Sunday 18^th March 2007

Life after Second Life?

I have finally created an account on Second Life, downloaded the software client and ventured on my first exploration of this oft' spoken of world in the virtual. On the face of it, the graphical rendering is similar to what has been available for a number of years, but the associated tools, controls and features are certainly very well advanced now. And as the news reports continually remind us, there's money to made in them darned (virtual) hills.

My hardware is a little lame, so the experience was a little clunky. For what is functionally an IRC chat, the graphics can be considered somewhat of an overhead in that sense. But it isn't just an IRC chat no more, which is - I suppose - the second reason one would visit Half Life ... er ... I mean half the reason one would visit Second Life.

I was approached by one of the 17,000+ avatars online at the time, within five minutes of landing in the world of Second Life. This particular avatar had a female name, and was chanting (in text chat mode) "I want to kill," and variously, "I want an oozie." This was then followed up with a request for her to be my friend; i.e. for us each to add the other to the friend list. This then allows for Instant Messaging (IM) chats. So now my avatar has a friend.

We chatted lightly before I attempted to fly about the terrain and asked 'her' to join me. Inevitably I became disoriented, landed somewhere that was no clearer to me geographically than where I had started, and then discovered an option to return home - where ever that is.

Now, we need to note at this point that when one arrives in Second Life, one is naked and sans genitalia. so upon spotting another avatar with some funky pants on I naturally decided that I needed a pair as well. After some stuffing around with the client software, I found the options to do just that and achieved partial success: where I had asked for a pair of tight blue trousers with a low hip line to adorn my chic, city male, avator body, I ended up with a white shirt covering my fine pec's. Oh well, I suppose I need to RTFM.

Meanwhile, my partner was watching on with mild interest as I attempted to command the physics in the virtual world of Second Life at the same time as juggling a couple of text chats. As First Life demands a fairly hectic pace, I am unsure how much I could seriously consider devoting to advancing my avatar's fortunes and conquests in Second Life. We shall see.

My partner also reminded me that Second Life was to be covered by the Four Corners program tomorrow evening. Pondering this, I figured that perhaps, Second Life may well prove to be more interesting as a spectator sport instead.