mockery of those who suffer with this terrible sickness, was just something I couldn’t stand and was in part an impetus to wake up and view the people I had surrounded myself with at the time as the people they were. That was an awkward time I guess. Another fun time was exposing ‘Miss SL Universe’ as a shemale, that was hilarious to me, and I saw how seriously some people on SL take themselves with that little joke.

7 – What would you change or improve in Second Life?
In all honesty the best thing to do would be to have one profile per person, and abolish alts altogether. I think the fact that so many people ‘leave’ SL only to reappear as an alt is the worst thing about this place, as it makes one unaccountable for their actions on here. Its the worst thing about SL in my opinion.

8 – Can you share your current and/or future projects for SL?
I don’t really have any projects for SL, I mean, I will blog again eventually when I can find some time (RL work, guitar and the recent release of Modern Warfare 2 have seriously corrupted my schedule as has someone special) and when the SL viewer doesn’t crash me when I take pics. I am here a year later still waiting on them to make the viewer compatible with my ATI card which is the initial reason I stopped coming on here as much, as it was becoming too frustrating with entire system crashes whenever I was logged on for a while.

9 – Have you ever had any issues whatsoever within Second Life? If so, how did you reported and was the feedback positive?
I had a few issues with SL. One involved some ex who I let logon as my av one time and she used some creditcard or something, and apparently she ended up owing the Lindens money and they banned my account. I had to call LL up from Australia and plead my case, it was a weird time really as I had all sorts of shit going on and I couldn’t logon. It was really wasted energy stressing about this place, now I come on here and relax, as I did when I first joined. But other than that, there was just the usual crashes and things, downtime etc. I don’t know how much of an issue there is these days.

10 – Is Second Life merely an online game or do you consider it more of a metaverse or a virtual world?
I think in all honesty it is just a game. I tried my hardest to consider it a metaverse and have faith in people but the deeper I looked the more I saw the scene I was in and most of the people I knew were just on here playing games. That is they loved to lie about things or just believe this world was real, and in some ways I was suckered into thinking the same. When I had an epiphany and realised this was just a game, and that I was a little bored of playing is when I decided to come clean with the truth about things I was involved in.
I guess the fact that I have been involved with some of the most scandalous identities in SL thru work related ventures (Runway/BOSL) and the scandals those people surrounded themselves with kinda made me realise that I was not like those people at all. I actually cared about something other than coming on here thinking like a megalomaniac, treating people like inferior beings, and just chasing that almighty dollar. One of my earliest memorys on here was when I met a girl who was feeling depressed and suicidal, and I stayed up until 6am my time talking to her about a friend who did it in RL, and how it effected everyone. She believed nobody cared for her and was so miserable about things, but the 6 hours I spent talking to her I hope showed her that life isn’t so bad, we can change what situation we are in, we just have to develop and pursue goals in order to be the person we want to be. I would say that is totally the opposite of most of the people in the magazine/modelling scene, where lies and deceit are to those people just normal everyday things. I think if you are spending in excess of 6 hours a day on here, then you need to really take a step back and look at what is around you in reality (this doesn’t apply for those deriving a RL income from here, just the ‘game players’) When I did this, it made me view SL as much more of a ‘leisure’ thing, rather than a ‘work’ related pasttime.

11 – Imagine a new resident asks for your help. What would do? What would you tell him/her?
I have told many people this same thing, and that is, just be careful of what you do on here. Don’t trust or believe anyone and just enjoy this place for what it is, that is – a game. My second adive I have given out is “Don’t try to become a model in SL!!” LMAO! Nobody listens to this one though.

12 – How would you describe yourself in one word?
Blessed
I think this is a good enough summary of me.

Your urls
Blog: http://jonnytobias.blogspot.com
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonnytobias/
SLurls http://slurl.com/secondlife/Laguna%20Beach%20Cove/187/96/25

Mentions
I would like to shoutout to the following people, Elisne Allen, Steve Letlow, Shai Delacroix, Raven Pennyfeather, Harper Beresford, Alexa Trefoil & Bronco Graves, Icemocolo Voom, Ryker Beck, Emilia Redgrave, Viola Leigh, Sally Yachvilli, MissEm Boa, Maxie Daviau, Freya Finsbury, Kimberly Mirabeau, Eponymous Trenchmouth, Melanie Zhao, Lawless McBride, Copacetic Law, Monique7 Carter, Yvonne Thor, Persia Hyun, Cynthia Smit, Belle and Jack, Yehuiah Bates & Queenie Ella., Boe Cortez and finally Ana Lutetia for giving me this forum upon which to express myself, my sincerest thanks.

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