second life
It turns out I like Second Life a lot more than I thought I would. I originally logged in for research purposes. Work wants to make a virtual presence there and a few librarians are already looking around but it doesn’t seem like they’re making much progress. I think the project only recently got any serious consideration, so that may explain it. Actually getting an account took around a week; the server seemed to be down every time I tried. As soon as I was in and had spent a few hours getting familiar with the controls, I offered to help with the project.
Those first few hours were really interesting, to say the least. Second Life is like a cross between a game, a social networking website, and a shopping mall. There aren’t any quests, missions, scores or the like, so you can’t really call it a game, but it definitely looks like one. My avatar has gone through many looks, but this is what she looks like now.
The green fairy outfit was picked up at one freebie island and the hair, skin, and eyes at another. That’s right, in this virtual world, you can buy (or patiently seek out) things like hair, skin, and eyes. The appearance editor allows you to tweak these things, but there’s no way I could make hair like the one I found.
I spent a ridiculous amount of time messing with her appearance. Anything else I say now will only make me look like a huge nerd, so I’ll stop. A quick browse through Flickr shows that my avatar is far from advanced. But I’ve just begun, and at least my avatar has nipples now. Anyway, here’s another view of the hair.
These screenshots were taken on an island called Doom. There were very few buildings on it, but I only went there because there were no people and I wanted to try on all the spiffy new clothes I had just scored. I really like that Second Life has a built in screenshot function. When I began my research, I started by looking at slideshows online and assumed that someone had done a lot of work by taking screenshots the traditional way. The in-world function takes out all the little steps between print screen and image file.
When I first logged in, I teleported right past the orientation islands. The first place you end up in is really boring. I flew off in one direction and found myself in a shopping mall. I wandered around the mall for a while until I came across a terminal that gave away free prizes at five minute intervals. Every five minutes, a letter was randomly selected and if your name began with that letter, the prize was yours. I won a horrible dress. While I was there, another avatar walks up and chats me up. He looks like a troll with pink hair, grey skin, and cloven feet. He says he’s a goobie and I’m very lucky to have met him. I play along. I’m no noob, I’m sure he’s up to something, but I want to see what this place is all about. He gives me a lollipop and suggests I eat it right away, so I bite. My avatar starts writhing in agony, spinning toward the ground and clutching her stomach. I get a message that says she’s eaten too much candy. I find this very amusing, so I detach the lollipop and keep talking to him. He was very helpful and nice, despite having poisoned my avatar early on. Now that the ice was broken and we decided to be friends, he slipped into his regular get-up. The first friend I made on Second Life was a vampire.
I talked to him for a little longer and then we parted ways. He teleported out of there and I wandered off, not knowing where I should go. It was my first visit, after all. So, being the SL noob I am, I chose a ramdom destination on the map and teleported. I landed in the middle of a nudist island. I made a naked friend there, walked around, saw a unicorn and a few other virtual nudists, and then visited one of the shops my newest friend recommended.
That was it for that night. I couldn’t find any of the academic islands. When I had some spare time the next day at work, I asked the librarian which island he was on. My adventure would continue that night.










