Welcome to Virtual Worlds Semester 2

Welcome to the Virtual Worlds Blog 2017 for Semester 2. 

This blog is where you will post your weekly review of an academic article on your area of interest about Second Life, High Fidelity or other online virtual world. Your review should involve a brief description of the aims of the study, its methodology and main findings. Your post title should be: Article Review + NAME + WEEK. 

You will also post a weekly photo blog of your experiences journeying and visiting sims of interest in Second Life. This should include snapshots and descriptions of the sims that you visit. Your post title should be: Video Blog + NAME + WEEK.

The article review and photo blog are components of assessment 1.

Second Life Questions

1. Who is the author of Miguel Street?

2. What is a Narrator?

3. Read the description of the book. Where is the story set?

4. What countries is port of Spain close to?

5. What is the meaning of a calypso?

Nia Week 5 - SL

1. I teleported to a world called Baja shore. This world I felt was reminiscent of a ‘rural Florida’ made of mainly islands and beach homes. It was fascinating to come across this sign for rental details, rentals available, occupied and overdue.

2. I wondered how the rental process could be carried out in Second Life. I found this sign on each beach home that advises ‘Time Remaining: Pay this unit to add funds or click for a menu.’ This is done through CasperLet, which is a professional networked management system for Second Life.

3. This sign was particularly funny. The sign advised, “Baja Share Welcomes You.” With a speech bubble, “Help!! Shark!!” Apart from this being a comedic objective I wasn’t sure why else someone would put that specific speech bubble there.

4. I began to understand why other avatars would be interested in renting beach houses. They are amazing, accommodating and especially relaxing. Imagine if you could throw a birthday party in one of these homes and invite all your Second Life friends?

5. In light of relaxation, I was drawn to a bright light and gravitated towards it and rested my avatar on a beanbag. I found it was a YouTube video, something that I have yet to come across before.

6. To end my journey on Second Life, the YouTube video was a Music Video clip by South-Korean Chinese boy band, EXO. This made me think whether that particular beach house belonged to a Korean? Perhaps to accommodate to their friends when they visit.

Nia Week 4 - SL

1. A world called Tableau was what I explored this week. It is a bombed-out desert town, mostly empty, but for some reason I have been enjoying exploring places that have less users in it. It is somewhat more peaceful even in a setting such the desert.

2. One of the first sightings I found was this bombed-out theatre with obviously a sort of missile entrenched in the middle. Funny enough, it was not the large bomb that was intriguing – but why would a theatre exist within a desert setting? 

3. Another finding was a shop called ‘The Wrigglesworth’s Residence’ which upon arrival displayed planting diagrams for a variety of plants. Interested in planting in the desert anyone?

4. Other larger displays were evident. Dinosaurs, specifically Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops. I had to fly over these displays to get a proper look and it seemed as if they were made out of wrought metal.

5. Here is another display I think that is made out of wrought metal. According to Second Life Market place, the use and selling of wrought metal is common and easily accessible for builders of these worlds.

6. Here lays a stone face carved or embedded into rock. It is interesting to note that this particular face seems to hold exotic features. I wonder who, what and why this particular face?

7. To end my journey today, I found this mural interesting. As I looked closely I found a skeleton person in a crowd of other people looking formal and beautiful. I later found this mural represents a Mexican public holiday called ‘Day of the Dead’ that is celebrated once a year. The main focus for this holiday is to gather together to remember family and friends that have died and pray for their spiritual journey.

Nia Week 3 - SL

1. “Happy Easter Everyone!” As I was greeted with on chat log by another user in the area. Being in this world made me realise how unified our in real life world can be in terms of holidays throughout the year and surprisingly there was a lot more users present than I expected. I wonder what Christmas will be like in Second Life or New Years Eve?

2. With the idea of real life in mind, I was surprised to come across gift stores in this Easter themed world. It somewhat resembled my real life social media posts about Easter shopping, however inside this particular shop was not chocolate, disappointingly it was intimate Easter costumes.

3. Whilst walking I came across this board about ‘What to do here.’ It was filled with Easter activities and fun such as, egg boat rides, Easter egg hunt, jellybean dance, peep races, photo Ops and so on. Much like that in real life Easter themed shows or parties.

4. This. However is not something you can find easily at an Easter themed party.

5. Another aspect dissimilar to that in real life is free hot air balloon rides – which I gladly took advantage of. Being so high I did see how small this world really is. When walking around with others surrounded by interaction, structure and design we can be easily immersed in a world - being a little forgetful that that particular world will end and you cannot walk linear forever. 

6. Returning to finding what else to do in this world. I found one of the activities that is very similar to real life Easter which is a decorative egg competition. As the sign advises, exists are real judges (15) who will be voting on which egg is the best and the winner is based on the average of votes. I wonder if there are prizes included - may be lindens to be won? I leave my Easter blog here. 

Nia Week 2 - SL

                                          

1. Godelin and Sendora is a world based on the beauty of the planet Pandora. If you remember the movie Avatar it is set on a planet called Pandora. Pandora the living planet and its inhabitants focused on the true meaning of nature and respect for all living creatures and this world’s creator uses this idea as the basis for their design.

2. One of the first signs I came across that were interesting was a sign that said, “Put on your swim suit and hop in the water to explore the beauty of the underwater world.”

3. I had no togs but I stepped into the water nonetheless and the array of tropical fish was surprisingly BEAUTIFUL. My expectation was that of only a small amount of school fish with neutral colours.

4. I ‘swam’ deeper and found a sunken pirate ship. It could have been interesting to explore inside the ship however this was not an option but still, an interesting find.

5. In the light of pirates, I came across interconnected hanging wooden bridges or by proper definition simple suspension bridge. I found this to be relevant in the idea of respecting nature and thus lessened use for major construction within this world.

6. Passing these bridges was another interesting sign. FLY A HANGLIDER. I was excited and quickly read the step-by-step directions advised.

7. I was flying over Godelin and Sendora and actually found the world BEAUTIFUL to look at from the sky. I also changed the settings of daylight to suit the glide and ‘sunset’ definitely set the mood for the rest of the ride.

8. One thing I noticed that felt distorted in this world was this particular area of building objects, which looked experimental. I was not sure whether this was intentional but it seemed like it did not fit the main trend that was evident everywhere else. Is this an area that is under construction? I end my blog here.

Nia Week 1 - SL

1. In editors picks I teleported to a world called Woodbury Falls which is a zombie apocalyptic world, a sub-genre of science fiction literature that has transferred onto popular culture such by the likes of the famous TV series The Walking Dead moreover gaming and virtual reality.

  2. Found this small girl (non-avatar) disturbing. Couldn't help but think what she was doing in a cemetery? BUT I could say the same for myself so I decided to leave.

 

3. In Woodbury Falls I came across what I thought was Coca-Cola, however it is written as ‘Con-Cola’ I assume the wording was slightly different because it’s probably an unauthorised use of trademark in a virtual world. This made me think about how legitimate SL really is, insofar as having RL principles of business entailed in its mechanics or design.

4. Apart from the illusion of creepy I came across a hemp coffee shop which I found to be in contrast to the fictional idea of the world ending, somewhat cool.

 

5.  I also got to lay inside a coffin. To get out of the coffin I could stand but could not walk forward or backwards and it did not help that by default this world disabled flying. Luckily, an avatar named Mark which became my friend in this world teleported me out of the coffin.

6. I came across this Christian Cross that says “Jesus Save Us” a representation of the crucifixion of Jesus, which has fallen. May be this can be an expression of The World Ending by Christian prediction but whatever it may be I found it to be a powerful artefact.