“Explore life at the bottom of the ocean at this simple yet enchanting tropical reef. Schools of colorful fish swim by you and the bright and sparkly coral formations make for great picture spots”.
I chose this location because it was in the “what’s hot now” category and I thought it was a very beautiful idea to create a whole world underwater. I was right, it is a very enchanting and beautiful location to visit. My laptop did struggle a lot to run this location, it is very laggy for me but still very, very cool! It’s pretty crazily awesome to be walking around with fish swimming around and underwater plant life lighting up in different colors and moving around. It is a little scary, really!
There isn’t really anything specifically avatars do here, just take it all in, the whole design, every little detail of everything that has been created in this world. Definitely a beautiful place to socialize with friends or take someone special. It is not like this (the pictures above) throughout the whole location, this is just the best part of it. From what I saw the rest of the location is a bit of a barren wasteland that I didn’t want to venture further into (the scary part).
It is a very pretty and amazing build, the detail, the way objects have been placed. It feels and looks so real, this person obviously knows a thing or two about the bottom of the ocean and took great care into even the smallest details of this location.
These were the statistics from the location, there were different areas of the whole location, but it was just barren wasteland for what seemed like forever. I got statistics from different areas, they were more or less the same. I just didn’t want to get myself or any readers confused, so I chose the statistics from the best part of this location (the part I am showing). There are 10,902 objects and 442 of them are active. There are 4672 scripts that are active and they are running at 98.91%, script events running 1003 eps. There is a lot more scripting in this location than there was in my first location.
This location is like no others, it’s pretty obvious because this location is underwater!! That is why I chose this location because of the sheer beauty and uniqueness. Just walking around taking it all in, almost believing you are at the bottom of the ocean with the fish, jellyfish and beautiful plant life. I have been to quite a few locations in Second Life (not that many) but I feel safe saying that this location is one of a kind. I would have never of thought someone would have the innovation to make a world underwater, where else can you experience something so amazing? This location does take a lot of scripting to run, and computers like my laptop aren’t able to run it as it should be but it is totally worth it! There isn’t a whole lot in this location really, it is just packed filled with detail in such a small area. I love the water and swimming, this just took it to a whole other level for me 😀 this is definitely one of my favorite locations ever!
If you love the ocean or just want to see something beautifully made, check Pravatch out! 😀
“The History of the Vehicle in Second Life features over 130 vehicles from 50 creators. This showcase has something for everyone; cars, bikes trucks and more. Wander around and view the whimsical side of vehicle building, snag information about racing, listen to tribute concerts and live DJ’s, or just relax in a gazebo. The event runs through May. See the evolution of vehicles from prim to mesh.”
First impressions are WOW! Not only is this location massive, it is packed with all kinds of different vehicle designs! Pretty much every single vehicle you could imagine, they are everywhere!! The location is made up of a Museum and a huge amount of displays of different vehicles all over the place, it took me a long time to explore the whole location!
The whole location is pretty much a massive, massive museum about the evolution of car building in Second Life and it is incredibly interesting and amazing! It’s a place for avatars to come and not only experience how far building in Second Life has come, but they also offer live concerts, racing, competitions, ability for users to advertise their SL business and designs, and all kinds of different car related events. Also provides a location for all different kinds of avatars to socialize.
The first thing you see, upon arriving to this location is a medium sized room with police telephone boxes as teleportation devices, that take you to the exhibit.
Once at the exhibit I became rather overwhelmed, I didn’t know where to start there are so many awesome things to look at. I was the only avatar there at the time, it would be awesome to see the location when it is packed filled with people. The first thing I saw was the Museum of Vehicle History, inside was different exhibits of vehicles made in a number of ways. All the vehicles in this area of the exhibit are all unique, and represent some of the finest examples of vehicles from 2005 to 2009, before sculpted prims became the norm.
Texture and prim vehicles
The first vehicles were made from flat prims with textures on them, and placed in a specific way that gave the illusion of a vehicle. Due to limitations, vehicle builders became more imaginative.
