Second Life setup
Dean Zeller
CS49995
Fall, 2008
Objective The student will create a Second Life avatar and become familiar with the navigation and communication controls.
WebsitesSetup account:
SL software:
Wiki:
Tutorials:
(search for “Second Life tutorial”)
Background:
Background
In 2003, Linden Labs created Second Life, a virtual world focusing on the communication and building aspects instead of the competition and game playing. The concept of virtual worlds was already under development for massively multiplayer role-playing games, such as World of Warcraft, Matrix Online, and Call of Duty, but the underlying focus of these systems was on the game playing element. To new onlookers, Second Life appears to be a game. The visual nature of avatars exploring a world is very similar to the games incorporating virtual worlds. But Second Life is not a game; it does not contain the typical elements of game play, such as points, weapons, damage, competition, and winners. Instead, Second Life is a new method of communication over the Internet, and is the most popular Internet-based virtual world that is not part of a game.
For the first several years of its existence, Second Life was not popular. Those expecting to play a fun virtual world game were disappointed by the lower quality graphics and lack of competitive purpose, feeling like their avatars were wandering aimlessly around a virtual world. Those using Second Life for communication purposes were disappointed because so few people had avatars and thus there was not much point to enter the world. But times have changed. Since 2006, the usage of Second Life has exploded rapidly. There are now over 13 million unique accounts, with around 60,000 members in the world during peak usage. There are virtual stores, dance clubs, meetings rooms, classes, etc… It is growing exponentially, similar to the way the World Wide Web grew a decade ago.
Getting started with SL
The lab component for this assignment consists of creating a Second Life avatar and gaining comfort with movement controls, teleporting, and chat communications.
Step 1)Create a Second Life account. Go to the join second life web page to create an account and avatar. Use your email address for the email contact, and select a name for your avatar. You may download and install the SL software for use on your home computer as well.
Step 2)Attend SL’s Orientation Island. Gain familiarity and comfort with the movement controls, communication methods, and menu command interface.
Step 3)Alter the appearance of your avatar. Create a distinct avatar appearance you like. It may look just like you or be completely different.
Real Life: Dean Zeller
Second Life: Hothgar Zwickel
Avatar with wings (#1)
I found these wings at a freebie shop and thought they looked neat. You can find all sorts of stuff at freebie shops!
My avatar dancing (#7)
Large group of avatars (#2)
This is from DanceIsland, a techno-dance club. I was always a terrible dancer in high school, but here I can dance with the best of’em!
Star Wars world (#6)
This is a complete Star Wars simulation. It was very well done. Within is a complete multi-user role-playing game. That’s me by the stairs.
Playing a Video Game (#17)
Yes, there are even ways to waste your avatar’s time in Second Life!
Moon Landing (#13)
This moon landing simulation was very cool. I felt like I was actually walking on the moon! Well, not really “on” on the moon, but it looked really neat.
Model of a Lactose Molecule (new item)
A SL buddy of mine gave me this neat molecule rezzer! Given an input dataset used by molecule modeling software, it will create the model.