Blog Post #1: Exploration in Second Life.

Exploration in Second Life:
By Ben Pepin

I found that many of my current standards in RL also apply to second life. For example, I never approached a random group of strangers, but I was comfortable approaching a single person sitting on a chair and starting a conversation. For some strange reason, I found that people sitting in their chairs seemed more approachable and willing to have a conversation than those that were standing.

In class, Eric asked us why participants feel that it is necessary for our avatars to look at each other while we chat in second life. I think it is a social convention that we have become so familiar with that if we wish to recreate or expand or improve on our current world in second life, then we must take some of our most basic concepts and bring them with us. For example, we don’t fly around and explore while having a conversation, because we want to show that we are giving our undivided attention.

I was disappointed with second life’s controls and interface. I found it difficult to maneuver, less intuitive than I would have liked and on the whole, frustrating. I did not like having to scroll through hundreds of gestures to choose the one I was looking for, and I found the map, endless and difficult to navigate. I also had trouble accomplishing basic tasks like changing clothes and customizing my character. When I started playing, I tried typing into the location box and it immediately teleported me to “hello island”. It took me a very long time to figure out how to get back to help island public.

Although I am happy I tried playing second life, I do not think that I will return any time soon. I got nauseous playing it, grew tired of starting awkward conversations and did not really want to look at the mediocre graphics any longer. While I do appreciate the endless possibilities of creation in second life, I think my time would be better spent rendering a model in maya or exploring the real world.

In Julian Dibell’s article, “A rape in Cyberspace” the victims whose avatars were raped seem genuinely hurt. I never got the feeling that I was so connected to my avatar that I would feel wronged if something like that happened. I think it is a generation thing and people like me who have grown up with computers are more accustomed to and less fearful of hackers. My myspace and facebook have both been hacked multiple times and it is nothing more than a slight nuisance.

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