Vehicles made in 2003
These vehicles were built around the time the physics engine was introduced into SL. Beforehand vehicles would not move very far. It is beyond amazing when we consider how far the vehicle has come in SL!
Sculpty vehicles
In 2009 vehicle building was forever changed by sculpty shapes, they could now have sharper definition and create more complex shapes. The vehicles in this exhibit are excellent examples of creativity and imagination of vehicle builders who worked in sculpted prims. Many were used in actual SL racing.
Just outside the Museum there is a line of cars, “The Evolution”. Ranging from Bethillac Impala MK1 2007 to the Bethillac Impala MK5 2011. Lists how each one has improved over the years. (There were too many to get pictures of them all, I got pictures of the first and last one).
There are way too many outside exhibits to put pictures of them all, I will put a couple of them up. There was the Celebrity tribute exhibit (which my laptop had trouble loading because there were so many) and present day vehicles.
This location also provides the opportunity for users to advertise their vehicle designs and businesses.
There are an incredible amount of different locations available to teleport to in Second Life. How do you choose one out of thousands? Editors picks ;-). I chose this location because it was in the editors picks, there is bound to be only good things if the editor picked them! I also had never seen an actual car build on Second Life, so I figured it would be interesting and it did not disappoint!!
I have definitely (in my short time) on Second Life never come across another location like this one. It is to put simply, astounding! Not only what some incredibly talented people can do on Second Life, but also how far the designing abilities have come over the past few years. I mean where on earth and Second Life would you be able to see funny, unique and awesome designs like these!
The Batmobiles (my favorite)
Roach Coach (this one just made me laugh)
Santas sleigh and the Flintstones vehicle
Little words can describe how awesome this location is to visit and explore! Definitely one of the best I have been to on Second Life, and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in seeing just how amazingly talented some Second Life builders really are, and how far they have come. I can’t even begin to imagine what it takes to run a location like this, not only is it MASSIVE but it is also packed filled with vehicle designs, scenic features and a museum.
These were the statistics I had when in the location. As you can see there is 16,267 objects in the location and 140 of them are active. The location is running 1004 active scripts and running script events 480eps.
I enthusiastically recommend this location to anyone who loves Second Life, it is a truly amazing thing to see while you can!!
Singularity is founded and maintained by Siana Gearz who is by admission a Second Life resident, which is where the inspiration came from. It is not a product by Linden Lab, although its intended use is access of Second Life. It can also be used to access a number of OpenSim platforms. Singularity is based on source code from Ascent Viewer by Balseraph Sotware Group, which is based on source code released by Linden Lab with modifications.
What I have gathered from forums in Second Life about the Singularity viewer is that it is a “lighter viewer”. Good for traveling and for underpowered systems. However, it is not recommended for serious creative work. Singularity combines the tried and proven, efficient user interface of the version 1 viewer series with the advanced rendering features of the version 3 of viewers.
Singularity does not have as much of an online presence as Firestorm but they (or should I say, she) do offer options for contact.
Siana Gearz the founder and maintainer is a resident in Second Life and welcomes contact via Second Life when she is visibly online. Her name is her own in Second Life.
Singularity like all other viewers have features and goals they work on to make their viewer the best of them all, it is a constant race between them all. Singularity puts a great deal of effort into improving stability and performance beyond any other Second Life viewer (recently – base code upgraded from Snowglobe 1.4 to 1.5, texture fetch and decode modified based on Imprudence viewer).
System Requirements
Dual core CPU with SSE2 support
NVidia or ATI/AMD graphics chip
2GB RAM
Windows XP or higher
Ubuntu Linux 10.04 or higher
Mac OS X 10.6 or higher
There is no dedicated support team in place, which means user support can not be guaranteed. Users are expected to offer mutual help with issues and seek help from other users first.
