Second Life, or the Sims gone boring

For my SB2K10, I journeyed to the cyber land of Second Life. Just kidding, this is not all that I did for spring break. However, Second life did supply me with entertainment for the last week. For those that are have not been on Second Life Experience before- it is a program very similar to the Sims. Basically you create a virtual person and then have the ability to create a life for him/her on Second Life Island.

My virtual life began with the naming of my avatar. Then, the program pairs unique last names with the avatar’s first name. My character was thus named Sheila Crazyboi. Sheila has gone through some pretty interesting experiences. She has been teleporting, getting stuck between virtual rocks, shopping, and chatting with fellow Second Lifers all week.

The orientation of the program was definitely more confusing than necessary. In order to learn the first six steps of how to use Second Life, you have to maneuver your character through a maze, and at six points along the way there are short videos or billboards giving instructions on how to make Sheila fly, flirt, buy clothing, and spend her L$ (all the necessities, obviously). The most comedic orientation step was the final step, when a man with an intense Jamaican accent and extremely excited voice came on to talk to Sheila about where to get the best outfits in Second Life, including a small dog as an accessory.

Second life has the potential to be an interactive online community, similar to WOW or other gaming sites. However, certain aspects of it are hard to understand for a newcomer. For me, it was hard to become engaged in the program because it was not very intuitive. For instance, teleporting or flying to various places on a large map was confusing and pretty unexciting. I also think that since there is not one main goal or incentive, people just walk around aimlessly, and creepily “friending” other random alter egos.

Speaking of friends, another issue that I had with becoming part of the program was that people wanted to talk to you- not just instant message chat, but actually hear your voice. Second Life does not ready you for this experience, and the program did not even make me aware that someone was talking to me- only a tiny green circle popped on at the bottom of my screen. Hearing a complete stranger ask me if my voice was a male or female, because she “couldn’t tell”, was definitely not a comforting aspect of Second Life.

Thus far, my most memorable experience on Second Life is a tie between hanging out in a large store with blaring music and pretty risqué clothing choices that appeared on Sheila after clicking on a large box entitled “women’s party outfit” and chatting it up in Spanish with another Second Life citizen who walked over and asked me, “¿Estas soltera? ¿tienes novia? ¿esposa?” Besides for these adventures, the journey through Second Life has been pretty dull.

Another detrimental factor of this virtual world is that, to me, the only worthwhile thing to do would be to build a house, and to make a life for your avatar on the program. If you don’t create a house, there is really not much else that engages the user to stay on Second Life.

Unfortunately, building a house, and the majority of activities on the site require L$ (the Second Life currency, obviously). This would not be a problem if L$ was distributed like Monopoly money- everyone gets a set amount at the beginning of the game. This, however, is not the case. In order to get L$, you must pay the equivalent currency rate in US dollars, the lowest amount I found costs around $2.50. I was not willing to pay money, so my activity options were very limited on the site.

After a week of Second Lifing with Sheila, I think that the site definitely has potential, however the cost of playing and the lack of goal oriented tasks makes it less exciting for me. Although maybe the graphics are more updated than The Sims, I think that the Sims software definitely has a better way of engaging its users in a similar setting.