Virtual worlds, Second Life, and the Metaverse as a whole are very immersive experiences. This is because they immerse the user much more than an older type of medium such as just reading a book which leaves a lot open to the reader for interpretation. With something like Second Life, it is much more visual. Much more hands-on. The user can be whoever they want, whatever they want, however they want, whenever they want. It’s hard to beat the amount of freedom the user has to immerse themselves in this experience. In my opinion, the only thing keeping this from being a 100% realistic, fully immersive experience would be the fact that you can’t physically walk in the world of Second Life with your physical body and physically touch the items in it. A VR headset could be used to give the user the impression they are in the world and physically interacting with everything, but I would say that’s as close as we are going to get for now. Second Life is truly amazing. You can go into this digital world and get a job, build a house, sell the house, rent property, provide services for other users, you name it!
Even graphic novels are much more immersive than just reading a standard novel. The graphic novel paints pictures for the reader and helps them feel more like they are right there inside the story with the characters. Hence, an immersive experience.
My experience with virtual worlds is still pretty limited. I have some experience with it on the internet, in video games, and a little bit of time on Second Life now, but there is still so much I don’t know or understand about the metaverse. I must say that I am very excited to learn more about it. I’m only 33 years old right now. I can’t even imagine what our technology is going to be 40 years from now. It’s mind boggling to even think about.
I have read through several other immersive engagement proposals and looked for connections and similarities between them and my own. I appreciate the symbolic value of the objects that Kathryn wishes to create. I feel that the reward of her gold star at the end of the hero’s quest is very comparable to my holo-projector that will display a college diploma on it.
On the other hand, Danielle’s drawing tablet item compares more to my video editing workstation I wish to place in the world. I am also hoping that this object can help them consider if it is something they would be interested in learning more about at Peninsula College. Adobe Premiere Pro can be a pretty intimidating application from first glance, but it looks sleek. I’m hoping that potential new students seeing editing taking place using the software on the virtual workstation will inspire them to look into it more.
I also drew a connection between my holo-projector item and James’ map scroll. These items share something in common. They will be handheld items that can be picked up by the users’ avatars and interacted with. I am a little intimidated by attempting to create these objects given my lack of experience with 3D design and Second Life, but am more than willing to give it a shot!
I didn’t expect to find this! Apparently jousting in SecondLife is a thing?!? I was super intrigued. In face I might be interested in participating in this at some point myself! I really enjoyed the architecture of the building, fonts and colors used in the graphics, and the interior textures. I will certainly revisit this place at some point. Only issue I had with it was the location wasn’t wanting to load very well at first. However, that could have been an issue on my end.
Inspiration Island is a non-profit project that has been around for 12 years. I decided to visit its Hall of Heroes. This was a very unique place. Here you can add a photo of anyone whom you consider to be a hero to the display. I couldn’t help but notice that Richard Dawkins is there. He is definitely one of my personal heroes! The welcome hall that you first arrive in is well laid-out and does a good job of showcasing what this location is all about.
This store was awesome! I don’t currently have any Linden dollars yet so I didn’t buy anything here but there was tons I would’ve liked to have! They have a wide variety of Victorian and steam-punk styled outfits and accessories. The layout of the store was very neat as well. It appears to be an old warehouse and the pictures of the items are hanging on stacks of crates. Love it! Feels very steam-punky. I will certainly return once I have gotten myself some Linden dollars.
I decided to check out the Metaverse NFT Gallery because to be perfectly honest, I still wasn’t totally sure how NFTs worked in the first place. Upon arrival, I found the entrance to be very welcoming. The lower level had all kinds of information about what NFTs are and how they work. They even had a YouTube video posted on the wall that explained it. Today I got to learn how NFTs work and I got to see some breathtaking examples. This one in the screenshot particularly caught my eye.
I’ve never been big on opera, except for The Phantom of the Opera of course! However, this ad for an upcoming show has me intrigued. I might just have to add that to my calendar and come back to see what it’s all about! It is fascinating how intricate SecondLife is. I had no idea that people come here to a virtual world to put on virtual performances in a virtual opera house. Super cool. The design of the building is another feat all in itself. It is beautiful!
Role-Playing – 1950s & 1960s America in Time Portal
This was a real blast from the past. I saw that there are loads of different role-playing communities in SecondLife. One of the most unique ones is this one right here, where you step through a time portal back to what a small American town looked like 70 years ago. It’s really interesting seeing what things looked like back then and I very much appreciated all of the detail the designers paid attention to here. The only thing I was bummed about was I was not able to interact with these sweet bubble gum cigarettes. It’s pretty crazy how much the tobacco industry used to promote smoking to the little ones back in the day!
