This week’s post is all about Second Life, an online virtual world created by a company called Linden Lab. Good or bad, I had never heard about Second Life before starting this course. Considering that as of 2011 Second Life has more than 20 million registered user accounts (Wikipedia) I had to ask myself how I could have missed it. I was never a fan of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPG) so that could explain why, but that’s beside the point. More importantly Second Life is more than just an MMORPG, firstly it’s not really a game and secondly it’s much more massive… from all angles. Its name says it all, Second Life allows you to lead a second, virtual life online.
I must admit that I found the prospect quite scary (for lack of a better word), and this was before I downloaded the client software or created an account. I mean scary in the sense that there is so much one can do and see in Second Life that it’s quite frankly overwhelming. But it only really hits you once you get in.
Creating An Account
I started off by creating an account, which is a task in itself. With more than 20 million registered users, trying to find a good user id is like looking for a particular pixel on the Second Life Grid (a needle in a haystack is easy in comparison). I have an obsession with my user/character names, I want them to be different from my real name, sound cool (to me at least) and make some sort of sense. Putting these constraints to the already limited possibilities was not helping. Each user name I tried was taken and what I found rather annoying was the fact that the website did not suggest alternatives. Those of you who follow my blog will know that I’m a stickler when it comes to User Experience (UX) and will understand my annoyance at such things. I finally settled for the name “Wyder” which stands for “Wayne” (my real name) “derivative” and which was available. Next I downloaded and installed the Second Life Viewer and I was good to go.
Virtually There
After logging in I found my virtual self (Avatar) on Welcome Island, a region on the Grid aimed at getting newbies like me up and running in Second Life within a claimed 10 minutes. Welcome Island lived up to its promises and I got a hang of the basic controls well within those 10 minutes, including walking/flying around, chatting, basic camera controls and object interaction. With the pleasantries out of the way it was time to take the plunge into the Grid proper. I popped out the destination guide and I was surprised at the sheer number of locations available. I spent the good part of an hour teleporting between locations, spending a few minutes in each just to get a feel for the interface and to assess performance across locations. It was immediately apparent that a good internet connection and even better hardware is required to experience this virtual world at its best.
Customising the Avatar
I also attempted to change the look of my avatar and was impressed with the level of customization that is available to you. It did take some trial and error to decipher what each setting did (I still cannot figure out how to change the eye colour) and to realize that your hair can be changed only by acquiring new hair styles (at least that’s what I concluded). I also found some preset ‘looks’ in the inventory but to my horror, the presets re-set the facial features I had painstakingly tweaked to my liking just before. Saying I was frustrated is an understatement, so I set everything back to default and let the whole customization thing be for a while. I’ll try again another time.
Conclusion
I have to say that I did feel quite a bit disorientated, out of place even, while logged into Second Life. There’s so much to take in that it will take me several other sessions to feel comfortable enough. What does Second Life tell me? Well, I don’t want to pass judgment just yet as I still have to get over my baby blues J so I’ll leave all philosophical considerations for another post. I can say however that I am looking forward to building stuff in this virtual world and take a look at Linden Scripting Language to see what I can accomplish. In the meantime, I’ll concentrate on getting a better hang of the interface, the places, the people and the life!
Subscribe to email feed
