THE SHELTER
I chose to enter the Shelter because it was advertised as "newcomer friendly" which it immediately seemed to be judging by the greetings I got once I entered. People were also constantly posting instructions on how to dance (there seemed to be some sort of gathering going on) and helping each other out in a very positive sense. You can tell that people do have an obligatory and willing sense of community especially in places where it is defined -> because it was newcomer friendly, people were especially tolerant and even went out of their way to communicate. There was also instructional information on the posters on the wall about generic SL behaviour and profiling etc which would be great for someone who was actually going to invest a lot of their time and character into the game.
People dancing in a line together, though I did not work out how to join the rhythm exactly (I didn't ask on chat, but I am sure that if I had, some one would have helped me out!). People spent a lot of time on this repetitious dance set which I could not really fathom when I remember that there are people on the other end of the screen using their real-life time to participate. I guess it just attests to the commitment people may have in their relationship with VR and their characters who (at least in this particular context) seem to have a community that relies on everyone gathering.
The ring of spheres is a place where people can again dance together. When approaching them, a caption will appear on top of them which tells you that if you click the ball, then you will dance. I did this and I stayed there for a bit as I did not seem to be able to recreate the dance elsewhere. Some other avatar did the same thing next to me and took their place in the ring, where I realised that the whole point of the circle was again for communal purposes which encourage togetherness, much like when a group of friends create a dance circle at parties.
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