Week 7

As part of this week’s lesson I built a park bench, was entertained by a hoochie-coochie dancer and was blown up by a sandbox bully - all without leaving the comfort of my favorite chair. Initially, I had some reservations about taking part in Second Life. At best, I knew it as the butt of jokes. At worst, I associated it with the seamier side of the internet. After being assured by the only person I know who would admit to using Linden Labs’ virtual world that it was “creepy but harmless,” I decided to give it a try. A quick search of the internet showed that Linden is making an effort to mainstream Second Life and a number of institutions are using Second Life for teaching and research. I was actually very enthusiastic about the possibility of trying three locations - a mining museum; a tensile tester simulation and computer hardware activity; and a recreation of crucial moments in the civil rights movement. I had heard that some of my old student hangouts in the real world were still popular with international students trying to practice English. I was looking forward to revisiting them in the virtual world.

But my enthusiasm was soon beaten down. I found Second Life to be the most frustrating application I’ve ever tried to use. I had no trouble downloading the viewer to my PC but had persistent error messages when I try to open the viewer. I borrowed a Macbook Pro and successfully downloaded the viewer and opened Second Life. The tutorial in the welcome area was sufficient to get me started walking, running, flying and chatting. But I found the play lumbering. Even on the Mac, the graphics are slow to redraw and the play is slow to the helm. The keyboard locks up frequently. Not only does the game crash frequently but it takes time to completely shut down leaving the computer unusable for up to ten minutes. I found the search feature almost useless. “Teleport” is unreliable, reporting that my desired location was unavailable about one time in four. A simple change of outfits from the existing inventory was easily accomplished. A half hours’ work enabled me to make some changes in my avatar but I estimate it would take many hours to craft an avatar I would be happy to represent me.

Beyond the technical issues, I was disappointed with the interaction. I spent most of the time wondering empty streets. I found that if a scene has too many residents, the computer usually slowed to unplayable speed. It was rare to find a location with just the two to five residents that made interaction possible. From wiki.secondlife and videos on YouTube I got useful advice on navigating and on creating objects. I found my way back to the Genome Island. I attended a music event with disappointing sound quality. I managed to locate and enter two of the locations  that had originally interested me - a museum and an outdoor mall with café, shops and an art gallery.  In only one did I interact with another resident. I did come away with several nice t-shirts, a miner’s helmet and a cup of coffee. I found a public sandbox and was making good progress on building a bench. Next thing I know my bench was blown up and I was being tossed about. And then there is the matter of the dancer...

An article retrieved from this January’s scincemag.org described NSF grant evaluation panels meeting in Second Life. The article states “Not everyone liked it ‘But the work got done.’” What made this experience successful? This short piece did not provide answers but it does suggest some direction for questions I might like to pursue. I would think that this panel had access to the most advanced graphics processing and internet connections.  Would this improved technology make SL less aggravating by improving the speed of play and reducing the number of crashes? Would the fact that the panel would likely proceed directly to the meeting location alleviate the frustration associated with searching for and transporting to locations? By directly entering the controlled meeting island, the panel would avoid griefers and touts for mature islands. The participants were able purchase “a decent set of virtual clothes.” It would seem that this would be less taxing than trying to learn to customize an avatar while learning all the other aspects of the simulation. I think this would make the process of identifying with one’s avatar and benefitting from the advantages of presence  move along quicker.

It appears to me that Second life elicits mixed reviews. I believe that in order to capitalize on its strengths, professional users must address its shortcomings, both real and perceived.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOFU9oUF2HA&feature=related
Educational Uses of Second Life

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6jrxxpmzEY
RIT island video

http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/01/19/students-recreate-the-civil-rights-movement-in-second-life/
civil rights recreation review