Virtual Worlds Discussion
What is Second Life?
Second Life (or SL) is an on-line community for social networking. Unlike on-line games such as World of Warcraft, there are no monsters to fight or princesses to rescue. SL is designed to help people meet other people. SL is a world, an environment in which you can engage in role-playing games, commerce, artistic pursuits or just about any other activity. You can set your own goals or just wander around. SL was designed to be open source so it is possible for people to build things such as businesses or buildings within the environment.
Is it safe?
As safe as anything is on the Internet. Take your usual precautions – don’t give out your real name or any other personal information. Say no to anything anyone offers you if you’re not sure or if you don’t know him or her. Move away from anyone who’s giving you a bad time.
Traveling
There are three modes of travel: walk, fly or teleport. To walk, just use the arrow keys on your keyboard. It can be awkward at first but in a short time, you’ll adapt and move around with ease. To fly, click on the Fly button on the bottom tool bar. To stop, click the same button again (it now says Stop Flying). Teleporting allows you to jump to a whole new place.
Etiquette in SL
• Speak to people who speak to you, even if it’s just to say, “no thanks.”
• Check the area before removing clothes. It’s rude to undress except in changing rooms or a few other paces that allow nudity.
• Watch your language in PG areas.
• Say hello/goodbye if you enter/leave a gathering spot.
• Don’t ask people about their RL (real life) unless they bring it up.
The above information was retrieved from the SecondLife web site on December 8, 2009.
Let’s review my first – hand experience with SL. My real life does not need a cat-5 cable or wifi; SL requires a reliable Internet connection. SL requires learning a whole new way of living, I am struggling with my first life right now and really don’t need the hassle of #2. Even though the minimum age is 13, anyone can login to inappropriate scenes as I did many times in September. Many SL educational sites have warnings about no weapons, no sex, no caging, no orbiting, and of course, no littering. SL is not free, in fact, to produce anything worthwhile; it becomes quite expensive very quickly. The Adult Content Policy is now in effect. I logged in and this announcement popped up even though I logged in as a 13 year old. While roaming around as a 13 year old, I was approached by many avatars with inappropriate names (and no way to tell how old they were). Depending upon your Internet connection, teleporting may be disabled. Avatars show up in strange places with next to nothing, or nothing on, and most have inappropriate names. Somebody named Red Spy Vixix Core even shot me on September 22, 2009. There are many things to keep track of like animations, body parts, calling cards, clothing, gestures, landmarks, objects, sounds, textures, and more. There are lots of SL rules that apparently not many people read. Finally, if all that was not enough, I got email solicitations from the partying hipsters in NYC, a Thai beach and an alpine forest.
How were any of these experiences educational? They taught me to avoid SL. There are too many other educational Web 2.0 tools out there to waste time in SL. I do not recommend this for any educational purpose. If I need to exist in a virtual world, I will be MobileMe Man in Winamac with my friend, Little Tommy.
By the way, Shakespeare didn’t like it. The very first chunk of video (Kaneva) presented by Gary Hayes in his video “2008 Metaverse Tour – The Social Virtual World’s a Stage” has a scantily clad rather developed female dancing on a stage with wings on her back and 4 other female forms dressed inappropriately as well standing near the winged dancer. Next our staff “hero” encounters a female in blue jeans and an open top as she “struts her stuff” so to speak.
Unless this is a class on how to get propositioned, I find no social or educational value to this.
After a short visit to YoVille, a quote is beamed to us that states, “We all live every day in virtual environments, defined by our ideas.” (Crichton, n.d.). Next we watch a guy approach a girl in RocketOn as they walk across a screen in iGoogle. Another quote follows, “We’re going to be spending a lot more of our time in virtual reality environments.” (Kurzwell, n.d.). Quickly, some guy in a suit waves and then we see a guy with wings crossing a street in Prototerra. We then follow the suit as he walks down a street laden with shops.
Then we go to Gala Online which looks like a girl place. It’s an irl thing. Another quote follows, “Invisible threads are the strongest ties.” (Nietzsche, n.d.) then some guy is walking toward a beach and then starts flying in Hipihi. He checks out a girl and then still another quote, “Personality is more important than beauty, but imagination is more important than both of them.” (Taylor, 1887-1946).
Next we are in a run-down kind of place in Google Lively and we see a girl crying at a desk while some guy makes his way off the floor. Naturally, another quote, “There are more than 300 million registered participants in non-game Social Virtual Worlds.” (KZero.co.uk, n.d.). The Habbo Hotel follows. By the way, this is only the first minute and forty-five seconds of the video. Should I continue? I don’t think I have to at this point.
If virtual environments are dreams, creativity, invention, and communication, then I truly hope all of us spend more time in virtual environments. If personality is more important than beauty, then why aren't there ugly avitars? The virtual world is a stage for all these people to strut around like they would never do in real life. If invisible threads are the strongest ties, then why don't I feel connected? Shakespeare also said, "To be, or not to be, that is the question." I choose to be.
No comments:
Post a Comment