Monday, January 30, 2012
Chappy's wonderfully amazing snapshot
I'm on the left (the limbless green gladiator who has no purpose in life)
My First Snapshot yay
My First Snapshot in Second Life.
I just noticed that there is demo across all my skin lol and I still have no hair. But Yay!
1st Experience in Second Life
Second life is an interesting world. This is officially my first time using Second Life and sucessufully being able to load everything. I had tried SL before on my home computer and since it's lacking RAM and a nice graphics card, all I had to see of SL was lag and a lot of white loading space! I'm glad tht the world runs smoothly here on the school computers. The world itself is really nice looking. I like that we are able to customize our characters and even build objects. Here is my character;
I had fun creating my own character. I tried getting her to look close to myself but I'll need to put a little bit more work into it. The columbia IAM island is very nice and I like how it shows the personality of our school. Communicating with people in game is easy to do. The coolest part is just being able to roam around the worlds freely with no specific purpose other than just exploring and having fun. I think that this class is going to be great and I'm excited to learn more about character models and world design.
1st Assignment
I have had previous experience in Second Life from another class at Columbia. I have only played 10+ hours at most, so I'm still pretty inexperienced. I'm familiar with 3D worlds from playing a bit of WoW in high school. And it goes without saying social spaces aren't a new thing for anyone living in this generation.
I had one major thought that recurred with me from my last visit to Second Life and that it is the technology limits the immersion. Streaming everything onto the screen at once takes a lot of power and if I ever go anywhere with many, many assets, my experience is severely hurt. Second Life is more fun with more people around and, it turns out, the more popular and hotter a spot is, the longer it takes for me to move and see anything.
I have two pictures my venture yesterday. I searched random places such as Zoo, Club, etc. I found myself in a mall with clothing stores, laid out the same way a real store would, with men's clothing upstairs and women's clothing downstairs. I was ported out of an area for trespassing and was in a new place, with no bearings of direction. I rode a golf cart I found nearby and drove it to a snowy orphanage. It is there where I took these pictures.
-Vix Vaniva
I had one major thought that recurred with me from my last visit to Second Life and that it is the technology limits the immersion. Streaming everything onto the screen at once takes a lot of power and if I ever go anywhere with many, many assets, my experience is severely hurt. Second Life is more fun with more people around and, it turns out, the more popular and hotter a spot is, the longer it takes for me to move and see anything.
I have two pictures my venture yesterday. I searched random places such as Zoo, Club, etc. I found myself in a mall with clothing stores, laid out the same way a real store would, with men's clothing upstairs and women's clothing downstairs. I was ported out of an area for trespassing and was in a new place, with no bearings of direction. I rode a golf cart I found nearby and drove it to a snowy orphanage. It is there where I took these pictures.
Virtual Worlds First Assignment
So, I definitely had a very interesting time on Second Life so far. Since I missed the first class do to horrible oral surgery, I had to learn how to make an avatar myself. Since my brother has a past with programing, and was familiar with Second Life, I asked him if he could help me learn the basic building tools and help me make my avatar. He scoffed at me and told me that I could just figure it out if I tried. The avatar was particularly difficult, because I refused to look up how to do it with online tutorials, because I wanted to figure it out on my own. After the second day, my screen name finally had an avatar under it rather than a sentient-looking blue cloud. Which is in a way still pretty cool, I guess. When I saw the building tools, they reminded me of tools I use in photoshop and in illustrator, along with a program my brother used to use to make his own video games. I didn't want to play around too much, for fear of doing something HORRIBLY wrong that I couldn't fix. But I feel pretty confident about everything, and I'm really excited! The only negative thing I have to say is that working with a Mac in a programming class is probably going to suck, and I'm really upset that forgot my mouse at home. To say the least, I've had an interesting time in Second Life so far, along with awkward encounters with random people in the Columbia I Am world...particularly awkward because I left my chat on and no one tried to talk to me. Either way, I hope that this class is as exciting as my first few times using Second Life. I always love learning to create.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Welcome to the class blog. This is where you will turn in all of your blog posts and benchmarks. Feel free to post anything at anytime related to the class (this is your blog, also) so if you want to jot down reflections, questions, etc, your classmates and I can get to them offline if we don't have time in class.
I'll begin posting notes by class date (see Jan 23, above) as a thumbnail of class notes that we've gone through. An handy set of important links will also begin to grow on the right side of the blog (see I AM Columbia link, at right) as well.
Homework due Jan 30: write a 300 word blog post on your observations so far on 1) your virtual world experiences (if any), 2) your expectations of this class, 3) I AM Columbia sim, 4) other places you've visited (optional). 300 words minimum, you can of course write more if you want. Read the syllabus! Know what is expected of you.
I'll begin posting notes by class date (see Jan 23, above) as a thumbnail of class notes that we've gone through. An handy set of important links will also begin to grow on the right side of the blog (see I AM Columbia link, at right) as well.
Homework due Jan 30: write a 300 word blog post on your observations so far on 1) your virtual world experiences (if any), 2) your expectations of this class, 3) I AM Columbia sim, 4) other places you've visited (optional). 300 words minimum, you can of course write more if you want. Read the syllabus! Know what is expected of you.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
There's FUN to be Had...
