Practicum Post #8

And after a long and adventurous journey, my blog finally comes to an end. For my last session, I decided to see how far I could fly off an island and see where I end up. I was out in the middle of nowhere, above an endless ocean, hitting an invisible barrier, it reminded me a lot of the end of the Truman show where he hits the set wall painted to look like the sky when he's trying to sail away.

I actually linked up with and found one of my friends, talked to them for a while about our last encounter at a club, and just told them about the project. They said it sounded cool and hoped I wouldn't quit now that it's done (ehh...), so we'll see. Good to know I have a couple people I can chat with on there.

Overall, it was quite a strenuous journey, but none the less an interesting experience. I wish I could have mastered some things better (the clothes changing system was by far the mot frustrating thing ever). Even at the end, when I felt I had a good grasp on all the commands, I still faced issues and glitches. Lots of glitches. I don't understand why they became such an issue. At first, there were few, but as I kept exploring and adding things, it would lag, and my character would disappear into walls and the ground, although some were kind of cool (the famous deserted island expedition).

I would have liked to get a house, but oh well, you can't always get what you want. That will be for my after blog adventures. All in all, if you're into the social scene online, maybe give it a shot. It wasn't for me, but that doesn't mean its not for you.

Good luck on finals everyone!

Practicum Post #7

This session proved to be far less interesting than my last encounters.

I decided to try and seek out something I hadn't done or seen before (like always, actually), but more of an activity I could share. Unfortunately, I came up short for the most part.

I did find a place where I could make my character swim, and they were "teaching" scuba diving classes on there. Mostly, they gave people suits they could put on their avatars and then an action command you could use to make it look like your avatar was swimming in a scuba suit. I tried to participate, but as per usual, I had trouble getting the suit on. I did use the action to go swimming deep down in this ocean like place, which turned out to be pretty cool with images of sharks, fish, and what looked like mermaid swimming around. Turned out to be interesting, I had issues getting the screen to stay still enough to get a good image of what I was looking at, the action forced him to keep moving and focused the camera on the avatar's face when I had him stop, and he automatically began to surface. This was a tad frustrating.

I talked to a few people from the class on the beach, and they told me about a skydiving simulator they did, so I may have to go and check that out in my spare time (didn't get a chance to go find it). I instead used most of my time trying to pick up on some more of the words they were using. Heard someone use DWIAG, which means "Don't Worry, Its All Good", got a kick out of that one. Another interesting lingo pickup I found a lot of people use was "HTLO", meaning "Have To Log Out". Took me a while to pick up on that one. Half expected people to use HAGS, straight out of high school.

For my next post, I'm going to recap my project and report on any last misadventures, just to give you guys a preview of my paper and my take on the whole experience.

Practicum Post #5

Without a doubt, had my most bizarre experience in Second Life tonight. I logged in only to read a message that the place I decided to make my home, or starting location, was gone! I was in Second Life limbo, my avatar was doing something halfway between free falling and swimming in a brown space. The screen shifted up, it said it was going to redirect me to a nearby location, and suddenly I landed onto an island.

And wait for a shocker...abandoned. No one. Not a soul. This whole luxury beach home on an island with trippy dance music all to myself. Apparently it was being rented by someone though, and they had 25 more day on their rental. Wherever they were though, they weren't home. So I scoped it out, not really caring if I got caught, cause no rules in second life say you can't break and enter (not like you can steal anything anyways).

Then, I found the shoe room...


Needless to say, this place frightened me. Either this person was absolutely obsessed with shoes, or the entire guest house was an advertisement for a shoe store. I couldn't figure it out one way or the other. Then I found another shoe room. Then a lingerie room. I was in some sort of virtual women's section of a department store!

Then someone showed up...I don't know if they owned the island or what, but they were asking if they could help me? Didn't know if she was a clerk for the island, or owned it and knew I was lost (her name didn't match the name on the tenant). So, I left in a hurry thinking I was intruding. Then she left with the comment "see you soon".

Bizarre, creepy, you name it. Had my fill for the night after a quick trip to help island to learn some more tricks.

