I don’t even have a first life!!
By Carrie Kolb
While I was waiting for the game to function one day, I was passing the minutes IMing a friend who sent me a link to getafirstlife.com as a joke, but I started thinking about the premise of this game: to create a virtual life based on an ideal where I can do or be anything and anybody—but I found myself running in circles more in Second Life than even in my first life! True, I could fly, and haven’t figured out how to do that in real life yet, but even that novelty wore off rather quickly. I enjoy talking to friends, even those who are geographically far away, but those are people I already know. I haven’t mastered the social intricacies of meeting people online, so while I thought it would be interesting to meet people all over the world, I ran into language barriers as well as social barriers.
Initially, the idea that the game mimics the real world enticed me because I’m not a game fan by nature, but the allure of virtual games is to escape reality, not wallow in it. The graphics of the game won’t work on my laptop, so even changing my appearance was a hassle, and I couldn’t run the game from my desktop since I have dial-up internet at home. Even as recently as today I tried to log on for a few minutes of play before I started this paper and my computer crashed completely. Perhaps there is a problem with my computer, but I’ve never had a problem like this.
I read for pleasure, to wile away the hours of my free time, and I enjoy the stories as they unfold. I admit I’ve dreamt of being a character in myriads of stories, but never got into role playing when I was younger and video games lost their appeal after I outgrew Mario Bros. But even Mario Bros. games are entirely based in fantasy so as a diversion from real life, they worked. I could lose myself in the simple storylines and plots presented by the game. Second Life has no story to unfold, except the story of my life, and I have enough of that without resorting to a virtual me. I suppose if I really reach I could invent an alter ego but the process of recreating myself and then maintaining the persona seem, to me, less like fun and more like work. I already put on a different face for work and school before I go home to be mommy; adding yet another face to my portfolio is more trouble than it’s worth.
My sister was the gamer in the family and she loves the Sims, but I never saw the point. She likes to have total control of the universe, so the game appealed to her iron-handed lifestyle, but it was too ‘real’ for me. On the occasion that I do pick up a game to idle away a half hour or so, it would likely be a fantasy-type game where nothing in the game resembles the real world (except perhaps player interactions with other players, but Second Life is the only multi-player game I’ve ever attempted, so any interactions would necessarily have been simulated anyway). I think I even prefer the simulated interactions in console games because the game does most of the thinking and I just have to hit a button for each pre-set response. I read books because I like to watch the story unfold, not unfold it myself.
I do like the idea of the camping sites where I could earn money to spend in the game, but I couldn’t find my way off the archipelago of orientation/help islands. I flew over the edges of the map in the corner but kept going in circles.
The live players in Second Life, at least the ones I met, were also new to the game and didn’t really know what was going on anymore than I did. I never found anyone who spoke English, and the French guys were rude. I don’t know where the English speakers hang out in Second Life, but every time I made far enough into the game to speak to somebody, I couldn’t communicate anyway. When I was trying to change my appearance with my super slow connection to the game, the other players in the vicinity seemed attracted to my distracted state and used the time to feel up my character which I didn’t really like, but in retrospect, the motions the characters make while typing do look like the perfect position for groping a disrobed avatar. After several failed attempts to speak French, and I do know a tiny bit of Spanish which also didn’t help, we parted ways and I read the conversations going on close by where they were talking about a “stupid American”. Yeah, that really piqued my curiosity to go further in the game. At that time, my avatar didn’t even have eyebrows. It took several tries to finally retrieve my furry person.
I’ve run into several problems with this game and have not been able to enjoy it at all. I loaded the game onto my desktop, but my dial-up internet will not support the game, and it crashed. I loaded the game onto my laptop to play at school and other wireless areas like Anderson Mall and Panera Bread Co., where I frequently do my homework when it requires internet use. My laptop crashed almost every time I tried to run the game, and when the computer didn’t crash, the game ran slow. I was still able to do other things while the game was running, so it didn’t interfere with my computer, but the game itself would not run properly. When I signed up, I chose the furry person avatar, but when I signed in later I was a regular person; however, my avatar had no hair or eyebrows, but the tail of the furry person remained. I tried to change my appearance, but the delay in the game was time consuming and left a lot to be desired. I checked the inventory for different textures and items, but there weren’t any.
I was able to log on at school, in the lab, and change my appearance, try on new clothes and attempt to drive a buggy, check out the freebie stores, and learn to fly, and pick up items for my inventory there, but I had trouble accessing the inventory. I picked up a car on the driving track, but when I checked my inventory so I could drive it, I couldn’t figure out how to open the program. I “bought” several things at the freebie store but to no avail: I could not open the files when I signed on again. I haven't found anybody in the game to converse with (in English, anyway). As a leisure activity, this game caused too much frustration and stress by its lack of amusement to be considered amusement. I can't wait to uninstall the program and hopefully get my computer back to normal.
