MEMO #9

The Avatar Sung Boa’s Second Life Experiences

I have been enjoying virtual world of Second Life since this past January. Frankly, I started the second life thing for the class assignment, but now I am definitely hooked by its fun. In this memo, I would like to share my experiences, such as how I learned to walk, fly, and communicate with other users on Second Life.

First of all, Second Life’s community guideline, which consists of six issues including assault, harassment, indecency, intolerance, disturbing the peace and disclosure, was interesting when I created an account because I thought that Second Life was just a simple, ordinary computer game before I started, but it was a more serious, web-based, virtual social networking arena.

The first thing I did when starting the Second Life was to change the appearance of my avatar, Boa. I spent more than twenty minutes to decide what I would look like, from choosing my ethnicity to how I would dress. It was totally fun because I could determine many things, from the texture of my hair to the size of my nostrils.

After changing the appearance, I learned how to walk, and it was not hard to learn because I already knew how to move from some computer games. After walking around many places, I met other avatars, such as RockStar and Rider, and learned many things from them. Both RockStar and Rider are now my good buddies in the Second Life world. I learned how to drive and fly from RockStar, however unlike walking, flying required much more effort to learn. Now I can fly very well and teleport to other places, so my friends and I regularly meet, and we usually fly around the several places we like, such as Appearance Castle and Communication Volcano. In addition, we are planning to participate in some interesting events together.

Second Life’s commercial implications, such as trading based on buying and selling and circulation of money, were other interesting points. I have gotten some fun by doing these economic activities.

In conclusion, many experiences relating to the Second Life were fascinating and I am definitely hooked. The community on Second Life is one of the best I have experienced on an online environment. Most people I met were friendly, welcoming, and helpful, and Second Life gave me the chance to meet a variety of people of all different tastes and from all different locations to interact with. I would like to recommend Second Life to my friends who are heartily sick of standard online games.