The avatars first met on a New England island, our class spent sometime there but we investigated the place more in-depth. A few things that I enjoyed on this island were the different houses you could go into. One house was for sale and when we went inside we picked up a radio station that followed us throughout the island. There were also places to dance, boats to go on and stores to explore. This island was very well developed. It had many benches, fountains, plants and things that made it appear like a real location. We enjoyed this island and the radio station.
The next island we visited was the World Trade Center in New York City. The virtual site of 9/11 was almost as chilling as the real thing. There were many groups to join and things to “pick-up” here. This location took a long time to load on the computers and was not as developed as New England. There were more people here than any of the other islands that we visited. It is an intense thought that people have re-created this site on second life and that people want to visit and explore this place.
The third island in SL we visited was the romantic city of Paris. The first site when teleported in is the Eiffel Tower. We were lucky enough to go at night to see it lit up beautifully. The tower was located close to a piazza where there is shop that resembled (from what I have seen and learned about Paris) a fashion Main Street. High end fashion stores and also European avatar bodies you can purchase. This was kind of weird to see eye colors and body parts. Most interactions that were available to avatars were romantic ones. Holding hands, piggy back ride, kiss. There was also a picnic area to lounge close to the beach. Overall, Paris was replicated well and the romantic aspect that makes Paris so popular was defiantly there.
Hawaii Maui is where we decided to have our event. One of the reasons why we chose this island is its many activities to do. The first thing I noticed was its large and colorful dance floor. There were 2 fires to sit around and one has a guitar for group sing-a-longs. On a dock, there were killer whales and jet skis to ride. Surf boards and rafts lined the beach for lounging. Over the hill there’s a Farris wheel, unfortunately you needed money to ride it. One of the things that made me think of Hawaii was its many rainbows and big waves. It was one of the most beautiful islands I've visited in SL.
We came upon Royston Vasey when looking for Las Vegas. We were going to use the area for our event, until the place changed. The island is used for weddings in SL. When we initially visited there were 3 different areas for the weddings. The first was in a beautiful garden with flickering fire flies and rainbows. It had a little chapel and seats for guests. There were places to take pictures with your wedding party and a reception area. The reception area had a romantic seating for the wedding couple and even a cake to eat! The second was a Las Vegas style wedding. A tiny white chapel and different types of weddings to choose from. The outside looks like the strip in Las Vegas, but there are not many things to do, it just scenery. The last area is in the sky and is hard to get to. It looks like a wedding in heaven. All of them had reception areas, isles to walk down, and places for guests to sit. Most of the interactions were dancing, wedding pictures and simple wedding activities, e.g. walking down the isle. There were a couple little houses for honeymoons also. The second time we arrived (a week later) the only place that didn't change was Las Vegas. And it was also snowing. We decided there wasn't much to do there anyway, other than have a wedding, and no one was planning on that.
Las Vegas Island literally looked exactly like the strip in actual Las Vegas. All the hotels were there and exact replicas of its counterpart in Las Vegas, NV. We walked up and down the streets and saw New York, New York, Paris, The Bellagio, the fountains and Excalibur. There were no people anywhere in Las Vegas, which is very different from actual Las Vegas. They might want to put people on the streets trying to sell cards, to make it look a little more authentic. We went into Excalibur and walked up the ramps like the actual hotel. However, there was some glitch in the system and we fell to the pearly gates and Royston Vasey. These locations were great islands to stumble upon.
Four people attended our event. When we all met the first thing we did was go dancing. We all stood around for awhile, until we figured out exactly how to dance. After the novelty of slow dancing with each other wore off, we headed to the water. At the water you could touch boxes and get your age, height and weather. You could also go surfing, jet skiing, wind surfing and ride a dolphin. Everyone did this and one Avatar even sat on the water. This island was a lot of fun and there was a lot of activities for free. Also There were many people on this island, however the majority of them were employees for the island. Overall the event went well, but the site started to have glitches and two of the avatars got “stuck” and had to reboot while playing in the water.
We also attended another of our classmates event and it was fun. Second life is very entertaining if there are other people to explore with. The only complaint that we have about the Web site, is that there needs to a better way to locate people in second life.
Overall the exploration of the islands and our event was fun and a success. We enjoyed exploring second life and finding out more about the virtual world.
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