A couple of years ago, a friend introduced me to Second Life, I didn’t know what to expect. Actually I went in there expecting a game similar to Sims…maybe Sims Online (although I never experienced that, I imagined what it would be like). The possibilities and flexibility in this world blew me away.
To call Second Life a game would be a limiting description. It is not quite a game. To me, a game has certain characteristics:
1. Goals -
short-term goals: beat/kill your enemies, score the most points, defeat the last boss, rescue the princess, etc
long-term goals: beef up your character, find cutest outfits, take care of your Nintendog, etc
2. Penalties -
Usually it’s death or something equivalent, loss in money or time, etc.
To me, Second Life is more like a virtual world, an experience, a 3D equivalent/extension to chatting - you can meet up with your friend from anywhere in the world and go dancing or drinking. It’s not quite the same, but it supplements chatting. Some people programmed games in this medium, ranging from Sudoku to Space Invaders to a first person shooter to even Final Fantasy VII (currently under construction, far from finished), but games are a subset to this medium (and not as well executed).
This is a photo I took in an 80’s dance club. Apparently someone was blowing pink elephant bubbles.
So, what is it exactly? The best way to figure out is to go to the website, download the installer (it’s free) and explore Second Life to figure out what you want it to be. To some, it’s a place to socialize, to realize your fantasies (yes there are plenty of mature content), to experiment, or to make money/start a business (I’ll touch upon this in the future). Most importantly, Second Life is to have fun and be entertained.
When you create your account, you will notice that you cannot freely create your last name - you must choose it from a drop-down list. This is to prevent confusion and fraud. A lot of real life companies take interest in Second Life, and the company names are used as the last names. For example, anybody in world that has Linden for their last name is a representative of the company that created Second Life.
Next you will be asked to choose your avatar’s appearance from a small set of looks. Don’t worry about this - just choose the one that’s closest to what you want your character to look like. Once you’re in the world, you can customize in greater detail and to your heart’s content. By the way, these avatars are so much more detailed and better looking than back when I first started.
Once you log in, you’ll find yourself on Orientation Island. Here, you learn to control your character with WASD, E to start flying, C to land, how to communicate, ways to interact with objects, and ways you can control your camera (very important - the camera is quite flexible). After learning these basics, you can either move on to Help Island or jump into full exploration with Second Life.
Help Island is where you can realize your abilities. There are basic tutorials on how to create prims (a primitive 3D shape such as sphere, cylinder, cube, pyramid, etc). There are also basic scripting tutorials here. I’d suggest people to walk around this island - the tutorials can be rather heavy and cumbersome. There are mentors available for questions, but I was much too shy to ask. There is a small section that gives away free items, so grab some and practice attaching/detaching it from yourself.
Don’t spend too much time at Help Island - you can get bogged down. Instead, I suggest you to conduct a search for the word “free”, then visit areas to get free items. This is what I looked like when I first created my character. And this is what I look like after I got free items. Big difference, right?
While you’re exploring, keep in mind that everything you see is player made. Any buildings, sidewalks, streets, fountains, flowers, plants, etc. all but the base ground, is player made. That’s where it gets interesting. Anything you see, you have the power to make! Of course you can be limited by your artistic or scripting ability, and that’s where buying stuff comes in. There’s a whole economy at play here that I’ll also touch upon in the future.
In the meantime, don’t be afraid to explore - it’s not like your character can suffer any consequences.
One Comment
i gotta say.. i think my favorite thing in SL is creating/building. it’s one of the few places, maybe the only place, where you can make something entertaining or useful out of nothing. i guess the closest that comes to mind would be writing a novel.
as for your closing comment “it’s not like your character can suffer any consequences…” i’m not sure i agree. surprisingly, i and others i’ve spoken to experience real-life emotions in SL. I admit it takes a lot more to bring up those emotions - but for example, when my pants don’t render fast enough I do feel a tinge of embarassment =D