This is my first trip in Second life, and here I am “Catalina Czartza”:

She actually looks kind of like me–changing my appearance in SL is relatively easy and there are many options to customize your look. It’s very interesting to be able to travel/transport to different islands on a whim–I would often search for keywords like “Zoo” or “ocean” or “Paris” on the World Map to find some fun places to visit. Although the graphic quality is amusing and processing speed problematic a times, Second Life is fairly easy to use and allows for your inner explorer to emerge. However, without an objective, point system or challenges to overcome SL becomes mind-numbing after an extended period of time. I do see it’s advantages to have an active avatar in a world where you can connect with others; however the limits to SL have surly not been reaches in this respect.  Sure, there lots of places that have been built to excess with structures, people, animals, etc. but most islands I visited were empty and it was difficult to find some things on my scavenger hunt.

First I wanted to find some of my animal friends. So I found dogs for sale on “Zoobyland”:

Along my journey, I found these strange polar bears pulling ice on “Sola Scriptura”:

And I found this jumping dolphin on “Cat Island”:

Look how my left hand magically disappears in my skirt–that’s what I mean about the graphics being silly sometimes!

Although I traveled to many islands and continents, I did not run into an Corporate headquarters. I did however find many educational islands including: “Genome”, “Ohio University”, and an interesting island for “ISTE“. These were all areas for educational and exploratory value. I especially liked looking at some informative booths in ISTE about podcasting and blogging.

I then climbed the tallest building I could find: The Eiffel Tower on “Paris Eiffel”.

This was a fun area with an interesting environment–I especially liked the Impressionistic figures strolling along the promenade. It would have been fun to interact with them, but they were part of the environment, not avatars.

I then headed to the Ocean floor on “Oceans End” where I saw a sunken ship and sea creatures:

Now it was time to get down and funky on “Dance Island”:

I saw some pretty interesting avatars here, including this winged chick on the right:

And I thought this guy with his wicked pants was pretty interesting:

Also, I was laughing at this girl–she was stuck in the wall for a while!

Both on “Dance Island” and on “FRANCE3D”, I was able to experience new languages thanks to the wonderful chat tool in SL. On Dance Island, people were going crazy on the dance floor–I call this a different language:

[08:48] 太陽に近い : 天使
[08:48] Mina Lemur: ****Moans****
[08:48] 太陽に近い : ＾＾
[08:48] kati Blauvelt: hi catalina :) ツ
[08:48] kati Blauvelt: ☆*¨¨*:• WeLCOme To DaNcE IsLANd!! •:*¨¨*☆
[08:49] 太陽に近い 太陽に近い howls! “AROOOOOOOoooooooo!”
[08:49] sweet vampire: *:-.,_,.-:*`*.¸.*´`’*:-.,_,.-:* S l i d i n *:-.,_,.-:*`*.¸.*´`’*:-.,_,.-:*
[08:49] 太陽に近い : *:-.,_,.-:*`*.¸.*´`’*:-.,_,.-:* S l i d i n *:-.,_,.-:*`*.¸.*´`’*:-.,_,.-:*
[08:49] Mina Lemur: lol i feel small between you 2
[08:49] Deception Damone: *:-.,_,.-:*`*.¸.*´`’*:-.,_,.-:* S l i d i n *:-.,_,.-:*`*.¸.*´`’*:-.,_,.-:*
[08:49] 太陽に近い : *~*~rofl*~*~
[08:50] Hessi: *:-.,_,.-:*`*.¸.*´`’*:-.,_,.-:* S l i d i n *:-.,_,.-:*`*.¸.*´`’*:-.,_,.-:*
[08:50] kati Blauvelt: *:-.,_,.-:*`*.¸.*´`’*:-.,_,.-:* S l i d i n *:-.,_,.-:*`*.¸.*´`’*:-.,_,.-:*
[08:50] Deception Damone: Weeeeeeeeeeee (OUCH OUCH OUCH)
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! :D :p :D :p :D
[08:50] Hessi: ☢ ☸ YAAAAAAY ☢ ☸

There was also some ass spanking (I’m not sure how they were doing this!):

[08:53] DeceptionDeception spanks Rraarl’s ass
[08:53] DeceptionDeception spanks Rraarl’s ass
[08:53] DeceptionDeception spanks Rraarl’s ass
[08:53] DeceptionDeception spanks Rraarl’s ass
[08:53] DeceptionDeception spanks Rraarl’s ass
[08:53] 太陽に近い : *squeek* { ^_^ } *squeek* { ^_^ } *squeek* { ^_^ } *squeek* { ^_^ }
[08:53] Rraarl Puchkina: ✘ A•C•C•E•S•S D•E•N•I•E•D

I also found it interesting that Google Translate helped kicked in on “FRANCE3D”:

[09:38] Info: Bienvenue sur FRANCE3D – Si vous avez besoin d’aide, cliquez sur le bouton Contacter un agent
[09:38] Info: Welcome to FRANCE3D – If you need help, click the Contact an agent button
[09:39] jeanestelle’s Google Translator: I’m looking dancer

The oldest building I could find from Real Life in Second Life was the Eiffel Tower. It was an immaculate construction with elevators and lots of interesting details that made the space very enticing to explore. I had a very difficult time finding anything else representational from real life.

Now it was time to feel the wind in my hair. I had finally mastered walking, running and navigating about an island–now I needed to conquer some space with speed! So, I found free motorcycle on a racetrack in “Shiva”:

I found it pretty difficult to steer this motorcycle–it was much harder than just running around which even took some practice for me! As you can see, it was a rocky ride.

My journey came to an end here. You can certainly lose track of the time on SL–exploring the islands is interesting and can be captivating. Interacting with other avatars can be clumsy since it is a relatively complicated program to operate. Even so, I see it’s value in education and the future of gaming.

I’m excited to see what the future holds for SL and all the games that will come from it.

Thanks!

~Jessi lee Mraz