I was very excited to explore Second Life since we had discussed it so much in class, and I was not disappointed. Although I did encounter a few technical errors, overall it was a fun and interesting experience. However, I did not expect to run into these technical problems in the first place. Considering this program has been around for a few years and there are so many users online, I didn’t think that there would still be major kinks in the system. Not only did I have trouble logging on to SL, I also had trouble running the program since it kept making my whole system crash. This happened more than once, and there were serious lag issues as well with the movement and loading of the characters and sceneries in the game itself. Once I was able to overcome these issues, though, SL proved to be very entertaining and somewhat addicting.

I was highly entertained by the simple task of creating my avatar. I’ve always been very amused by make-overs and dressing up, and this game provided me with the opportunity – which I took complete advantage of – to change my avatar’s appearance over and over again. After I finally managed to decide on what I wanted Xara Olchowy to look like (which took at least an hour if not more), I finally began my exploration of this virtual world. I met some nice people during the tutorial and on Help Island, who helped me find places to get freebies such as clothing and tattoos. They also helped me figure out how to do more than just walk around, such as fly, teleport and dance. I had some good conversation about their experiences so far on SL even though we were all essentially beginners. Of course, I also had the displeasure of meeting people who were ‘hitting’ on me, and were interested in having virtual sex – something that I still don’t understand how it is possible to accomplish online.

Once I got off Help Island, I started exploring other areas of SL. I visited Vassar Island, where I walked around for a while before I found the Sistine Chapel. Although I’ve never visited the actual Chapel, I was very impressed by how well it was portrayed in this virtual world. The graphics were really good, and the images of the angels and clouds on the walls and ceiling were so beautiful. I was not expecting the graphics to be so impressive, and gained a new found respect for the creators of these virtual islands and monuments. I ran into other “tourists” on this island, who were all interested in traveling – both online, as well as in ‘real life.’ I had a few conversations with people about places that I’ve traveled to and learned that I could visit most of these places on SL as well. While I was on Vassar Island, I also got a lot of invitations to go to different clubs, islands, and information hubs that seemed to promote different users and their contributions to the Second Life world.

Although I did not get to explore much else on SL since my computer crashed yet again, I was still surprised by how easy it is to become totally immersed in this make-believe world. Even though my avatar does not resemble me in the least, and obviously has a different name and identity from myself, I still felt as though I was actually involved by what was going on in my screen, and was actually interacting with these other people who were online. Even though I do not see myself spending hours every day on SL just to meet new people, I can definitely understand how people use this site (and other virtual worlds as well) as a way of escaping their everyday lives and responsibilities, since it is so readily available and so easy to get sucked into a fascinating alternate reality.