NEUFREISTADT, COLORADO– While Odile and Balder succumbed to the seemingly infinite potential of virtual surreality, younger tech-weaned eyes were never fooled, Second Life was a game. Hello? Just. A. Game. Yes, we could recognize the learning curve and ever-fading novelty, yes our immersion was obsessive, but what value have intimate explorations if less than fully lived? Second Life offered idealized selves, idealized travel, social opportunity and locomotion beyond perhaps the reality of many. It could also provide surroundings of your design, to those players who could afford it. While our little native gamers moved on to single-player Sims games where your custom-built world wasn’t going to be compromised by others, we persevered, albeit in virtual retirement, trying to read SL’s future like traders studying the market. I wonder if we didn’t find our level maxed when we uploaded our real life Colorado backdrop to upholster our virtual homestead.