The first time I heard about Second Life was on the TV show called The Office. Whenever I hear about Second Life, I think of the episode where the character Dwight talks about the Second Life avatar he created! I, myself, have never gotten to experience the world of Second Life, but I can only imagine that the experience of it would be quite similar to playing an interactive online video game. I used to have XBOX Live set-up at my house years ago, and I can remember having this cool headset on, and I was able to talk to other people who lived across the United States, and I think even in other parts of the world! But it was so long ago that it is hard for me to recall the exact details unfortunately...
Anyways, the video we watched in class last Wednesday about Second Life was extremely fascinating to me. I can understand and see the creative aspect behind the concept of Second Life, especially after hearing the creator Philip Rosedale speak about his inspirations for it. I can see where he is coming from as a designer. From an artistic perspective, I think that Second Life can promote an immense amount of creativity and enable people to dream of and create new and exciting things (even if they aren't technically real). There are no limits... because cyberspace virtually has no limits! I think that on paper Second Life is an ingenious concept. Along with being able to connect with others around the world, it also presents entrepreneurial opportunities for people who are interested in making some money.
Even though Second Life appears to have some really great capabilities, I think that there can be negative aspects as well. Similar to the problems I have with the concept of Facebook, I am not sure about how the issues of privacy and cyber-bullying are dealt with on that site. Also, I do think that if people become too heavily reliant on sitting at the computer logged into their Second Life in order to communicate with others, they really might be losing out on real-life human interaction that I think is really important to have. When you are on Second Life, you are living through a character in a virtual fantasy world that doesn't really exist... it's not technically your life, but more of a "fake" life. I think that it does (like everything else in life) have the potential to become an unhealthy addiction. Some may spend hours and hours in their basement playing the game every day, which may seem a bit excessive and obsessive, but I do think it probably wouldn't be too bad of a thing to engage in a few hours a week to relieve stress, and just have some fun! But remember.. when your Second Life avatar has created its own Second Life... that may be when you know you should put the mouse down and step away from the computer, because two lives is already enough!
Second life is fairly complicated to use. Just by walking and flying around trying to find normal people on how to do basic things I have met a guy promoting satanism, a white supremacist and two naked women.
ReplyDeleteAll I was looking for was to say hi to a few people since virtual worlds is part of my group project.
-Mitchell Wilson (group 5)
Hey Mitchell~
ReplyDeleteWow! It sounds like you definitely had a really "interesting" experience there on Second Life with the "diverse" group of people you met! I do remember that when I played video games online with XBOX Live, there were actually quite a few people on there who would say some really inappropriate things. Also, they would ask really personal questions which was slightly unnerving to me. I definitely think that the anonymity of the Internet and virtual worlds really gets people to come out of their shell and say whatever they want. It also allows people to behave as though there are no rules... you can yell curse words at people and say really rude things. That is probably the most unsettling thing to me about Second Life is the lack of moral control some people seem to have when online.
By the way, how long have you had a Second Life account? Did you investigate it just for this class or was it something you wanted to explore before this class? Also, can everyone fly around or is it a special feature you have to obtain later? I have never gotten to see someone play Second Life in real life so I am actually really curious about the whole Second Life set-up and how it works.
Yeah people can get pretty outrageous online, it's easy to get bold with people hiding behind a computer screen. There is practically no control in Second Life from what little I've seen. I guess people could flag others in some sort of way but with so many people I bet it would take forever for someone to get in actual trouble on there. Plus, people who do get in trouble online can simply make a new account and start doing whatever they were doing before again.
ReplyDeleteI had never even heard of Second Life until this class. I also signed up for Kaneva, the 3D world he tried to sign up for in class. It's basically a less complicated, easier to use but not as detailed Second Life. Everybody can fly in second life, it's basically a way to move around faster. When flying I often get lost though.
I can show you second life in class on Wednesday. Have a nice weekend :)
Yeah, I can only imagine the weird people things say! With all of the anonymity built around Second Life, I bet that it is pretty easy for people to let loose and say whatever they want! I've heard that Second Life has a prison set-up, so maybe that is how they "punish" Second Life avatars for their wrongdoing?
ReplyDeleteYeah, I am still really curious about how Second Life works, so I'd be really interested in checking it out! Hope you had a good weekend, by the way! :) Oh and I was wondering: is Kaneva a lot different from Second Life?
Please share with the class.
ReplyDeleteI (heart) The Office. Dwight is too funny. It's almost like what's the point of creating a Second Life if it's identical to your "first" life? Second Life seems extreme. When you talk about cyberbullying, based on the video we watched in class and things I hear, it seems as though the avators will actually be able to create violence in the virtual world in addition to being a bully. ~ interesting.
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