The user interface in Singularity personally I think is a bit of a combination of Firestorm and Imprudence. I like it, it’s sort of the middle ground between the two, never noticed that before. Although some of the functions are a bit confusing to use, like Imprudence, it isn’t as bad. Easier to maneuver around. Singularity loaded very fast, no lagging. I’m not a fan of the chat box in this one either. One thing I did like about the chat box though, was the fact that I didn’t have to click out of it to move my avatar. The voice tool is quite tricky to use as well, I find I have to hold down the talk button, kind of like a walkie talkie.
I really like the appearance window in Singularity! It is very detailed, you can pretty much edit everything and anything to do with your avatars appearance all in the one window. I think this was my favorite part of the viewer :-D. Nice to see it even had an appearance window, after discovering Imprudence doesn’t even have one. This one is also better than the Firestorm one! Points for Singularity!
The search window, reminds me of the Imprudence search window just not as easy and efficient to use. Still better than both Firestorm and Second Life Viewer search windows.
The most recent release of Singularity, 1.8.5 release has seen quite a few things updated and new features added. There are too many to list, so I have put the link below.
My impressions of Singularity this time around differ from those I had when I first used it. I am a creature of habit so switching from using the Second Life Viewer to Singularity was not a change I made with happiness. I suppose it had no hope. The interface is completely different and bit more trickier. This time around (more likely after using Imprudence) I find Singularity quite pleasant to use. Everything rezzed incredibly fast, nothing has lagged yet. A completely different experience compared to that of Imprudence. Although some of its features are similar to Imprudence, there are also some similar to Firestorm and I think by now we all know how much I love Firestorm. Even though Singularity doesn’t have the backing and maintenance that viewers like Firestorm has, they do an excellent job at releasing updates, that either bring in new features or fix any bugs they had. They also provide the opportunity for developers to add to it. So, moral of the story DO NOT judge a book by its cover! Singularity has turned out to be a viewer that I do actually enjoy using. Not only has having more experience with other viewers changed my opinion but also researching into the Singularity viewer and seeing all the progress it has made and all the work that goes into the new releases, is some pretty amazing stuff! I can happily recommend Singularity to any newbies like me 😀
The Firestorm viewer created by The Phoenix Firestorm Project Inc, founded in 2010. Is the successor of the Phoenix viewer, most widely used on Second Life. The Phoenix Firestorm Project is a non-profit incorporated organization who’s main purpose is to improve user experience. The Phoenix viewer was based on Linden Lab’s Viewer Version 1.23.5 and Snowglobe 1.5 and the Firestorm viewer is based on Linden Lab’s Viewer versions 2 and 3, (based on the Linden Lab V3 LGPL code base). They have incorporated a great deal of new features to improve performance, increase usability and enhance the user’s overall experience on both viewers. These viewers are developed for use on Windows, Linux and Mac operating systems. They even provide a link on their website to their viewers source code.
The Phoenix Firestorm Project Inc has submersed themselves in almost all forms of social media;
There are links to everything Firestorm in social media on their website. I was very surprised at the online presence they have, because I am new to all of this I assumed that a viewer wouldn’t have anything to do with social media.
The Phoenix Firestorm Project Inc offers a huge amount of user support! They have approximately 80 volunteers and are managed through three different departments; Development, Support and Quality Assurance. They also provide live support 24/7 in nine different languages!! Just from this I can tell this organization loves what they do, and provide everything they possibly can to enhance the user experience in virtual worlds.
Firestorm would be the second viewer I have used the most, I have played with pretty much every legit one I could find. I have to say personally I love Firestorm, it is my favorite viewer. It all came down to the interface, unlike every other viewer I found Firestorm very easy to use and learn. Simple to maneuver around, unlike for example; Singularity, which no offense, I hate with a passion!
All of the tools used most often are lined up down the bottom, no weird looking buttons, no complicated “I have no idea what they are” buttons. Firestorm I found loads a lot faster and smoother than Singularity and Second Life Viewer, this is my personal opinion so I could be wrong. I was religiously using Second Life Viewer and switched quite recently to Firestorm because I found it lagged a great deal less, teleporting wasn’t so laggy, everything rezzed a lot faster. I will be mostly comparing Firestorms to Imprudence. I chose to compare to Imprudence because it is the one viewer I have hardly used at all.
