Finality

The world of Second Life is an interesting one to say the least, there are people from various facets of society that flock together in this digital world. While its inhabitants are not always the strange things about Second Life, they are a primary factor.

Second Life is based literally around building a life outside of your own real world existence. People come to the world and the obese become skinny, the skinny become healthy, the unattractive become rock stars. The fantasy fiends become dragons, and the little girls finally become princesses in this Second life they decide to live. While there are so many variations of Second Life to be had there is one primary tone to the game, and that is as I've mentioned, living in a world that is completely, and utterly separated from the one that was given to you by your surroundings, your childhood, and your up bringing. Being who ever you want, and being able to defy laws of gravity, of physics, and of humanity are what make some aspects of Second Life appealing to these varied groups of people.

Take Lawyers, Doctors, out of work artists, all with imaginations and past dreams, and give them the power, the means, and most importantly the tools to create their own world, and some amazing things have shown up. In my previous blogs, you will have read about some very interesting characters, from people who pretend to be Vulcans, to Vampires that want to serve their master only to its satisfaction, to an out of work artist who because of an issue beyond her own control has found solace with in the world. Acceptance is not something that people tend to care about inside of the game, they go about their business and have fun doing it!

I have heard of people who spend weeks in a digital jail, and experience what that is like because they did something wrong, and in the group that they were part of, that was the punishment, People have made a ton of money from playing Second Life, and equally some people have gone broke. From a perspective of research, its hard to consider that in modern day society, people stake their lives in something so trivial. While that statement is easy to type, its hard to see it from their perspective that this is not an investment on their future, but on their entertainment. Just like gambling, or drugs, Second Life can take people in and make them forget about their real lives.

The video below shows a video of various aspects of Second Life. There is one common thing, and that is dancing!

Students in Second Life

When I think of a game such as Second Life, I am often reminded of the weird cloud that follows over a game such as Second Life. When I started this class, I saw that I would have to get involved in the game, and it was a bit of a shock, I didn't want to do it, but it  seemed like the choice was made for me, so as I dive in to the wacky and weird of SL, I found myself meeting people who had very weird tastes in social aspects, and tastes that match with my own. I would introduce myself as a college student to everyone, and let them know that I was there for study and research, and they would be a bit thrown back by that in some cases, and in others, would appreciate what I was doing. Second Life as a whole is made up of a wide spread number of people so the reactions were not unexpected. 

A lot of the people who I would meet would be interested in my study, they would ask me what I was studying, who I was going to college with, and why this class asked me to join Second Life. Though, some were always ready to shun me for joining their game for just research. Bitter sweet, is what I would call the time I spent in side of second life. 

The bridge between real world, and the fake is one of a rather interesting and entertaining period. Games and real world have a lot of similarities, but the final say comes in how the people react to the situations. Some people would talk to me like a person, while others, as you can see in previous blogs would take roleplay to a completely new level, and make me feel awkward. While this is very similar to the real world, you always find socially awkward people, but they don't tend to look the part of a vampire when they pretend to be one.

3D Spaces

The Digital world has changed! Second Life has seen to that, they have turned 1's and 0's in to landscape, and a real world that people love to own! It gives people the ability to buy and sell their own virtual goods, for real world currencies! The world of Second Life has been transformed in to many real world areas, and based on a great many fictional places.  I was browsing around and found a Star Wars based world. People created a world that is based on the Star Wars universe by Lucas Films, and turned it in to a domain that they, and like minded people could play and interact.

People tend to flock to these when they are huge Star Wars fans, or really like the idea of creating large things! While things like London are based on peoples favorite place to hang out in London, or things they have seen, like Stone Henge as seen in this photograph. People life to create their digital worlds, and they spend a lot of money to do it. They spend a lot of time and effort to build these places, and its crazy to think that everything is built by hand, graphics artists, designers and programmers all put their hand in to this to make such a fantastic place to experience inside of the Second Life.

People tend to find that socializing is their biggest hobby in side of Second Life, with exceptions of course across the broad, there are those who enjoy the games of the world, or the sexual taboo side of things. But regardless, people gather, people dance, they socialize and talk. While there are some random bully's around the world, you'll get those people who want nothing more then to fit in to a situation and will adapt their characters to that situation.

There are even weddings inside of Second Life, like the one of two characters inside of Second Life, which was a total of around $225 USD, or $65,000 Second Life Lindens. The video to the right shows this event, and how much time and effort went in to making it just like a real world wedding, but completely digital.

Sales!

