Krebs: Reading Four

It’s my Virtual World and Welcome to It

This new virtual world can be entered at www.secondlife.com A player in Second Life navigates space through an avatar. You can run, fly or even teleport. Anything is possible in this world. Unlike other online role playing games, Second Life isn’t really a game. The goal is to interact with millions of other residents. Brand name clothing creates stores within Second Life to get their brand out there. You can create different things to sell from ice cream cones to clothing by using small basic shapes called prisms.

I thought this was so bizarre. It reminds me in a way of SIMS because it doesn’t seem to have an end. Although it would be interesting to be able to create a life that you chose virtually, I think it would either become boring or end up taking up too much time. It’s not wise to put your life so much into a game.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=travel&res=9F06E3D8133FF930A35752C1A9609C8B63

My Virtual Life

Second Life continues. What’s amazing about this new technology is that you can actually earn real U.S. Currency while playing with Linden dollars. Three hundred Linden dollars are equal to one U.S. dollar. People have earned hundreds of thousands of dollars on Second Life. Second Life is different than other video games because unlike other games, you create everything around you. Whatever you can imagine you can create.

I think that Second Life is encouraging creativity and could be a new and successful way to communicate and share ideas across the world but I once again think there are concerns with this technology. Online games have been compared to golf, where business partners will meet online to play games instead of golfing. The problem I believe with all of these games is taking away face to face interaction. I believe face to face interaction is a very valuable part of society that continues to decline. I’m curious to see if Second Life has a large impact, whether for positive or negative.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_18/b3982001.htm