In a lot of ways the user interface of Imprudence is extremely similar to that of Singularity, I found Imprudence a lot more laggy and unpleasant to use. I would like to point out that this is most likely my own personal bias as I haven’t liked Imprudence or Singularity since day one. There are a few user interface and speed factor reasons why I don’t like them compared to the Firestorm and Second Life viewers.
When logging into the Imprudence viewer, none of my avatar would load, the location I was in wasn’t rezzing properly. Just a really bad experience.
There are tools available for quick, easy access down the bottom. However, not as many as Firestorm provide and some of the options in Imprudence are confusing to use, for newbies like me.
Imprudence inventory window (there is no appearance window)
Firestorm inventory and appearance windows
This is something I will point out because I am constantly changing my avatars appearance and when I first started in Second Life, I would spend hours doing it because I’m a noob and it was hard for me to figure it all out. I do not like the fact that Imprudence does not have a separate appearance window, it has a “worn items” tab in the inventory window. As your inventory items start to build up it’s impossible to find anything easily (if you’re as unorganized as I am), having a window to view what my avatar is wearing and a separate window showing what my avatar has available to wear is the only way I can make sense of the madness that is my inventory.
Imprudence Search
Firestorm Search
I am always searching for new locations to explore or items to buy, as I’m sure many other users do. Point for Imprudence their search options were actually much more user friendly than that of Firestorm. I found it extremely easy to find my way around, and search for what I wanted as refined as I could get.
Firestorm is based on Second Life viewer version 3, this means it supports mesh and media-on-a-prim, modern outfits and floating menus. The mesh support is good, keeps you from having to accidentally see another avatar naked if they are wearing mesh objects and vice versa. Firestorm is actively maintained by regular software updates and news posts. Firestorm enthusiastically supports OpenSim, they have added some OpenSim friendly features to their viewer and they even have an office on OSgrid!
At one point, according to Second Life’s own data, Firestorm was the most popular and most stable viewer, topping their own viewer!
Although, a lot of my opinions are based on my own personal bias. I love Firestorm compared to other viewers, it’s that plain and simple. The Phoenix Firestorm Project Inc has put a great deal of effort, time, care and love into their viewer and it definitely shows. They are constantly updating, posting news about their viewer. Increasingly creating a user friendly viewer for Second Life and OpenSim grids. They welcome the chance, some would say even inspire other developers to find and fix bugs and to add new features to the viewer. Which means, Firestorm is constantly being maintained, not being left to become a dead project like so many others.
Avination is one of the fastest growing grids on the internet. It is an OpenSim based grid; OpenSim, full name OpenSimulator – multi user, multi platform, 3D platform that is completely open source. Open source refers to a program where the source code is available to the general public to use or modify anyway they want for free.
Avination is one of the grids brought to life by someones creativity put into the original source code.
Started in September 2010 by Avination Virtual Limited, which is founded and owned by Melanie Thielker (is well known in OpenSim circles, adds credibility to Avinations identity). It has given many virtual environments a run for their money, including Second Life. With its unique combination of content, people and technology. It has far moved beyond similar games, it moves a great deal more smoothly and is easier to move around. Absolutely no compromising on content, script performance and compatibility. The one thing I will say is I was unable to create an account because the email verification wasn’t working and I tried three different email accounts.
The user starts by creating an account and providing log-in information. Different to Second Life, Avination provides quite a lengthy list of generated last names to choose from. They are then directed to an area out of the three options provided when creating their account; Welcome area – allowing users to shop and socialize with people, Tutorial – allowing users to become more familiar with how to use Avination and Role-Playing – fast combat actions.
Avination has its own currency called Care Coins (C$). It can be gained by users and sold for real money.
3 US Dollars = 1000 Care Coins
Care Coins cost about as much as Second Life’s Linden Dollar (L$). Until very recently users were able to transfer Linden Dollars to Avination by in-world ATMs. However, Linden Labs put a stop to that, saying that it was a violation of the Terms of Service. Users must now “cash out” through LindeX before using the real life currency to pay for services outside of Second Life.
