Task 3: Hannah J. Explores Second Life

My avatar's name in Second Live is Aurelia Aubauch. I first tried to get my real first name, but I didn't like any of the last names that were available to go with my first name. Ever since I saw the movie "Love Actually", I have loved the name Aurelia, so I decided to go with that name, and it went well with Aubauch.

When I first signed up, I went with the "City Girl" body shape/outfit. I went with this because it seemed to be the avatar preset that most resembled myself. However, when I looked at the avatar close up, I realized that it was nothing like me. So I changed pretty much everything. I changed her face shape, made the lips smaller and cheeks fuller. I took off most of the makeup, and adjusted my nose a little bit. Something that I foudn extremely frustrating was the hair creating process. I couldn't get it to look like normal hair, so I kind of gave up and just left the hair that came with the preset on.

I also changed my avatar's clothes. While I liked the clothes that I was originally wearing, I wanted to be original, and try to make something for myself. This proved to be very difficult, for reasons that I will get into later. But, I managed to create an outfit that I would wear in real life, so I was pretty proud of myself!

A huge challenge that I have been dealing with in my Second Life experience is my computer. My computer has the minimum requirements for Second Life to work properly. So I can get it to work, but sometimes, it just freezes up and lags really badly. This is frustrating because I want to try to communicate with people, and when I have to wait 15 minutes for my computer to catch up to me, people get sick of waiting.

I have been able to communicate with Marie though, which has been fun! I think that Second Life will add a very unique and interesting element to our Virtual Lab group. We are getting to talk in a synchronious fashion, which allows you to see someone's personality more, and I feel more comfortable and personal that way. Here is a picture of Marie and I talking on UWM Island. Marie is in the slick suit and I am in the white capri's with super short hair.



My first inpression of Second Life is a good one. I used to love the video game "The Sims", and this is like a super hyped up version of it. I wish tha tmy computer was better so that I would be able to explore more, but I work with what I have, and I will be able to enjoy it as is as well. I find it very fun to meet and interact with new people, so this game is a perfect platform to do so.

Task 3: Marie T. Explores Second Life

My name in SL is Eriam Mrigesh and I was born on 1/19/2008. I have not had much time to spend on SL because RL has been getting in the way. Now I have an excuse to play at least. I seemed to breeze through Orientation and Help Island and I began exploring some of the different areas in SL. At first I was slightly disorientated, because there was so much I did not quite know where to start. Then I discovered there is a SL Library! What better place to get started? So I teleported in and have joined the Library Friends group and have been coming back ever since. Here’s a picture of me (green hair) talking with some of the other library members.



Where else can you walk around with green hair without getting any stares! I like the outfit I’ve got on too. In a sim for newbies I found a lot of free outfits and this one seemed decent. Some were really wild or barely there… This one is also easy to add a little more and get a decent dancing outfit. What’s even better I can dance without tripping over my own two feet. So here I’m dancing and talking with more people at the library.



One person was nice enough to give me a fun addition to my outfit!



Now my outfit is complete…. Along with my ‘sea monkey’ friend! My only challenge I have now is making sure I don’t spend too much time in SL and not get my other class assignments done. :-)

I truly enjoy exploring new technologies and really had no difficulties in adapting to SL. As a programmer, I find the open ended creating possibilities very interesting. Once I have more time available I plan on learning LSL and creating my own prims.

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.

Task 3: Scott K. Explores Second Life

The name of my avatar is Religio Neuman.

I changed my appearance by making his overall body bigger and stouter. I made his arms and legs shorter as well as his neck. The thing I focused most attention on was his face. I think I played around with basically every part of his face, focusing mostly on his beard. There is just something to be said about a guy that has a nice full beard. It’s just respectable. So I turned all the facial hair options to the max and gave him a little gray. I pretty much changed these things because it was required that we change at least something and I’m just a fan of the beard. I wish there was more tweaking I could have done with the beard. I did not intend for my avatar to look anything like me. Since it is a virtual world and there would be no way for people to make a comparison I did not see the necessity.

Second Life was a little more challenging to get oriented to because everything moves really slow on my computer so there is a delay between when I type an action and when the action actually takes place. This fact makes it very hard to move and control my avatar. The interface itself is pretty straightforward and like most interfaces like this the more you use it the more comfortable you will become.

My first impression of Second Life is that it is an interesting concept. The interface is very detailed, which is pretty cool. I play RPG’s so I like the idea of being able to customize things and have control over my characters. I don’t play MMORPG’s so this whole virtual world is new to me. Having random avatars come up to me and want to talk was kind of unsettling at first because I felt that these people are totally random and I will most likely never meet them or interact with them in real life. I would probably never use Second Life outside of this class. I would much rather interact with someone face-to-face.

Task 3: Cassandra D. Explores Second Life

....help!!!
The name of my Avatar is Casey Dubienski. I have yet to change anything about my appearance because I haven't played around with this alot yet. The challenges I have faced with the SL orientation have been a little overwhelming. I have no idea what I am doing yet, and I hope that this changes the more I have a chance to play around with it. My first impression with SL has been one of intimidation. This has been my first time on anything like this and I really have no idea what I am doing. It took a turn about five minutes into my orientation though, when someone from Brazil asked me if I was nude...I hope this doesn't happen alot.:-)

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