Interview With Nydia Tungsten: 11 Years, 11 Questions

By Cyfir (Cyfiremmerich)

Nydia Tungsten has been around in Second Life for over 10 years. In fact, her 11th rez day is coming up, so I thought that this would be a perfect opportunity to meet up with her and ask her 11 questions regarding her time in Second Life as well as her other projects.

Cyfir: How did you get started in Second Life?

Nydia: Someone I met randomly gave me the downloader. I forgot I even had it for over a year. Then I found it, BARELY remembered that it was supposedly a game, and tried it.

Cyfir: What initially drew you in to Second Life and why did you stay?

Nydia: I can't say anything drew me here but luck. I almost deleted the installer. What made me stay is I had found furry art on the internet, as well as furry comics such as "Sabrina Online." That kind of drew me to the furry fandom and I didn't even know it. Hell, I didn't even know there was a fandom until I came here and I met some many wonderful furs. THEY are why I stay.

Cyfir: What were your first few years on the platform like?

Nydia: I was shy, unsure of what to do, where to go. But that was only a few days. My first friends in Second Life were Skylark, Treminari, Limly,  Rita, Lomgren, just to name a few. They took me under their wings and helped me to grow here. They taught me about land, clubs, and tried to teach me building and scripting but, I don't have the mind for it. But they helped to mold me and helped me to grow here and to be honest I have grown a lot.

Cyfir : I understand that you are a sim owner. As I am a previous sim owner, I understand that there are many challenges involved. Can you give any aspiring sim owners any pointers for running a sim?

Nydia : Friends! Hee-hee. They are always a good thing, and are your best renters. I have known a few of my renters since they started Second Life and a few others since 'they have started SL. And don't be greedy. Be fair to everyone. Sometimes that’s difficult because it might be a dispute between your friends, but you HAVE to remain neutral or it could ruin everything. And each time has a good reason, and have people you trust completely as admins. Another trick is to create "Bank" accounts. That way if anything DOES happen to the AVI that owns the sim, you still have the money to take care of business, and have a "Sim owner" account as well. Again, to save your main account from Linden Lab.

Cyfir: What do you feel is most rewarding about being a sim owner?

Nydia: Helping people. Making sure they have a SAFE home, not just a parcel but a HOME they can enjoy and feel safe.

Cyfir: What have been your favorite memories thus far in Second Life?

Nydia: There are so many… Mostly, having fun with my friends. Sometimes making a fool of myself, *laughs* and yeah, I have done that a LOT. Oh, I have some doosies. *laughs* Like... I logged into a convo in the Hidden Vally chat, which is one of the groups I am in "Tiny Empires" and someone asked about watersports, and I piped up with “I LOVE water sports!" and the chat DIED and someone asked  "YOU like water sports?" and I told them hell yeah!  I LOVE swimming and fishing and the chat exploded in laughter. I had no idea why until someone explained what type of "Water sports" they meant. ... There have been others, but lets just say I was very, naive. And when people talk about "Scat" here, it is NOT the music genre.

Cyfir: How long do you think that Second Life will continue to stick around?

Nydia: I think it has a long life ahead of it. I know they were trying to get people to the other world they made. I went ONCE and I was shocked at how primitive it was. You could not interact with 99% of the stuff there. You had no volume control, no way of controlling where you could go reliably. It was just a new form of IMVU I think it is? So nothing new was done. They tried to reinvent the wheel and failed. So Second Life is going to be here for a good long while.

Cyfir: If Second Life shut down, where do you think that you would go?

Nydia:  I am not sure, to be honest. I have plenty of ways to keep in touch with a lot of my friends here in Second Life, mostly my Angels.

Cyfir: You mention in your about section that you run a radio station in Second Life. Can you tell our readers about that?

Nydia:  KVXN Internet Radio. It started as a kind of joke. I DJ'd for almost twelve hours just on a whim, and Rita said I should start a station in Second Life. So I did. *laughs* We are now a licensed Internet radio station.

Cyfir: You previously did Second Life music videos on YouTube. Do you plan to make any more in the future?

Nydia: Because of the latest “COPPA" debacle, I have closed my Youtube channel until the dust settles.

