Second Life, built and owned by its residents, is a 3-D virtual world. “Residents can explore, meet other residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, create and trade items and services from one another” (Second Life, 2007). I had no clue what Second Life was until a week before this entry. Upon hearing the words, “Second Life”, I thought it was just another computer game like the game most guys are addicted to, World of Warcraft (WOW). I was indeed wrong.
Apparently, Second Life reminds me of The Sims, “a strategic life stimulation computer game” (The Sims, 2007). The Sims is basically a virtual place where you get to control the basic requirements you need to do in a day-to-day affair. However, after a while, it gets boring. Reason being, the characters in The Sims are monotonous. They speak in ‘Sims’ language which totally makes no sense, complain if they lack certain elements in their energy, fun and more. Interest is lost in time to come because I believe since we all go through our own fair share of day-to-day affairs; it would be rather boring to repeat such grounds again.
As for Second Life, before you sign up, you get to choose an avatar of your liking to represent yourself. It needs not to be an avatar of who you are actually. Be it someone you really are or someone you would want to be given that you cannot be that person in real life. That is why I chose ‘Goth girl’ as my avatar. I cannot imagine myself being Goth everyday, I think I would just faint. Also, Second Life involves interaction with other residents as there is a ‘chat’ function which allows you to type anything you want to the resident you are communication with. This function makes Second Life seem more ‘alive’.
To me, Second Life is not a game because it runs like a social networking forum through the use of avatar, graphics, to build interest in others or draw the attention of new residents. According to Kevin Lim, he said that Second Life’s map is too big to even finish exploring. This is why; Second Life is not like any other game which has an end to it. There is always more to come in Second Life. Just like how in real life, there is always more to come. Relationships are built constantly, buildings, new landmarks too are built constantly. With that in mind, Second Life appears to me that this is how it works with relation to World of Warcraft. “Though WOW is a fantasy world, the interaction between guilds and individuals relies on human choices and morals” (Steven Levy, 2007). Just like how you are in real life, you would be closely similar to how you are in Second Life in terms of communication and how you carry yourself.
Thus, Second Life is beyond mere entertainment as it involves a greater skill in communicating, building bonds with people whom you have not met and an endless boundary of the map. More effort is needed to be taken into consideration than just purely controlling the avatar and moving about. Also, groups of friends can be added together, like a virtual ‘hang out’ place. No games are like Second Life.
REFERENCES
Second Life. (2007, April 4). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved, April 6 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Second_Life&oldid=120268909
The Sims. (2007, April 2). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved April 6, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Sims&oldid=119832651
Levy, S. (2007). In World of Warcraft: Is It a Game. Retrieved April 6 2007, from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14757769/site/newsweek/page/3/print/1/displaymode/1098/.
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