Encounters with other avatars in Second Life

[Leon Cych]

So those of you who have been 'in world' as it is called must have had encounters with other avatars. Every time I have been in the game I have met someone extremely interesting who has shown me something that has furthered my knowledge of the place. I have even got to know some avatars quite well and they have told me things about their real life interestingly. I see others have had different kinds of encounters altogether. Perhaps some people might like to share their thoughts on the environment and who they met and where they have been?

[Peter Twining]

I think it is useful to make a distinction between Second Life and other 3D virtual reality worlds -
* Second Life has no purpose (it's similar to real life) whereas most of the other well known 3D virtual reality worlds do have a purpose (often framed as a mission)
* In most (all other?) 3D virtual reality worlds the things you can create are pre-scripted - ie someone else has actually created them and you can only 'recreate' pre-planned objects. In Second Life you can create anything (of course there are limitations with the creation tools - like a maximum size per prim (basic building block) of 10m by 10m by 10m)

Thus most folk do not think of SL as a game - indeed when eBay banned the sale of artefacts and usernames for all online games (eg World of Warcraft) they explicitly excluded Second Life from that ban because they said it was qualitatively different and not a game.

Politically of course in formal educational circles it is quite handy to be able to frame Second Life as NOT being a game - cos for some bizarre reason most 'educators' seem to consider playing as inappropriate ...

[Peter Twining]

Trying to stick to one thought per post ...

I too have met lots of interesting folk in SL and have not as yet come across any of the notorious areas that the media are so keen to tell us about. In working with students in Second Life we have obviously had to deal with child protection issues - and a number of mis-conceptions that folk often have.

Firstly - Second Life is divided into two seperate areas - the Main Grid for 18+ year olds and the Teen Grid for 13 to 17 year olds. They are on different servers - and there are measures in place to ensure that they are totally seperate.

Furthermore, when you set up an island in the Teen Grid - as we have done (Schome Park) - you can choose for it to be closed (as we have done with Schome Park). What this means is that people can only get onto Schome Park if we put them there and once they are there they cannot get off. It is a totally sealed environment - couldn't get much safer than that. Though clearly there are still issues about supervision, etc that need to be sorted out.

So while it is true that there is some pretty wierd and unsavoury stuff on the Main Grid of Second Life - that we would not want to explore ourselves yet alone expose children to - we need to realise that this is NOT the environment that we would be taking students into. If you set up your own island in Teen Second Life you can set it up as a totally closed environment - (the only way in which you as an adult can get into the Teen Grid is to be part of a project that has bought its own island - and you have to demonstrate that you have appropriate police/CRB checks before Linden Labs will allow you to have an island or be registered on your project's island - and once on the island you cannot get off it).

So do be careful where you go in the Main Grid - but don't fall into the trap of thinking that your students on your island in the Teen Grid have the possibility of exposure to the same sorts of 'adult' experiences as on the Main Grid.

PeterT

[J Pearce]

Off message, I know but...I have met interesting people, boring people, busy people, lazy people, dull people, funny people, exciting people, rude people, generous people, depressed people, creative people, visionary people, thoughtful people, ignorant people, kind people, liberal people, shy people, stimulating people, skillful people, industrious people, warm people, cautious people, open people, optimistic people, racist people, conservative people, complicated people, fussy people, proud people, heartless people, sad people, lonely people, selfish people, humble people, grateful people…I could go on.

Just like real life really…..

[Leon Cych]

I asked for that didn't I ?

:)

[Gill Coker]

The best thing about SL that I have found is that it reveals so many ways in which such a virtual environment can be used to allow people to explore issues they face in RL. I have met people with severe disabilities; physical and mental. Talking to them, and seeing how they use SL to cope with, and add a positive dimension to their real lives is really inspiring and humbling. It certainly shows me how this may be used to support young people (in TeenSL) who face severe barriers to their progression.

I think that at the point I am ready to look at this with our Personal Advisers, we will be thinking much more of the framework around using Teen SL, identifying small, achieveable outcomes for young people using it and I am thinking that raising self-esteem will probably be a major focus.

[Gill Coker]

Has anyone else encountered people role playing as children in adult SL? I met one such last night, and it worried me somewhat, as all the way throught the conversation she talked like an 8 year old and said she lived with her "daddy" . lots of questions and concerns sprang to mind. Hmmmm