It's Chilli in Second Life!
Just had to tell you about my brave friend who has ventured into Second Life. I was kind of hoping she would so that I could have a peep over her shoulder.
Hmm.
Scary place.
So you start off, it appears, with a pair of blue jeans and a white t-shirt. Freakily, her avatar actually looked like her!
And then you go off and see things. You can walk, or fly. Flying cool, except that it takes a bit of practice to land. Chilli went splat a few times! Hee hee. Sorry Chilli! It was funny though!
And you can make loads of money pole dancing apparently, without your jeans and t-shirt, only we didn't try to figure that one out. There are boundaries you know, even in a virtual, etherly kind of existence. Anyway, we did visit a skate park, and a pet shop that sold cats (lots of cats for some reason - maybe they're easy to make?) and what looked like dinosaurs. We also found a riding school, only the instruction to 'sit' only made her avatar sit in the middle of the horse, so that it was a blonde head with two arms, and 4 horse legs and a horse head - which was funny - briefly. Ever so briefly. And again - not a bloody soul around to help. Obviously virtual horse-riding is not as easy as you'd think it should be. It was also very expensive at up to 1,000 Linden Dollars a time. I have no idea what the exchange rate is though!
Chilli did get to meet some nice people in the morning apparently, but they'd all buggered off by the time I arrived (in an over her shoulder sense obviously). Typical. It all looked a tad deserted by then, and the few 'people' we did see, didn't want to chat. So just like a real town then, eh.
I dunno. I'm still freaked by the whole idea. The place. And the fact that when you see folks trotting about, they're real folks, who can see you in real time. Argh! Freaked out - you will be!
Second Life has had its first proper millionaire though - as in someone made enough Linden Dollars to sell for $1,000,000 US... like... real ones! And another couple met in some virtual park, and then got married in... like... the real world!
Is it me, or is this just way too complicated?!!!
More... an update...
I said in my comments that I thought there were some serious applications for Second Life and a quick Google-fest brought up the following (for the interested out there):
Harvard Law School are offering Law Courses in the real world AND the virtual world.
Courses are available for educators in Second Life. How to land neatly, and beyond, presumably!
Making a Living in Second Life might be the answer to all our problems!
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10 comments:
Oooo you blogged all about me :-) I'm famous now!!!
Second Life is very scary indeed, but then with my recreation limited due to my broken wrist I suppose it's (h)armless enough......yea right!!!!
Mind you don't break your virtual wrist. Or worse. Attach a box to it - hee hee!
Lots of tutorials on YouTube though. By the end of the week I expect you'll have mastered the sandbox, designed and built a new kind of skate board, and will have learned how to land gracefully.
Let me know when your Linden bank balance starts shifting properly and I may have to come and explore myself. I could set up virtual English classes!
And er... NO POLE DANCING WITHOUT YOUR CLOTHES ON! :)
I do have $184 Linden but i think that's something like $2 in real money or maybe even less :-/
Who knows, I might make $10 in a week, not bad for playing a game!
OH MY GOD: I don't know what you're talking about. I'm in a popular culture void here in Bangkok. Is this a game? Heellpppp.
Chilli - a game? don't let the residents hear you saying that!!
JJ - It's a virtual reality 'place' called Second Life. I blogged about it ages ago with links (you can find it under Second Life in the list of tags). I think it can be fun like a game, but I also think it is some rather serious applications. Big business has latched onto it and some have 'shops' there that you can browse and then buy stuff from the real world. I also linked to a very good article about it that explains all. But it still scares the crap outta me!
I tried Second Life once - flew around a bit, walked around a bit, walked into someone's house (totally deserted) and sat down on their sofa and looked at their paintings for a bit, hoping someone would come in and talk to me but...no one did. It was all a bit too solitary for my liking and I uninstalled it shortly afterwards!
You see in any other environment, your comment would get you locked up - for a long time with special medication!
I just had a chat with Chilli on msn. She has a bike, apparently. It was free and she can ride it. It took me a few seconds to realise that it wasn't the bike in her shed, in her house. I also realised that if I did join up I'd be like some hillbilly relative who bangs into things and goes SPLAT a lot!
Also, from watching YouTube, there are people who like to befurry. Hmm. And they have special islands to meet on.
*Grinning now, but in a sort of derranged manner*
Oh My! It's all too much!
p.s. You are soooo brave!
Ooh, I envy you. you brave people! I've often wonderd about dipping ym toe in the waters of secod life, but i'm scared I might not come back out again!
I'm liking the image of Cally cyber-squatting, though!
Kate, I wonder how many others are out there, like us, hanging around on the periphery!
As for Cyber-squatting - what an amazing idea! Too funny. At least Cally was brave enough to 'enter' though. I'm still only up to 'looking over the shoulder of Chilli' stage! And I mean her real shoulder in her real house!
Do you think I could hide from my PhD supervisor in second life/linden land?! Especially as she told me today she wants to see the whole first draft by October.
Egads!
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