One of the more personal reasons I chose to research this topic is the fact that I had a friend that I have known pretty much throughout my school career back in Monona, that more recently has been playing World of Warcraft, or WoW. This past spring he announced in my math class, that he would be going to Canada for a month or so out of his summer, to meet up with a girl he met on WoW. Everyone automatically thought he would get killed, for that "girl" he met would probably be a late 30's man with a thing for 18 year old kids. We constantly gave him shit for it, but he insisted that she was hot, and that he was definitely going to go through with the trip. Well, five months later, I kind of forgot about the ordeal, when I thought about the online lives of people and remembered his case. I promptly looked on FaceBook, and sure enough, there was an album called Canada 2009. I looked on it, and there she was, a quite attractive 18 year old, who lived in Canada, and it looked like they had a good time, camping, and going water tubing. I then thought that it might be smart to talk to him about his personal experiences with online games, and such but he never did try Second Life. He was more about the WoW. But he filled me in on programs that let you voice chat while playing the games like Ventrilo, Surround Sound Voice Communication Software, that gives you seamless audio feeds with the people you play with by all hooking you up to the same server and room. The reason they do this is because the in-game voice communication WoW supplies is low quality, and you really need to work as a team when playing WoW, so you can't have any drawbacks in your communication.
Introduction
So I have recently joined the world of Second Life, and am amazed at the complexity of it. My name in Second Life is Arthur Ferengeto. The very first thing they had me do was sign up. I had to enter my real name, country, and email address, and then I was asked to enter my Second Life name. I was not allowed to choose my last name, I am guessing because there are thousands and thousands of people who use this, so names get used up quick. I tried the names Kevin, James, and Jesse, and I wasn't even allowed to use those names because all of the last names were used up. That gave me a real view on how popular this program really was. After I confirmed my email address, I had to download the program to run Second Life. It's about a 230mb file which doesn't seem too big for the complexity of it, but since the internet is required, and preferably a high speed connection, I understand that a lot is coming from the servers. Right away when I entered, it showed me a few things that you can do, and how to do them, for example, you are able to Fly. I had a lot of fun with this feature, and flew all around the "Help" world. I went there so I could get a sense of how to do things. After that, I learned how to communicate, and use gestures to get peoples attention. I quickly realized though, that there are a lot more people than just english speaking people who use it, when I tried to talk to someone, and they replied with "Salut". At this point, I was close to ending my session of Second Life, but I felt it necessary to leave the tutorial world, and enter a "real" world. Upon my arrival, I was a little surprised by the amount of things going on in one world. Since the worlds are user created, generated, and maintained, they are free to do almost what ever they please, but in this world, there just seemed like there was a lot going on, and almost overwhelming to some. After walking and flying around for about ten minutes, I exited the Second Life and went to the internet for some answers.
One of the more personal reasons I chose to research this topic is the fact that I had a friend that I have known pretty much throughout my school career back in Monona, that more recently has been playing World of Warcraft, or WoW. This past spring he announced in my math class, that he would be going to Canada for a month or so out of his summer, to meet up with a girl he met on WoW. Everyone automatically thought he would get killed, for that "girl" he met would probably be a late 30's man with a thing for 18 year old kids. We constantly gave him shit for it, but he insisted that she was hot, and that he was definitely going to go through with the trip. Well, five months later, I kind of forgot about the ordeal, when I thought about the online lives of people and remembered his case. I promptly looked on FaceBook, and sure enough, there was an album called Canada 2009. I looked on it, and there she was, a quite attractive 18 year old, who lived in Canada, and it looked like they had a good time, camping, and going water tubing. I then thought that it might be smart to talk to him about his personal experiences with online games, and such but he never did try Second Life. He was more about the WoW. But he filled me in on programs that let you voice chat while playing the games like Ventrilo, Surround Sound Voice Communication Software, that gives you seamless audio feeds with the people you play with by all hooking you up to the same server and room. The reason they do this is because the in-game voice communication WoW supplies is low quality, and you really need to work as a team when playing WoW, so you can't have any drawbacks in your communication.
One of the more personal reasons I chose to research this topic is the fact that I had a friend that I have known pretty much throughout my school career back in Monona, that more recently has been playing World of Warcraft, or WoW. This past spring he announced in my math class, that he would be going to Canada for a month or so out of his summer, to meet up with a girl he met on WoW. Everyone automatically thought he would get killed, for that "girl" he met would probably be a late 30's man with a thing for 18 year old kids. We constantly gave him shit for it, but he insisted that she was hot, and that he was definitely going to go through with the trip. Well, five months later, I kind of forgot about the ordeal, when I thought about the online lives of people and remembered his case. I promptly looked on FaceBook, and sure enough, there was an album called Canada 2009. I looked on it, and there she was, a quite attractive 18 year old, who lived in Canada, and it looked like they had a good time, camping, and going water tubing. I then thought that it might be smart to talk to him about his personal experiences with online games, and such but he never did try Second Life. He was more about the WoW. But he filled me in on programs that let you voice chat while playing the games like Ventrilo, Surround Sound Voice Communication Software, that gives you seamless audio feeds with the people you play with by all hooking you up to the same server and room. The reason they do this is because the in-game voice communication WoW supplies is low quality, and you really need to work as a team when playing WoW, so you can't have any drawbacks in your communication.
Driving Questions:
When researching such a large topic such as Second Life, in past few years it has grown to something Linden Labs never thought possible. So it is quite easy to wander into the abyss of Second Life so a few questions are necessary in order to find out the true appeal of SL.
