Post #15

Do you even find yourself on Second Life with no one around you? Have you ever gone to a party only to see that no one came or the meeting point was given incorrectly? Or do you just find your current location boring and wish to leave? Then just start island hopping till you find what your looking for. Island hopping is when you go to your island search option and pick a random island to visit every thirty minutes. This is one of those rare cases where no one is trying to trick you into doing something you wouldn't like, since all you are doing is teleporting from one island to another. The only catch to island hopping is that your meant to pick a place at random and have no real direction to go. But the point of island hopping is to kill time and explore Second life in the hopes of finding a random gem.
While jumping from place to place, I found myself in the most random locations and talking with the oddest people. Most the time I would appear on a deserted island and walk around to see nothing, but from time to time I would find someone to make light dialog with. Or the simple design of an island would just keep me looking around, or it would be so dull that I would just jump right there and then to another spot. More then not, there were times when I would not find a single active avatar to converse with. Still this did not change the fact that in a matter of three hours I visited six islands and met some new people.

Post #14

We have been assigned the task of writing a newspaper about Second Life in a positive manner. We have decided that our paper will be an informative list of things to know about Second Life. We, as a group, have also decided that we will not take this paper with too much weight for the sake of anyone who is to read it in the future. Meaning that we wish for the reader to have an easy time and not be overwhelmed by the new information that we are providing to them. If this is seen as too informal then i must say that we are not trying to be formal because our readers are not formal but academic. Which means that as long as the paper has meaning and purpose, it can be a bit informal.
My contribution will be three report articles and the layout of the paper itself. while i am not working on the grammar aspect i will also look out for anything that is simply noticeable. my articles will be mostly on the human aspect of the game and all the socializing that goes into Second Life. It will cover travel, talking to others, and the whole international aspect of Second Life. Travel will be about Island Hopping and its random joys that can only be found by going from one random location to another. In the conversation aspect i will discus tolerance in the world and how to respect others. And in the international section i plan on showing how many different people are online.
as for the layout of the paper i will start with the title of World Time Fun, and work my way down with a basic schematic of text, photos all pulled together by color. so everything will go down in columns till about half a page where the article will halt and start another column. a picture will be to its side if not some random advertisement for Second Life. To gain realism i will try to create a magazine feel more then not, because of the lack of formality in the information itself.

Post #13

Today in class we talked about how to write an article and its many formats, or at least tried to convey this. Lucky for me, I worked on a newspaper back in high school and i was a journalism major till i found the course work pointless. The book covers everything in light detail but points out that everything they say can't help you if the teacher picks a different format. But most of it just follows the MLA format and most of the time its hard to mess up the format on an article.
Now the layout of an article is important because it will be what draws in the readers. The size of the article is important because if its too long, no one will read. Then pictures are important because it shows emphasis. There is also the issue of color in your article because too much will put readers off while too little will not even catch the eye, and given colors will also show the readers what type of state of mind the write has.

Post #12

I remember traveling for ten minutes across the barren plain of the World of Warcraft. Unfortunately, this did not occur during the duration of class let alone in the world of Second Life. But even though it was just a boring walkabout on my way to a quest, it was way more entertaining then the lagging Second Life. Thou in no way is this a slander of Second Life, but rather a personal dislike of pointless virtual walking. Now keep in mind that both games are pointless in the long run and both have their reasons to exist.
Then comes the issue of picking a virtual field trip as my favorite or most memorable. This is an issue because there was nothing worth remembering and most of the time was spent trying to move only to reappear in random spots. Our trip to the psych ward and the republican island were lacking any scholastic reasoning even though they were perfect for the assignment. The same can be said of the gym, and traveling from island to island. I can only say that as someone who plays enough Video Games to be called a gamer, that Second Life is one of the most boring network system because there is no holding point. And as a twenty year old that know better ways of virtualing socializing, such as Facebook, Topic Forms, Xbox live, PSN, IM, TXT, Twitter, blogging, and MMO's, Second Life does not match par with the speed or enjoyment of any of those.
I'm not trying to put down the accomplishment nor is this belittling the social power of Second Life. There are just things that seem to hold it back from being greater. And even though the creators try to say that Second life is not a game, if it involves playing then its a game. And when you escape threw an avatar then you are role playing, which brings us back to a game.