This was my favorite location that I visited so far! I got very excited when I saw that there was this virtual replica of the city of Venice, Italy. The reason for this being the fact that I am planning on going there in real life in September of this year. I’m super excited about it and it’s pretty much all I can think about. I can’t wait to see all of the architecture, experience the food, see their culture, and more. Everything I tried to play with in this location seemed to work and I was actually able to give myself a bit of a virtual tour to prepare myself for the real thing later this year!
It would seem that so many people have found what you could call liberation through virtual worlds such as Second Life. This platform gives the user the ability to fully customize their avatar. The possibilities are limitless. Like one individual said in the video, “People treat you the way you look.” This is unfortunately sad but true. With Second Life, people can change the way they are dressed, their gender, skin color, ethnicity, race, or species at the click of the mouse. They can change it as often and as much as they like. This gives the users the ability to create their own version of their selves that they feel more comfortable with and portrays who they really are more accurately. For many, this can be a life-changing experience. Especially for those with disabilities! This is truly freedom from the bondage of our natural bodies.
Aside from the avatar aspect of Second Life, the platform is special in many other ways. I had no idea before using it that it had it’s own in-world economy and a unique currency with a fluctuating exchange rate! Users can build, create, and design items in the game that can be sold for in-world currency. Users can even find a paying job inside the virtual world!
I am very amazed at how much Second Life is capable of. It is like discovering a whole new world that you never knew existed. I am happy for all the individuals who have experienced the freedoms and liberties that come with it’s use and I can’t wait to explore it more.
I sat here brainstorming for a few minutes, trying to think of who my heroes in real life were. Then it dawned on me. I shouldn’t be trying to think of political, historical, or war-time figures. I should be looking closer to home. My biggest hero is my girlfriend. She is the best mom I know, not only to her own son, but to my daughter as well. She has done far more for me than anyone else ever has and I couldn’t even imagine what life would be like without her in it. She is beautiful, strong, intelligent, driven, dedicated, and just a good person. As good as they come. I love her very much!
I’ll share something a bit personal here. I feel like I have made many great achievements in my life. One of them being my position at the company I work for. However, I think I must say without a doubt that the greatest one I have ever achieved was getting clean. I was heavily addicted to methamphetamine when I was younger. I was a very smart kid in school before I started hanging out with the wrong crowd and veered down a bad path for a good portion of my early adulthood. It took getting in trouble with the law, becoming a father, and a lot of rude awakenings to finally whip me out of that lifestyle, but I did it. Not many who went that route can say the same. It was probably the hardest thing I ever did, and I lived to tell about it. Today my life is completely different. You wouldn’t even guess that about me if I didn’t mention it.
As far as things I most value in friends, I must say honesty, integrity, and loyalty.
What type of documentary would be about me, you ask? Why, expository I’d say!
An animated video that I believe enhanced my life would be one that I found on YouTube from the American Museum of Natural History when I was younger where the camera is focused on Earth, but then zooms all the way out to the edge of the observable universe. I was completely blown away by this! I was absolutely fascinated.
I grew up going to church on and off with my parents. I can’t say I was as devout as others, but I believed that there was a God who was watching and listening to us. As I became older, I started to question that more. I started to wonder why there wasn’t any physical proof of something that so many people were convinced existed. After watching this video, it really made me wonder. It made me realize just how insignificant we really are in the grand scheme of things. Our planet is essentially a speck of dust in an overwhelmingly vast sea of nothingness, yet some of us claim that it was all designed and built around us, for us, by some divine being. There are billions of other galaxies out there. Each one of those galaxies contains billions of different stars, which can all have their own solar system and planets.
Watching this animation got me interested in science and space. I then discovered people like Richard Dawkins, Neil Degrasse Tyson, Lawrence Krauss, Christopher Hitchins, and Sam Harris. Today, I fully identify as an athiest. I strongly believe that religion and deities are things that humanity has fabricated ourselves due to the inability to go through life not knowing why we are here or where we go afterwards .I have a different line of thinking. I think as a species, we naturally tend to think too much of ourselves. We cannot imagine our existence without there being some meaningful purpose or reason for it. I can imagine that. I also don’t have a problem with it. I am perfectly okay with all of this happening by some random chance and just making the best of it while I’m here on this planet. I don’t need to believe in a magical being or a place in the afterlife in order to have a moral code and behave while I am alive.
When it comes down to it, I am glad that I have the views I have today. They are liberating. It’s quite possible that I wouldn’t have the views I have today if I hadn’t have watched the aforementioned animation.