Why has UW Milwaukee invested it's time and money into something like Second Life?
Why do people invest so much time, and sometimes money, into Second Life?
What does Second Life offer to people?
Why has UW Milwaukee invested it's time and money into something like Second Life?
Why do people invest so much time, and sometimes money, into Second Life?
What does Second Life offer to people?
Why has UW Milwaukee invested it's time and money into something like Second Life?
As I have learned that UW Milwaukee has seen such an importance in the 3D world, Second Life, I had to check it out for myself. I was amazed with the fact that a University would spend the time and money, and invest it in such a thing as Second Life. After I visited the island, I quickly did a search for it on Google, and came up with a Wikispaces page devoted to Second Life at UW Milwaukee. Not only did I find the Wikispaces page, but I also found a YouTube video that someone at UW Milwaukee made to support the usage of Second Life.
The supporters of second life in higher education argue that the 3D environment that Second Life produces and supplies can be a more stimulating situation for students to be in causing great potential to learn. While that may be true for a small percentage of students, it is not true for a vast majority of students at UW Milwaukee. But obviously I am missing something in this equation because multiple higher education establishments are using Second Life as another medium of teaching.
I found this picture on a Flickr album containing pictures from UWM's Second Life island in-case you are wondering what it is like, but don't feel like joining. This gives you a sense of what most of the Second Life world is like, the open-ness of the worlds, and places and the "relax" environment you live in.
The supporters of second life in higher education argue that the 3D environment that Second Life produces and supplies can be a more stimulating situation for students to be in causing great potential to learn. While that may be true for a small percentage of students, it is not true for a vast majority of students at UW Milwaukee. But obviously I am missing something in this equation because multiple higher education establishments are using Second Life as another medium of teaching.
I found this picture on a Flickr album containing pictures from UWM's Second Life island in-case you are wondering what it is like, but don't feel like joining. This gives you a sense of what most of the Second Life world is like, the open-ness of the worlds, and places and the "relax" environment you live in.
Why do people invest so much time, and sometimes money, into Second Life?
From what I have learned, people, in real life, are in some cases quitting their real life jobs and "working" based on what they can do in Second Life (SL). Some people but islands for $1,000+ and then pay around $200 a month for "maintenance" fees to Linden Labs, the people who developed and run SL, and then rent off plot of the island for people to use, anywhere from $10-$80 a plot. Others develop different objects in the game for users to buy, like clothes (skins), furniture, entertainment items, etc. In the more recent years, SL has been growing so rapidly that the users have had more of a demand for certain items that the people who are developing them are able to quit their jobs, and in some cases, make more money by producing services virtually than when they were working in real life.
What does Second Life offer to people?
After watching this video;
I have realized that SL really does offer a few things that the real world cannot offer. For one, there is a feeling of living forever. Many people do not realize this, but it is true, because there is no idea of disease, illness, or age at all in SL, you are who you want to be and not what was chosen for you. Which brings me to my second realization. For the millions of people with disabilities, SL offers them a shot at doing what they want to do, and being who the want to be. As the video shows, people who are less capable than the norm, are able to go out an socialize, meet people, fly, and do what they want.
Also, companies are branching out to certain publicity firms that are taking companies "virtual" as they bring popular brands into SL. As stated in the video, footwear is one of the most popular accessory bought in SL is footwear. Reebok saw this as a potential market, and is expanding upon it, bringing their footwear and apparel to SL stores.
I have realized that SL really does offer a few things that the real world cannot offer. For one, there is a feeling of living forever. Many people do not realize this, but it is true, because there is no idea of disease, illness, or age at all in SL, you are who you want to be and not what was chosen for you. Which brings me to my second realization. For the millions of people with disabilities, SL offers them a shot at doing what they want to do, and being who the want to be. As the video shows, people who are less capable than the norm, are able to go out an socialize, meet people, fly, and do what they want.
Also, companies are branching out to certain publicity firms that are taking companies "virtual" as they bring popular brands into SL. As stated in the video, footwear is one of the most popular accessory bought in SL is footwear. Reebok saw this as a potential market, and is expanding upon it, bringing their footwear and apparel to SL stores.
Slightly Dissapointed
As I try to experience Second Life once again, to further my understanding, the schools' wireless internet seems to lack the necessary speed to do so. So what I do gather from this, is that you need a solid connection to the internet to do anything on Second Life, and that Second Life is a major internet hog, which makes sense, much of the data you utilize is streaming from the web. I wish I could actually use it though.
Show me the money!
As stated earlier in my blog; there is a real business side to SL. Besides the obvious created by Linden Labs. In SL their currency is called "Linden Dollars". There are approximately 250 Linden Dollars (L$) to every US Dollar. Rates fulctuate based on supply and demand according to SL.com. In the game most items range in price, from a few L$ to thirty or so L$. So when you think about it, it's only a fraction of a cent to a few pennies. It does add up though, if you have thousands of purchases daily you begin to see where the income comes from. Because of this, people bases thier soul income off of this, designing digital outfits, furniture, and other items that are popular in reality.
Wrapping Things Up...
I believe that SL is going to be a major up-and-coming development even more so than today. More and more businesses are going to venture out into the virtual world, and take hold of a market that has no boundaries or struggles that the real world market presents. I also believe that people will realize the benefits of maintaining a SL avatar can offer. Me on the other hand, I don't believe I will continue my life as Arthur Fernando, mainly because I can't devote the time to it. But who knows, maybe in five years it will reappear in my life, and I drop my job to design SL clothing. As long as SL does not require users to pay a subscription fee, I see this virtual population growing beyond belief.
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