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.