As I adventure in to The Second Life for another week, I find that the tempo has changed a bit, mostly because I have become more comfortable with the controls and the game world. I have found the client I would prefer to use which is called Firestorm. The client is more geared towards the higher end gaming machine, and  allows for a lot of controls, as well as a higher resolution so its easier to see everything that is going on.As I moved around the world of Second Life this week, I interacted with people from various facets of life, from people who claim to be CEO's of Fortune 500 Companies (Would not divulge which) to people who recently became divorced after 26 years of marriage. It seems that people are able to smell the 'newbie'ness of my curioisuty about the world, and I have been shuned by some communities for not knowing better in some situations, while others are welcome and warm to helping someone new to the game. The game seems to be a very cross-section of personalities, attitudes and orginizations. A lot of what I've seen walking around the game involved people looking for some sort of acceptance in side of a game, or people having a good time dancing. I tried to find the secret 'sex' life that people say were being lead, but I was unable to find anything going on, other than people jumping up from what ever they were doing when I entered the room, or people who would use the in game commands to remove me from the area.

Shopping is a very big aspect of Second Life, there are thousands of locations to buy items, and trade them. There are virtual stores all over Second Life, and the web, with items that cross the spectrum, from an Instant Messanager for mobile devices which seems to be free for the version with ads. Another seems to be the ability to have a pre-asssembled department store, which sells for just shy of L$1000m, or an English Pub for a similar cost. These items seem like they would be used by your digital business owners, and those looking to make money on the game. While there are a hundred thousand other items available in the game, it seems like some items are free, and others are not. Considering that today is mothers day, I have also been offered to buy Flowers for L$1 to give to that special someone on mothers day.


This is a repost from my earlier week. Having spent more time inside of The Second Life, I have found that many people are selling things in a wide variety, like real estate in the game, virtual lands sell for thousands of dollars in the game, and people pay them. Second Life is not the only game that suffers from this kind of economy. A game, Project Entropia has the record of the most money gained off digital real estate. In this link from Popsci, you can see how someone made a profit of almost $600,000. For selling the property imaged below




Virtual goods get sold by in game shops, and the Second Life website, this has become such a vary large program with in Second Life, and the company is doing well because of it!

The People of Second Life

During the course of this week I spent a lot of time getting to know the people who spend their time in Second Life. There was a wide variety of players from around the globe engaged in various activities from chatting up new players to finding a new partner to get virtually intimate with. While this may not seem like an activity that would be considered taboo in the real world, with in the confines of the digital world that is Second Life, it is not only accepted, it is also very popular.

One individual I met by the name of Mrs. Kekkris defined her self as a Digital Sex instructor. She takes new players, and teaches them how to engage in coitus in a digital sense, and use the commands and functions that exist with in the game. While I had to decline her many attempts to get in to my digital pants for a “nominal fee” she will explain the wide variety of potential in this rather exotic form of intimacy. She has setup a “School of Sex” where the various aspects of the digital exhibitions are available to try out. Inside of Second Life, you can not just decide to change positions in the middle of the act, you actually have to move to a new piece of furniture, or ‘spot’ in the world, click on it, and begin those actions. Next I met someone a bit more down to earth. I met a Vulcan named Commander Sporis, he spends his time creating Star Trek themed worlds, and if you’ve looked in my previous blogs helped create the meausum I toured earlier on. While he declined to tell me much about himself as a real person, he did give me a length back story about his time at the Vulcan Science academy, before deciding that it was a good time to spread the world of Trek in to a Holodeck (Which is what he claims is what we see around him) but after a freak accident, he got stuck in the Holodeck, and I, along with everything else around him is a hologram. He said he is constructing this measume to compile parts he needs to fix the “Photon Relay Nodes” which will enable him to end the program that we are all apparently apart of and return to his duties.

TesseractToo was the next lady I met, she was a 43 year old disabled artist, with a degree in Digital arts, and 3D animation. She suffers from "intractable multiple trauma complex chronic pain syndrome", having suffered for so many years that things in life such as dancing, or going out has become a complex circumstance for her. She has suffered for the better part of 25 years, and has missed a lot of things in life that require movement. She spends her day drawing, and makes a living off this. Most of her time in Second Life is spent socializing with people in the newbie area, and dancing because she can't dance in real life. She actually got her start in Second Life by a college project, so she was okay with answering these questions.

Somegeek is the name of the next guy I met, but he seemed to be unwilling to share information until we got chatting about why he was in the game. This was a rather interesting interaction, as he was trying to learn about Second Life from a Developer stand point, so he was in essence, experiencing the game with the same type of hat I was. He is a 25 year old guy who is spending time trying to experience the digital sex Second Life has to offer.
Dena, who appears to be stuck in a roleplaying world, is a vampire who submits to her master, and creates babies. She claims to be a "Hot Shot Driver in Real Life" and plays 25-30 hours a week of Second Life, so I feel like she may be slightly lost inside of a world of imagination, which is one aspect of Second Life that a lot of people really get in to. 

