First Life Crisis

Being a huuuuuge fan of The Office, when I read that this blog would be about the virtual online ‘game’ Second Life, I immediately thought of this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3d_fqDcN1s

Oh Dwight, why are you so great?
So, that was when I first heard about Second Life, and after that episode of The Office, Second Life became more and more popular.

So after this weeks lecture on Second Life, I, myself decided to check this bad boy out, so I signed up and made myself a cute little pink haired anime type character called Pippypop (not sure of the reasoning behind the name) and I don’t know if it was just my crappy laptop or my internet or the graphics but the game ran soooooooo incredibly slow and took two million years for everything to load that I just gave up after about 15 minutes. It was ridiculous and super frustrating, so if you're unlike me and your laptop can actually handle a small internet game then I would probably be more inclined to continue playing it.

Although, I did have a look through some of the destinations and I just casually visited Berlin and flew around which was pretty fun, also went to some island paradise and found out my avatar can apparently walk underwater, most things on there are super glitchy and I could walk through walls and floors and all kinds of stuff which kind of ruined it a lot for me. If I’m going to have a second life I’d at least like a proper one!

I didn't actually "socialise" with anyone, one person spoke to me but it was in another language and I ran away as fast as I could so it didn't look weird, even though I think we were the only two people in that destination, awkward. Hopefully they didn't take it to heart. 

But the thing I find most annoying about Second Life is the fact you have to pay real money to buy things in Second Life or also known as Linden Dollar (L$). I feel like they should at least give you some money to start off with, geeeeez
Anyway, during the lecture we watched a Four Corners report on Second Life called “You Only Live Twice” This was really informative, definitely check it out, even if you have no interest in Second Life or virtual realities whatsoever, its still very interesting.

The thing I did like the most was the fact that you could actually be a paid prostitute on Second Life and make real money from it haha! Amazing. which brings me to this article http://www.geekologie.com/2008/11/couple-divorces-after-husband.php

So, this is just my opinion but I feel like people use second life as a way to escape from their own crappy lives, there are people in the world who weren’t born as one of the popular kids or overall their life just isn’t as great as they had hoped. So here comes Second Life with the ability to be whomever you want, do whatever you want. For example, being a prostitute, maybe that was your long term goal in school. All the perks of being a prostitute from the comfort of your own home! Also, like not needing $10,000 to go overseas, you can just teleport there and fly around the country!
But, for those who haven't heard of Second Life and had some free time why wouldn’t you stop to check it out? I don’t have any argument to those who are happy on second life and find it better than their own life. It’s their decision, and if they’re doing something they really enjoy or even making money off of it, why not continue?
Even online gaming is becoming less of an anti-social activity, and being seen as something of a sport or just a regular hobby, so why should Second Life be any different? Sure, you could work on your crappy first life to start with, but a Second Life is also an option.

OR unless you're like our friend Dwight K Shrute and you literally love your life that much that you want a second one, why would there be any harm in that! Who wouldn't want to fly around just for the hell of it? 

Now here are some shots of me during my time on Second Life.
Somehow I ended up in a lovers retreat, although it was pretty nice, it was surrounded by flowers and all things romantic, whereas I was just there solo enjoying it all.
Here's me immersed in some flowers

 Here's another shot of me trying to fly above the lovers retreat, pretty riveting stuff!