Care Coins are available for purchase at the Virtual currency exchange service website; https://www.virwox.com/
The C$ currency is listed on the website as ACD.
Although, the C$ and the L$ are worth the same in real life, to purchase items in Avination is a fair bit cheaper than Second Life, e.g; Hair – C$50-$100, L$150-$200. I suppose it varies on the quality of the purchase as well, Second Life provides free “demos” of pretty much everything.
Avination is free to join, however, like every other virtual world if you want extras you have to pay.
Region: supports up to 45,000 prims and has a space of 65536 square meters. Water Region: supports up to 750 prims and they have the same space as normal regions.
From these prices, it is pretty easy to gather that Avination is cheaper to have than Second Life.
Avination has been compared in a lot of ways as a sort of “baby Second Life or “Second Life reincarnation”, the textures, builds, movements. Has the “look and feel” of Second Life. Unfortunately, despite my best attempts I have been unable to go into the grid myself, there must be something wrong with their confirmation emails, I have sent it to now four email addresses and have yet to receive anything. I cannot log into Avination without the email :-(. I have been researching as in-depth as I can into Avination to make up for it :-).
Avination is remarkably stable, running in multiple viewers (Imprudence, Avination viewer, Firestorm). Running at an approximate frame rate of 28-30fps, or in a more populated area 14fps. Due to Avination being big on “role-playing” they have not stuck with the default ODE engine supplied with OpenSim, they have tweaked their own. Lag is a lot less noticeable, region crossings are stable. So, in some circumstances runs a great deal smoother than Second Life.
Avination in many respects is very much like other virtual worlds available on the internet, even Second Life. It may not yet be as comparable as Second Life, but it certainly holds its own against the long standing virtual world. Avination may not have very many users per day and this is something it will continue to struggle with as with many other virtual worlds against Second Life. Avination seemed to have a good start at things when users where able to not only transfer their money between C$ and L$, but also items in their inventories and avatar names. Linden Labs has since, only recently put a stop to all of this and Avination has taken quite a blow from that.
However, if Second Life users where looking for a change in virtual worlds, Avination is up there as a strong competitor. A lot of work has been put into making Avination a polished, professional package that a lot of other virtual worlds could take a few lessons from. So, if you are wanting to get out there and explore the big wide world of grid-based virtual worlds, Avination would be a great place to start.
It started in 1999 when Philip Rosedale created Linden Lab with the intention of developing computer hardware that would allow people to immerse themselves in a virtual world.
Second Life was launched on June 23rd 2003 by San Francisco based Linden Lab. Second life is an online virtual world. Second Life users also known as “Residents”, they create virtual representatives of themselves called avatars. Using these avatars they are able to interact with other avatars, places or objects. Second Life provides these users with the ability to socialise and participate in individual and group activities, build, create, shop and trade virtual property and services with one another. “The virtual world is your oyster”, so to say. Pretty much anything and everything you have ever wanted to do, Second Life gives you the opportunity to do that.
Some people even make a business in Second Life that actually rewards them in the real world. The money used in Second Life is called Linden dollars and has it’s own exchange rate. It can be exchanged into “real world” currency and vice versa. Users can buy land, sell land, parcel off the land, sell inventory items, sell things they build, etc.
This all takes place on the second life platform known as a “grid”. The grid is made up of regions, there are different classifications for each region; General (no extreme violence or nudity), Moderate (some violence, swearing, adult situations, some nudity) and Adult (may contain overt sexual activity, nudity and violence). They have not always have this classification system, I believe that it is excellent they have brought this on. It prevents the wrong person going into the wrong place and becoming involved in things they shouldn’t be involved in. Which is some of the reason Second Life has had a colourful reputation in the past.
