A few years ago, my daughter became interested in SecondLife, a virtual world where more than 50,000 avatars enjoy music, arts, role play, and a wide variety of other activities. I was skeptical and listened as she described the experience. Finally, she sold me and I signed up. At a time when I was particularly unhappy with the real world, and having difficulty managing stress at work, I found SecondLife was a release from the crush of real life. Over the last 3.5 years, I've collected an array of avatars, based on my mood or interest at the time. I consider them my human crayons.
Through these avatars, I create a mood and interact with others in different ways. By doing so, I orchestrate a world with people of diverse cultures as friends, with far more diversity than is available to me in the real world. I've met people from France, Portugal, Brazil and Germany through my avatar and initiate conversations. Unfortunately, I don't really know any other languages, so I depended heavily on a translator. In any case, where else can you get a direct line to people of other cultures?
It's NOT a game! Too many people join virtual worlds thinking it's a platform for gaming. They quickly become disappointed. As a virtual world, you build things, buy or sell creations, do things you might never do in real life like swim with whales, take a ride in a rocket into outer space, go skiing on Mount Everest, etc. There is no limit to your imagination. There are plenty of opportunities for role play as well, which is "sort of" gaming, but you must be skilled in acting and it's a good idea to learn the tricks of animations. But there are so many ways to enjoy a virtual world, I simply cannot do it justice. Extend your imagination into the virtual world.
Therefore, through this blog, I hope to help others find ways to interact and learn from a vast array of people. If you are interested in joining a virtual world and would like a mentor, please let me know. I'd be happy to show you around SecondLife. You'll be amazed and amused at the variety of people you'll find in these virtual worlds. Your kids certainly know about it (or they will), shouldn't you?
No comments:
Post a Comment