Week 2 Second Life Shopping Spree

As I adventure in to The Second Life for another week, I find that the tempo has changed a bit, mostly because I have become more comfortable with the controls and the game world. I have found the client I would prefer to use which is called Firestorm. The client is more geared towards the higher end gaming machine, and  allows for a lot of controls, as well as a higher resolution so its easier to see everything that is going on.As I moved around the world of Second Life this week, I interacted with people from various facets of life, from people who claim to be CEO's of Fortune 500 Companies (Would not divulge which) to people who recently became divorced after 26 years of marriage. It seems that people are able to smell the 'newbie'ness of my curioisuty about the world, and I have been shuned by some communities for not knowing better in some situations, while others are welcome and warm to helping someone new to the game. The game seems to be a very cross-section of personalities, attitudes and orginizations. A lot of what I've seen walking around the game involved people looking for some sort of acceptance in side of a game, or people having a good time dancing. I tried to find the secret 'sex' life that people say were being lead, but I was unable to find anything going on, other than people jumping up from what ever they were doing when I entered the room, or people who would use the in game commands to remove me from the area.

Shopping is a very big aspect of Second Life, there are thousands of locations to buy items, and trade them. There are virtual stores all over Second Life, and the web, with items that cross the spectrum, from an Instant Messanager for mobile devices which seems to be free for the version with ads. Another seems to be the ability to have a pre-asssembled department store, which sells for just shy of L$1000m, or an English Pub for a similar cost. These items seem like they would be used by your digital business owners, and those looking to make money on the game. While there are a hundred thousand other items available in the game, it seems like some items are free, and others are not. Considering that today is mothers day, I have also been offered to buy Flowers for L$1 to give to that special someone on mothers day. 

Emerging Technologies - Tim Slager

Emerging Technologies Blog by Tim Slager

Second Life Experiement Week 1

The first time I logged in to Second Life, it was rather, over whelming, the world took a long time to load, and it was weird moving around at first, understanding that this is not a typical MMO, I started to play with the rather large, and a bit over whelming User Interface.I found out after getting in to the world, that the Second Life interface found on their homepage is not the only version of the client available, it seems there are tons of clients, depending on your machine, and how you plan to play.  I found myself looking at some rather unique pieces of property overlooking an an ocean, still unsure of the interface, I started playing around with some various buttons, and came across one that said Destinations. I Selected one that said New Comers, figuring that would be my best shot to figure out whats going on. I picked one that had the most populated count of people. I found myself in a place called London City Regents Park and Soho, London City. Which to me means that its an area where folks from the U.K would go to gather and chat. As I sat and watched people interact, I realized that its a lot like an old chat room, where people would talk about varying topics, and different degree's of conversation. Some people are complaining about whats going on in their real life, someone left someone's door open in their real life home. Someone was virtually sitting on another player in the game.  Some people are complaining about whats going on in their real life, someone left someone's door open in their real life home. Someone was virtually sitting on another player in the game. While this was only one situation of chatting, during my tenure this week in Second Life, I came to realize that there are a hundred thousand personalities floating around the world, and typical day to day life in the "public" eye of the world, is to gather, and chat about what ever, from news topics to discussions on movies, or sports events. There was seemingly no specific pattern to the events that transpired in the world. While the public eye is always about chatting, there seems to be a darker side to the world, which involves virtual gestures, which reflects actions such as sports, and even sex. To quote one user "[2012/04/30 22:02] Name Censored: and the sex industry is alive and well in SL.... its about 50% of what SL does...  and you really need to be careful.. since most furniture is scripted for sex.. and I mean furniture by things like... sofa's...  tables....  rugs... beds... kitchen cabinets... bathrooms...  everything" 

"[2012/04/30 22:04]  Name Censored: its funny..  sometimes you'll see a new person....  walking around after just coming from a sex sim... or.. just after having avAtar sex.... (and they teleported before stopping the animation) so.. they're walking around  giving an invisible person a blow job.. or... doing doggie style.. or...  grinding...  the funny thing is... if you teleport without stopping an animation (dancing, sitting, sex, anything) you'll avitar will get locked into that animmation"

There is so much more to the world of Second Life, that includes things like a Star Trek Museum, war games, castles built on large hills, and a thousand other things to be had. There is also a really large economy in the world, people buy, trade, and sell products such as clothing for your avatar, to whole home furnishings to help make a more ambient feeling in your personal house. You can even make real world money in the game by gambling and buying and selling property.