This is my avatar, her name is Anna Isabel, which is my first and middle name. Not very original I know! She is a student avatar so I figured I would just stick with my name. She has a sort of goth look going on, I was fortunate enough to come across one of my tutors Treasure Chests filled with different items, which is how I dressed up my avatar. I am a newbie to Second Life so all of this has been a completely new experience for me, but such a fun one! I had a hard time with just changing my avatars clothing, she spent most of the time in her “birthday suit” until I got the hang of it.
This is my building area in Second Life, as you can tell building is not one of my strong points. Don’t get me wrong I love everything virtual Second Life has introduced me too, it’s just not where my skills lie.
This is the building window, I like having a play around with the different shapes and seeing what I can turn them into.
As you would expect your computer has to have specifications to run Second Life, the higher your specifications the better and smoother your experience will be. Below are tables of the minimum and recommended requirements for a Windows, Linux and Mac operating system.
I did a bit of research into other virtual environments that are available for public use. There are an incredible amount of them! It surprised me, as I have never come across any of them in the past. I’m going to compare Second Life to Kitely, a very similar virtual environment to Second Life, although different is some crucial ways. As Second Life was pretty much the first of its kind, the newer versions of this kind of virtual environment are putting up quite the competition.
Kitely
Is one of the most user friendly, biggest commerical providers of OpenSim regions.
From my research, I have gathered that there are not a lot of fans of Second Life these days, mostly because of the restrictions set upon it by Linden Labs. People are turning to cheaper more efficient ways to “play” in a virtual environment.
As you can see per month Kitely is more expensive, $19.95 USD per month. However, what Kitely offers for that price compared to what Second Life offers for their price of $9.95 USD per month is a great deal more. Kitely allows you to create an unlimited amount of worlds in 5 different regions. A free reign to create as many whole entire worlds as you want! Second Life allows you to pick a home out of a few selected themes. It becomes your home, you are not able to edit it in any way, but you are able to put whatever items you like in it. I guess it’s a sort of safe haven for you avatar.
Kitely Land Purchasing and Maintaining
Second Life Land Purchasing and Maintaining
When signing up for Kitely you are able to create an avatar and create your own world for free, a whole world you can create with only your imagination to stop you! WIth Second Life you are able to create a avatar for free and if you look hard enough you can find free items in the marketplace. If you choose to pay and become a premium member, Linden Labs give you a free home, which you can choose from six different locations. You are not able to change anything about the house, only put furniture or items in it.
I had a little play on Kitely, I made an account and went exploring through a couple of worlds, the Kitely Welcome Center and the Universal Campus. As soon as I was introduced to Second Life I was hooked and loved every minute of it. With Kitely I found myself having such a smoother experience not as glitchy as Second Life can be, the worlds just seemed like they had more thought put into them, the speed for which the worlds loaded when teleporting was a lot faster than Second Life.
Kitely falls short with their avatars, although I like the fact that their avatars movements are more lifelike without having to add any animations. Their appearance is not as life like as the Second Life avatars. However, adding, editing and changing clothing or any other item in your inventory is very much the same in both.
Although Second Life is more renowed than Kitely, Kitely provides a nicer, smoother experience for less the expense! If you’re big on avatars and the way they look Second Life is probably more your alley. If you’re looking for the better overall experience, I do think Kitely takes that cake, it just seems like there is a lot more thought put into the creation of their worlds.
While doing these comparisons I used both Kitely and Second Life in the viewer Firestorm to make things equal.
My impressions of Second Life are that I absolutely love it! It was the first kind of virtual environment that I was introduced to. I have always absolutely loved playing The Sims on computer, and Second Life is pretty much a step up from that, so I knew I had no hope, I was gonna love it! I love the freedom it provides to become whoever you want to be, more likely than not someone that you cannot normally be in real life. You can meet all different kinds of people from all over the world and visit a huge variety of amazing places that people have created. You can dress how you wanna dress, talk how you wanna talk and do what you wanna do. Now, who in their right mind wouldn’t love doing that? It also provides the ability to talk to someone from a country on the other side of the world and seem like you are simply sitting on the couch with them, like any other day. Provides the ability to have business meetings in an actual meeting room, with people from different parts of the country or the world. It is such an innovative, simply amazing creation and I look forward to seeing it grow in to so much more, become involved in every day life, that’s where the future of virtual environments are heading!
