Virtual Worlds

Introduction

Virtual worlds are more fully described in this Wikipedia article, but in short the term as I’m using it here refers to online environments that users log into in order to interact in spaces that look a lot like a video game. You can talk to other users, move around and explore different spaces, take part in games and special events, and do just about anything else you can imagine. In particular, I enjoy designing and building virtual objects: avatar accessories, structures, landscapes, etc. Read more about building in the virtual world Second Life, below.

Oyster Bar (in progress)

My Second Life as a Builder

I first became a Second Life resident in 2006 (left). My hair was a rigid orange puff ball and my clothes came from the New Citizens Plaza freebie bin but I had an adventurous spirit and the virtual world was my oyster. For a brief time, circa 2008, I owned a parcel of land on a small island community but homesteading just wasn’t my thing. Today you’ll find me wandering from grid to grid with my  hobo freebie backpack and 100+ flexi hair variations from Analog Dog (above right). Oh my gods, do I love to play with my hair! I admit that sometimes I get too distracted these days with the dress up part and never make it to the party. ^_^;; I am a self-taught Second Life designer/builder, and on occasion I’m even paid real money for my work. Mid-2010 I became involved with a mobile augmented reality project that distracted me a bit from the virtual frontier. However, the two are not as different as you might think; check out the video of a project, from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, and the Ludwig Maximillian’s University in Munich, entitled Second Life Avatar Enters the World. My own work is not nearly to this level but a woman can dream, can’t she? In the meantime you can view screen captures from my Second Life adventures.

Human mage at a carnival

In Other Worlds

No, Second Life is not my only online addiction. I don’t want to digress too much here but it needs to be mentioned that I used to play WoW (World of WarCraft) pretty heavily – a relationship that ended by mutual agreement in early 2010. We’re still friends. I also played StarCraft II for a short while, as a beta tester, and am a pretty regular gamer… but gaming doesn’t really belong here unless it’s an MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game). And, besides, some of you reading this are like WTF?? at everything I just said.