Well it's been a while since I posted and much has happened: I went to a family wedding back in June, I sprained my ankle twice, our hamster died and one of our cats disappeared!!

I also joined this 'game' called SecondLife.  I have to say that I had big hopes for it but it turns out its fairly boring.  It's not a game per se but more of a Massively Multiplayer Online Simulated Society.  Unfortunately  it's a fairly deserted society.  Most people are either playing one of the two real games in it, dancing or exercising their right to engage in deviant sexual activities.  The thing I liked most about it is that the 'residents' or players have the ability to develop everything in the game from clothes to buildings to vehicles using a in-game scripting language. As an environment it's got great graphics and you can make your avatar really cool with all sorts of free clothing, hair, tatoos and more. It's a beautiful graphical environment.  The thing that the system lacks is anything to DO besides creating stuff. Having your avatar dance just gets old after about an hour. People design goods as well and sell those for Linden (the games currency) which you can earn in game (by designing and selling stuff or by winning one of the two games or by purchasing with real $$$.  You can convert Linden back to real world $$ as well but there is no get rich quick scheme to be found here.  I hear that people have made money buying and selling real estate in game but to me it seems like being a real estate developer who sells a condo on a beautiful island but then  finds out it's in the Bermuda triangle and nobody is coming..... SecondLife is like the host who throws a magnificient party only to find none of the guests showed up.

The Linden Company designed this thing to be a NEW VIRTUAL WORLD but what they fail to realize is that in the real world people are driven by basic needs for survival - the  need to eat and provide shelter for their families. The only one of man's basic needs that can be fulfilled in this game is the sex drive.  Without the other basic needs this virtual world can never survive as a 'world' .  People need to have concrete tasks and goals set by the system itself. People need 'work' and  experience a feeling of accomplishment even in a game.

The game is plagued by what they term 'griefers', i.e. people who spend all their time in-world writing code or devising schemes  to disrupt the world and the experience of others.... well you  know what they say - 'the devil makes work for idle hands' - if you don't give people goals they will make them up for themselves.

As an environment in which to learn a scripting language and build virtual environments and items the system has a lot of merit, although you cannot port your creations outside the environment.. well sometimes you can... the game Tringo (a sort of bingo) has been ported to Gameboy and other platforms.  Creators retain the rights to their virtual creations.

Throughout the system you'll see advertisements by real world companies. Many companies even have big building complexes where you can review the history of the company, catch up on what the company is all about and more... but even they are deserted for the most part. I hear some companies even have private islands.. but I did not visit any of those.

The bottom line is that SecondLife is a nice place to visit for a brief time but I wouldn't want to live there.....

~Nancy

PS: Here is my character - Diana (in game you can fly even without wings - but I like the wings LOL):





So you can see the graphics are pretty good. Moving through the environment is fairly smooth as well except for some instances of Lag but that is to be expected when running a system of this size that is accessed world wide.

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