Cyfir: I understand that you’re also a novelist. Can you tell us about your previous novels and where to find them and are there any future novels on the way?

Nydia: Yes. I am waiting on my daughter to finish a family chart. Then I will be releasing the second book. Book two,  "Switched Destinies: Kevin's Return," continues with Kevin's adventures in his new world. (The synopsis of the story is) "Two souls, viewed by many of their kinds’ as eccentric lunatics, suddenly find themselves switched within their parallel universes. Now in strange new lands, each is having to learn about the other side of the mirror. In the all new Switched Destiny's.”

You can visit Nydia’s radio station “KVXN” here, and you can check out her latest novel “Switched Destinies” here.

Cyfir

Crossroads

Midnight veils the small town cemetery in the free-form dark role play community of Crossroads. It is the year 1871. Within the gated Gothic cemetery stands an angel upon the platform of a cross, she is a bright illumination in a city haunted by a curse. She is known as Ravenal Ashby.

A traveler regarded as an outsider, I tread cautiously on the snow-covered grounds, surrounded by Princess Guiniverre Despres and numerous Crossroads residents. The Princess is dressed in a winter gown as black as night. Her ebony hair lies freely upon her shoulders. She is nothing less than beautiful, but there is a protective nature about her that suggests, rather than implies, that she is to be feared. She stands in front of me blocking my path, but it is not a confrontation she seeks. Openly she speaks to me about the town.

"The town was founded years ago by my grandfather, a baron, who brought in others to build it," explains Guiniverre. "A shipping business began, then wineries were added and the people appeared and it became a busy little town.” We stand alone, but we do trade with others."

She stated that there is both a countryside and mountainous terrain and that the town was founded some forty years ago (four years in SL).

"I think we have an equal mix of businessmen to artist. A mixed bag of personalities for sure, but everyone seems to add a flavor to the town. All together we are one delicious drink, so to speak,” she voiced with a grin.

Asked if everyone contributes equally, Guiniverre replied, that they don't. There are the overachievers. However, she felt that the town bum is just as important as he or she adds her personality to the mix. No one wants everyone to be the same.

"Our personalities should be as unique as our fingerprints," she tells me. "God knows if there was another me. The town can barely stand the one," she jokes, adding that her family adores her as well as the angel beside her.

It is ironic, yet natural here, that an angel is devoted to this town, but it is for a reason.

"We protect the town laws, Miss. That is our job here," Ravenal informs me. "Our mission is to bring light in a town cast in darkness.

Though I am told the darkness is because of the towering mountains that surround the town, Ravenal suggests otherwise.

"Or perhaps it is the curse put on the town because of your grandfather," Ravenal claims. "There is a curse on the town. Demons were involved, which is the reason I am here."

They then choose to speak out of character. Ravenal owns Crossroads, but her sister, Guiniverre co-owns a number of other sims with her. Guiniverre built Crossroads so they are pretty much in a partnership. She does 95% of the sim building.

"We offer the world of darkness role play. We offer VTM role play, Vampires of the Masquerade," Ravenal explains. "We also offer various races of role play such as demons, angels, vampires, fae, steampunk, neko and even a few draconic types."

On the character roster are 40-50 role players on the sim any given evening. They allow those who abide by the rules, have a concept and a desire to role play with them. There is a justice system in play that works often, but fights do occasionally break out from time to time. What's interesting is that they have a role play university for those just learning how it's done. They use the CCS hud, which is based on time spent in character. There is soul hunting with the demons.

"The CCS hud allows for an actual bite, but our VTM vampires do more role play biting then CCS biting," said Ravenal. "We have a very strict no “Out of Character” policy while in the IC zone. And, yes, you can live where you play!"

Be aware that this is a dark role play community, which means you can be killed. It might take awhile to be resurrected, but you do rez back to life. You are given the opportunity to tell them the degree of dark participation that you can handle comfortably. Also, VTM means that the characters do not openly state they are vampires and other paranormal beings. They take on normal lives which veil their true form. That's the premise of their existence.

If you feel like experimenting, give it a try. For more information, log on to http://www.crossroadsroleplay.com/.