When choosing my avatar, I took this as an opportunity to be someone completely different than my actual self. While a couple of the avatars resembled me, I thought it would be boring in an alternate reality to be the exact same. That is why I chose to be a “vampire.” But, this ultimately may have contributed to my disconnection from the Second Life universe. While the game attempts to simulate reality as much as possible, there is never a moment when I am playing where I am completely immersed. Part of this is due to my avatar not being human, other has to do with the physics of the game — the ability to fly, not get hurt from falling, etc. The most realistic aspect of the game is probably the social element to it. As in real life, I can strike up a conversation with anyone around that I meet, and these are in fact other real people behind these avatars. At the same time, the anonymity of it adds an eerie effect — not knowing who is actually saying these words.