Experience with Second Life

This has been my first experience with Second Life. I've found that there is certainly a relatively steep learning curve in provisioning an avatar and getting started. The most immediate aspect new users will probably notice is how immersive the environment is. My first impression was how much the environment resembled a video game. At first, I found it hard to take Second Life seriously because it resembled a game and many avatars are 'walking' around with fantastic body types and outfits. As the avatars for my professor and classmates assembled, my perception began to change. The more we interacted, the more 'real' I perceived the engagment. Our first meeting was a bit awkward though, one of our students were 'missing', and we were all new. I discovered that there are many locations from which to choose, however, many of the random locations I 'teleported' to were abandoned. I still find some challenges in seeing how Second Life is a useful tool for common scenarios. I struggle to see how a Second Life experience can measure up to the fidelity and non-verbal affordance of a high quality video conference. Surely there are certain instances where Second Life is ideal.

I have some concerns with the Second Life's software. Yes, the application is 3D-intensive, but it consistently crashed my computer in a similar fashion that certain games bring down my machine. My computer isn't made for intensive gaming, though it has a very powerful 3D rendering hardware for business apps such as AutoCAD. Silverlight may be a better rendering platform because it has advanced 3D capabilities, can leverage the GPU, runs in the browser, and is compatible with Mac, Linux and Windows based machines.