Task 3: Larissa P. Explores Second Life

I named my avatar Spinderella Augenblick. The dimensions of my avatar closely resemble my actual body type. I am 5'3'' and imagining myself taller than that even in a second life seemed quite strange, therefore, Spinderella is also shorter than average. I have dark blonde hair in real life and I have never before died my hair or been very experimental with cutting it. I though it might be fun to make Spinderella a bit more funky, so I gave her red hair in a shaggy cut. I had fun with the clothes and expressed myself mostly through that element. My favorite color is green so I gave Spinderella green pants and because I can't remember a time in my life when there has not been a tie die shirt in my closet, I also hooked her up with one of those. Finally, I am not a girl who rocks high heeled shoes so to maneuver more comfortably, I gave by character a set of flats.

When first entering the Second Life world I was reminded of playing Nintendo 64 James Bond 007 with my brother when I was younger. I was terrible! I was the type of person who flailed the controller around thinking my character would follow my own movements. Video games have never been my strong suite. Getting frustrated by walking into walls and getting stuck in corners has been a problem thus far. The actual process of getting oriented with my virtual environment and struggling with what I imagined would be simple and straightforward has been difficult. For example, my computer would not respond when I tried to add Juice as a friend and teleport to the UWM island.

For someone like myself who is a bit computer illiterate, my initial reaction to Second Life is that the result is not worth the effort. That is probably because for me to achieve the same results as someone else probably takes twice as long and is at least that frustrating. I think that the concept is fascinating and I can understand how people get wrapped up in the life of their avatar through extensive time spent on the site. This task is not something that I will continue after the class is over although it is interesting to get a feel of what it is all about.