As somebody who's been a resident since 2009, I feel that I know my way around Second Life and which places are worth seeing. Or more importantly, how many different types of places there are in SL. In Second Life, you can be anything from a zombie hunter to a DJ.
First things first, Second Life is one of the best sources, if not the best for internet radio, catering to all genres of music so that your personal tastes aren't abandoned.
Deranged is a metal club with a biker bar theme. Now celebrating its four year anniversary and catering to both the mainstream and the extreme, Deranged is the premiere metal venue in Second Life. Most importantly, Deranged is highly organized. There always hosts, contests, events, etc going on each and every day that keep the club vibrant and alive.
Hardbeatz Island is Second Life's Source for hardcore techno. For those into the harsher side of electronic music look no further. The best part of the island is that there are multiple venues for multiple DJs to play music at once so if the current set isn't to your taste, all you have to do is move a few steps in another direction to find something you like.
For all who are currently buying into the dubstep craze, check out Mostly Harmless. Not only does it focus on the cutting edge of music, but it's in a spaceship. That makes it a mega win.
If you're more interested in combat, there are both PvP and PvE environments to explore. The most popular of which are sims in which players fight zombies.
One of the best, or at least one that has less laggy zombies and a decent HUD is Bloodbath and Beyond. Imagine you and a group of friends having to fight your way through a post-apocalyptic city infested with endless waves of zombies. Grab your weapon, whether it be a sword or a gun and kick some undead ass.
Or if you'd rather take on your friends, try New Jessie. It's an open free for all deathmatch sim that relies upon players shooting each other or doing acrobatic maneuvers to bludgeon each other to death. Just remember to keep score amongst those you're playing with.
Finally, there's RP. You get to play as a character of your choice and tell a story through that character. If there's a genre, you can be part of it. Western, sci-fi, etc. There are certain rules to role playing that need to be followed which are too long to discuss here.
Insilico is a science fiction sim with mild combat elements set in a dystopian cyberpunk world. Different factions war against each other for control over trade within the walls of Insilico City. Terrorist, cop, mercenary, vigilante or crime lord? It's your choice. The sim is rated adult for some risque items sold in the mall as well as the presence of a stripper pole in a club but actual sexual content is rare to find within the sim itself and certainly not the point of it.
Tombstone is a sim based on the late 1800s and set within the old west. Outlaws fight against lawmen while most of the population is content to be simple townfolk tending bars or running the local shops. Feel free to play it however you want.
Combat Samurai Island is for those looking for a more intense and battle-focused role-playing experience than Insilico and Tombstone. For those looking to have awesome ninja swordfights, large-scale battles and a strong historical setting, look no further.
First things first, Second Life is one of the best sources, if not the best for internet radio, catering to all genres of music so that your personal tastes aren't abandoned.
Deranged is a metal club with a biker bar theme. Now celebrating its four year anniversary and catering to both the mainstream and the extreme, Deranged is the premiere metal venue in Second Life. Most importantly, Deranged is highly organized. There always hosts, contests, events, etc going on each and every day that keep the club vibrant and alive.
Hardbeatz Island is Second Life's Source for hardcore techno. For those into the harsher side of electronic music look no further. The best part of the island is that there are multiple venues for multiple DJs to play music at once so if the current set isn't to your taste, all you have to do is move a few steps in another direction to find something you like.
For all who are currently buying into the dubstep craze, check out Mostly Harmless. Not only does it focus on the cutting edge of music, but it's in a spaceship. That makes it a mega win.
If you're more interested in combat, there are both PvP and PvE environments to explore. The most popular of which are sims in which players fight zombies.
One of the best, or at least one that has less laggy zombies and a decent HUD is Bloodbath and Beyond. Imagine you and a group of friends having to fight your way through a post-apocalyptic city infested with endless waves of zombies. Grab your weapon, whether it be a sword or a gun and kick some undead ass.
Or if you'd rather take on your friends, try New Jessie. It's an open free for all deathmatch sim that relies upon players shooting each other or doing acrobatic maneuvers to bludgeon each other to death. Just remember to keep score amongst those you're playing with.
Finally, there's RP. You get to play as a character of your choice and tell a story through that character. If there's a genre, you can be part of it. Western, sci-fi, etc. There are certain rules to role playing that need to be followed which are too long to discuss here.
Insilico is a science fiction sim with mild combat elements set in a dystopian cyberpunk world. Different factions war against each other for control over trade within the walls of Insilico City. Terrorist, cop, mercenary, vigilante or crime lord? It's your choice. The sim is rated adult for some risque items sold in the mall as well as the presence of a stripper pole in a club but actual sexual content is rare to find within the sim itself and certainly not the point of it.
Tombstone is a sim based on the late 1800s and set within the old west. Outlaws fight against lawmen while most of the population is content to be simple townfolk tending bars or running the local shops. Feel free to play it however you want.
Combat Samurai Island is for those looking for a more intense and battle-focused role-playing experience than Insilico and Tombstone. For those looking to have awesome ninja swordfights, large-scale battles and a strong historical setting, look no further.
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