By Carrie Kolb
While I was waiting for the game to function one day, I was passing the minutes IMing a friend who sent me a link to getafirstlife.com as a joke, but I started thinking about the premise of this game: to create a virtual life based on an ideal where I can do or be anything and anybody—but I found myself running in circles more in Second Life than even in my first life! True, I could fly, and haven’t figured out how to do that in real life yet, but even that novelty wore off rather quickly. I enjoy talking to friends, even those who are geographically far away, but those are people I already know. I haven’t mastered the social intricacies of meeting people online, so while I thought it would be interesting to meet people all over the world, I ran into language barriers as well as social barriers.
Initially, the idea that the game mimics the real world enticed me because I’m not a game fan by nature, but the allure of virtual games is to escape reality, not wallow in it. The graphics of the game won’t work on my laptop, so even changing my appearance was a hassle, and I couldn’t run the game from my desktop since I have dial-up internet at home. Even as recently as today I tried to log on for a few minutes of play before I started this paper and my computer crashed completely. Perhaps there is a problem with my computer, but I’ve never had a problem like this.
I read for pleasure, to wile away the hours of my free time, and I enjoy the stories as they unfold. I admit I’ve dreamt of being a character in myriads of stories, but never got into role playing when I was younger and video games lost their appeal after I outgrew Mario Bros. But even Mario Bros. games are entirely based in fantasy so as a diversion from real life, they worked. I could lose myself in the simple storylines and plots presented by the game. Second Life has no story to unfold, except the story of my life, and I have enough of that without resorting to a virtual me. I suppose if I really reach I could invent an alter ego but the process of recreating myself and then maintaining the persona seem, to me, less like fun and more like work. I already put on a different face for work and school before I go home to be mommy; adding yet another face to my portfolio is more trouble than it’s worth.
My sister was the gamer in the family and she loves the Sims, but I never saw the point. She likes to have total control of the universe, so the game appealed to her iron-handed lifestyle, but it was too ‘real’ for me. On the occasion that I do pick up a game to idle away a half hour or so, it would likely be a fantasy-type game where nothing in the game resembles the real world (except perhaps player interactions with other players, but Second Life is the only multi-player game I’ve ever attempted, so any interactions would necessarily have been simulated anyway). I think I even prefer the simulated interactions in console games because the game does most of the thinking and I just have to hit a button for each pre-set response. I read books because I like to watch the story unfold, not unfold it myself.
I do like the idea of the camping sites where I could earn money to spend in the game, but I couldn’t find my way off the archipelago of orientation/help islands. I flew over the edges of the map in the corner but kept going in circles.
The live players in Second Life, at least the ones I met, were also new to the game and didn’t really know what was going on anymore than I did. I never found anyone who spoke English, and the French guys were rude. I don’t know where the English speakers hang out in Second Life, but every time I made far enough into the game to speak to somebody, I couldn’t communicate anyway. When I was trying to change my appearance with my super slow connection to the game, the other players in the vicinity seemed attracted to my distracted state and used the time to feel up my character which I didn’t really like, but in retrospect, the motions the characters make while typing do look like the perfect position for groping a disrobed avatar. After several failed attempts to speak French, and I do know a tiny bit of Spanish which also didn’t help, we parted ways and I read the conversations going on close by where they were talking about a “stupid American”. Yeah, that really piqued my curiosity to go further in the game. At that time, my avatar didn’t even have eyebrows. It took several tries to finally retrieve my furry person.
I’ve run into several problems with this game and have not been able to enjoy it at all. I loaded the game onto my desktop, but my dial-up internet will not support the game, and it crashed. I loaded the game onto my laptop to play at school and other wireless areas like Anderson Mall and Panera Bread Co., where I frequently do my homework when it requires internet use. My laptop crashed almost every time I tried to run the game, and when the computer didn’t crash, the game ran slow. I was still able to do other things while the game was running, so it didn’t interfere with my computer, but the game itself would not run properly. When I signed up, I chose the furry person avatar, but when I signed in later I was a regular person; however, my avatar had no hair or eyebrows, but the tail of the furry person remained. I tried to change my appearance, but the delay in the game was time consuming and left a lot to be desired. I checked the inventory for different textures and items, but there weren’t any.
I was able to log on at school, in the lab, and change my appearance, try on new clothes and attempt to drive a buggy, check out the freebie stores, and learn to fly, and pick up items for my inventory there, but I had trouble accessing the inventory. I picked up a car on the driving track, but when I checked my inventory so I could drive it, I couldn’t figure out how to open the program. I “bought” several things at the freebie store but to no avail: I could not open the files when I signed on again. I haven't found anybody in the game to converse with (in English, anyway). As a leisure activity, this game caused too much frustration and stress by its lack of amusement to be considered amusement. I can't wait to uninstall the program and hopefully get my computer back to normal.
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