Second Life

I've never heard of Second Life until this class, but I am familiar with interactive worlds on such video games as World of Warcraft and Lord of the Rings. The main thing that strikes me about Second Life is the fact that you can do anything you want. You can walk, talk, and act with few strings attached.

When I chose my avatar, I picked the "nightclub male," not because I love going clubbing, which I don't, but because I chose to make my Second Life avatar to be an alter ego, someone who I could go around and party with. I wanted to look like I'm always having a great time, to catch peoples' eye. But you can't just keep the basic look of your avatar, you have to customize him/her to look different than everyone else's avatar.

My First time interacting on SL, I introduced myself to two very interesting avatars. Lacie Seale and Chantale Boucher helped me get started. They gave me some cool clothes to choose from, gestures, and skins. It was interesting how easily I could socialize with random people, but I don't know for sure who they are. I guess they are just Lacie and Chantale.

The main thing that I wanted to accomplish when customizing my avatar, was essentially to look hot (to other girl), trendy clothing, and flashy body language. My avatar walks different than he did when I first signed in, now he looks more "alive," with a little sway and an "uh huh girlfriend" pose when he rests (hand on his hip and weight shifted to that side).

Some things that I do not like in Second Life is the amount of sexual reference throughout the domains. The most crowded places that I have visited in the game turn out to be pornographic places. And since those ARE the most crowded rooms, what is the point of Second Life? To find people to hook up with? It seems like this game is the same thing as Match.com or Adultfriendfinder.com.

When I log in to SL, I fly around and try to find things to do. Since I can't trust anyone on there to look and act like they really do in real life, it makes me want to treat it like any other video game (fly around and knock things over basically). Although it is early in my SL life, I don't know all of this for sure, but my impression so far is negative. It doesn't seem real enough for me.