Practicum Post #4 - Second Life

Not too many developments lately. I went to investigate a place that supposed to be like Middle Earth from "Lord of the Rings". Environment looked neat at first, but was obviously incomplete, and of course, empty. They made a castle like the one in the 3rd movie, which was really neat, but then it was just a lot of trees and plains.

I looked into upgrading my program to see if that would help some of the glitches and block offs I've been experiencing, and did manage to get a few things straight. I guess using a different application to run it makes it a little smoother and changes the look of the option bar, which has been nice. Other than that though, not much more can be upgraded without starting a monthly subscription, which seems a little ridiculous at this point. To much sadness, I have decided my Second Life experience will be ending with the class. I'll keep the account, but probably won't be on very much.

The best way to describe my experiences so is interesting yet frustrating. The glitches were troublesome in exploring, people have been approachable but difficult to make contact with, and some of the functions I'm still confused with. Bookmarking places has become easier, but searching hot spots is still a trying process. It really seems like part luck and part word of mouth.

I wandered into a place to help train you further, but not much came other than learning how to control your character easier. Didn't have time to stay for the whole tutorial, so might head back tomorrow. That's all for now!

Practicum Post #3 - Second Life

Again, falling behind on these updates...but will be coming in great flux with most of my big papers out of the way now!

Finally, some social interaction came my way! I rant into one of the people I was friends with at the place I met them (ironically) and had an hour long chat about movies with "The Empire Strikes Back" director Irvin Kershner passing recently. Interestingly enough, the person was also a comm. arts major at NC State. I asked them about the upcoming game against Wisconsin but they were not too into sports. Its interesting, because I've tried to seek out areas where people talk about sports or enjoy sports related things, and have come up short for the most part.

Speaking of, exploration has become easier yet still somewhat hard to understand. It's much easier to find the places I want to go, but still I stumble on a lot of empty areas. I don't know if its the version of the game I'm playing or what, but I feel as though my program isn't as up to snuff as some of the other users I've interacted with or overheard. I did manage to upgrade my account (to the extent that you can without paying) in getting my filtered content barrier removed. So, now all the dirty parts of Second Life are accessible...not that I'd want any part of it. I don't really understand how people would be "turned on" by that, so I have no intent of checking it out, and don't think it's appropriate for this blog. If you're interested, sign up and check it out yourself.

My next goal will be to change my character's appearance further. Far too long have I stuck with a generic look and the Ron Weasley style, I need a change up and need to explore the character customization feature even more: it's complicated, slightly frustrating, and yet very detailed, so I feel it deserves more research. The cool thing I discovered was a Star Wars related area with avatars dressed up like characters from the movie. It was quite dorky, but at the same time totally awesome. If I can get my avatar to look like Yoda, I promise to post a picture. Till next time then!

Pracitcum Post 2

So I just realized I haven't updated this in a long while, been an awful busy semester.

The biggest change is that I've finally been able to master changing clothes on my character. It's a very stupid process, but I suppose not everything can be perfect in the game. I spent close to a half hour trying to master it, being able to swap into a different outfit quickly rather than having to sit there for 10 minutes trying to just change the jacket on my avatar.

I've made a few friends talking to people, although they haven't really contacted me since we've become "friends". It appears that for a lot of users it's more about gaining popularity by becoming friends with as many people as possible, keeping a few who are on a lot of the time close to contact with. Unfortunately, for as much as I've been on, I don't think I quite qualify in this exclusive crowd.

My main mission has been to find an area I can make my "home base", or rather a starting point I can always come to when I log in and possibly meet with others. Thus far, no such place has been discovered. Even for using a virtual character, it's somewhat awkward to just walk in the middle of conversations where people use their strange slang. I've picked up on a few more words, like some people use OFS which means "oh fo sho". I had to look that one up on urban dictionary to figure it out.

It seems like a lot of groups of people kind of polarize to one place or another. They usually are open to others coming and visiting, but it does seem to be a little cliquey where 7 or 8 people will meet at a certain area and have discussions and then go and do things from there. Like a creeper, I followed one group to a rave after ust making small talk, mostly cause I was just curious to see what it was like. They had a great grasp on the game, and we're able to add accessories I haven't even been able to find. I think they may have an advanced version and have paid for them.

That's it for now, my quest will continue though for a place to call my own.