Spilling the Tea...Something about Second Life

Hello fellow RHMS bloggers. And hello to any random people who have stumbled across this page. If you are not an RHMS 270 student, how did you get here and why are you still reading this?

Ok, moving on.

Today I wanted to give a brief rundown of my experience with Second Life. The first time I had ever entered the virtual reality known as Second Life was on Monday this week when all of us tried it out during class. Before class started, I was excited to customize my avatar and meet up with my friends online. I was quite taken aback when I realized the limitation in creating the digital version of yourself and how hard it was to actually communicate with people. There was a select list of avatars to choose from, and you couldn’t make any changes to these characters. I ended up picking some woman that had a fairy sitting on her shoulder. I felt like this was the most fitting because I dressed up as a fairy for Halloween this weekend. It was close enough.

Once my fellow fairy and I were walking around the digital space, I found it difficult to find people that were in the class, rather than a bunch of strangers. The chat box was at the bottom of the screen, and every couple of minutes I would receive a message from someone random saying hello. I personally had no interest in talking to them, and I continued walking around until I found someone that I knew. But here’s the thing, even when I saw a friend, the chat box was kinda small, and I didn’t feel engaged when I was talking to them. I think it would have been cool if there were text bubbles above someone’s head where only you and the person you’re talking to can see.

I guess the tea that I’m spilling today is that I don’t like Second Life. Plain and simple.

I found the overall interface and logistics of the website pretty confusing and the graphics were outdated. With video games like GTA and World of Warcraft, we know how realistic graphics can make the digital experience more immersive. There wasn’t an attractive feature of the site that would make me want to return to my avatar.

How was your experience with Second Life and do you think you’ll return to it? Let me know!