Here is my Second Life Avatar! She is still a working progress, my skills are still very limited and still working my way around all the menus and what now 😀 . I do believe I have fixed her face since this picture…..looks pretty……messed up in this picture
In the outline given to us for setting up our blogs, we are given some questions to answer because “new blogs are always a bit sad looking” 🙂 . I may or may not get a bit of help from Google because virtual environments are a completely new thing to me 😀 . So, here goes!!!
What is Virtual World?
It is a computer based online community virtual environment that is used to interact with people from everywhere and anywhere in a custom built world. These days it is usually in 3D, people interact using avatars, which they can design and customize themselves to fit there virtual “alter-ego” most of the time. Users can control these avatars usually via keyboard or mouse. Virtual worlds started off being solely for entertainment and social media purposes. However, nowadays it is branching out to be a very useful tool for businesses. It is a cheaper alternative to meeting and discussing business with international customers, suppliers, business partners, etc.
I haven’t really had much experience with virtual worlds. The Sims and League of Legends are probably the closest experiences I’ve had to it. I have always been interested in the virtual side of IT because it is such a new and amazing technology! Throughout my first year doing the BIT I came across things like Oculus Rift which was in the ITC class given to us by Clare. Immediately I became fascinated with all the possibilities and capabilities now available freely to anyone with an internet connection. Discovering Second Life for the first time yesterday confirmed my fascination with everything “virtual”. Even though I had a hard time doing simple things, I loved the whole experience of it all. Me and my classmate Ange had a little play after class yesterday and it was such an awesome, awesome experience, chatting with her and our tutor Isa. Visiting different places with them and meeting new people. I found myself looking away from my screen after what seemed like not long at all, to discover it had been hours!
How important do you think virtual worlds are now?
I think over time virtual worlds have become more and more important on a business level. You just have to imagine the amount of money a big international business will spend flying their staff to and from different countries all over the world. Yeah, A LOT of money!!! Virtual worlds allows these businesses to have a some what similar experience for barely any cost at all (if they choose to purchase land in a virtual world).
I do believe that virtual worlds have always been important on a social media, entertainment level to certain people (it’s not everyones cup of tea). The ability to escape reality for awhile and be whoever you want to be. I think that it is a sort of stress relief or some form of happiness to some who can’t find or have trouble finding it in the real world. It provides them with an opportunity to fulfill their life desires that they are otherwise unable to in the real world.
How important do you think virtual worlds will be in 5-10 years?
Seeing the way the importance of virtual worlds is growing today, I can barely imagine what it would be like 5-10 years from now! I do highly believe that virtual worlds will be used for almost everything it could possibly be used for and more. It is such a convenient (and we’re all about convenience) way to accomplish otherwise expensive and time consuming tasks. With technology like the Oculus Rift and Holo Lens already on the go, with the intention of making them (I suppose) another form of household console. Really, the possibility of virtual worlds are endless, this is why it is difficult for me to even imagine how important they will be because they already are! On both a business and entertainment level it’s definitely only going to keep getting bigger and better from here!
I have only had one MUV601 class but I am already amped and ready for more!!! Bring on class number two tomorrow!!! 😀
This is my first post on my new blog Introduction to Virtual Environments! This is for one of my semester one classes MUV601, which I am very much looking forward to! 😀
I jumped at the chance to do this class after Clare took one of my Information Technology in Context classes and talked about Virtual Environments. We had to write a blog about the class she had given and I found myself really enjoying the whole experience! From the class itself to the research and blog writing.
I have heard of Second Life before, not always good things. I have had a little play on it today in class and found it really awesome!! Really hard to work my way around and I am still trying to work it all out but it is really fascinating! It is a very different experience and I look forward to learning more! 😀
So, I am really, really excited about this class and I know it will live up to every expectation I have for it. Well, because it already has! MUV601 is definitely a great start to my year!
Introduction to Virtual Environments MUV601 
