Second Life & Google Earth

After I made my avatar, I was almost overwhelmed by all of the things I could do on Second Life. It's funny how addictive these kinds of things can be, and how I wanted to explore every aspect of it. I spent so much time just fixing my avatar herself, which was fascinating, to see all the different things they think of to include about a person - facial features, body features, etc. Going through the different areas, I was really unsure of how to go about everything, interact with the others, see what they were doing, where I could go, etc. - a feeling I get in real life too! It was cool to be able to make my character do different things, especially fly, since that's not something we can really do.

I thought that the overall interface of Second Life was also part of its appeal - it has a futuristic look, and everything in it is so accessible assuming we know what we want - as Dr. Lombardi mentioned in his lecture. I teleported to different places such as New York City (since I'm from there, I wanted to see how it compared of course!), and went around through Times Square, which was cool. Met a few wackos, which is just like back home, haha! I also went to a few clubs in Las Vegas - good party scene! I got kind of confused at times because the scene would have to build up as I went along it, so I would get kind of lost in where I was, but I think using it more and exploring different areas will help to become more familiar with what to do, where to go, etc.

Google Earth is one of the coolest things I think we have been able to generate. The ability to see any spot on Earth is crazy. We actually used it today in one of my classes when discussing different cities around the world, and to see them all there back to back(without having to travel!) was impressive. This global Metaverse allows people everywhere to see what other places are like around the world without having to go there. If Second Life and Google Earth were to combine it would allow interaction between users from everywhere not only in a virtual space, but to actually see what it is like elsewhere and explore.