Second Life Orientation - Getting Started - V.2 – Debbie McCormick – June 2010 Page 0

Getting Started

Debbie McCormick

Getting Started

Second Life – Orientation

Second Life Orientation - Getting Started - V.2 – Debbie McCormick – June 2010 Page 1

Today

What is purpose of the orientation session The purpose of today’s orientation session is to provide a hands-on, guided entry into the creation of a Second Life account and avatar, and to facilitate the development of environmental navigation competency (i.e. learn not to bump into walls and fly into buildings – most of the time) in a relaxed, friendly environment.

Who is the orientation for? The orientation session is designed for people who have limited or no experience using virtual environments but would like to explore the ways they can be used for collaboration, education or just fun.

What will we do? During the session you will:

Create an account in Second Life (free)

Choose an avatar and a name for your avatar

Learn how to access and use your inventory

Learn how to navigate the environment

o Walk

o Fly

o Teleport

Visit some popular Second Life sites

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Getting ‘Inworld’

Technology

Not all computers can run Second Life so you might like to check the specifications of the computer you are

planning to use for access (see http://secondlife.com/corporate/sysreqs.php). A critical factor is your

internet connection – broadband (basically anything but dial-up) is a must for running Second Life. Your

computers RAM and video card are also major factors that will affect your ‘inworld’ experience – more RAM

and better video card = smoother actions and less ‘lag’ (see Obstacles and Barriers in the Intro to Second Life

document for more information on lag).

Registration and Avatar Selection

After checking that your computer can run Second Life the next step will be to set up a (free) Second Life account.

1. Open your web browser

2. Go to www.secondlife.com and click ‘Join Now’

3. Choose your avatar name and ‘look’ **note** choose your name carefully, it’s the only thing you won’t be able to change later:

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4. You will receive an email confirming your registration and asking you to activate your account. When you have done this you will be invited to “Become a Premium Member today”; unless you want a paid membership (which you probably don’t at this time) select ‘Not Now’; then on the next screen select ‘Welcome Island’:

The Software

5. When you have selected your Avatar you will be invited to ‘Download and install the Second Life client’.

If you don’t want to download the software now you can come back later to:

http://secondlife.com/support/downloads.php

6. When the software has been downloaded clicking on the Second Life icon on your desktop will launch

the browser.

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There are several pieces of useful/interesting information on the login page: a. Whether Second Life is currently online or offline (i.e. whether you can log in) b. Current Time (Second Life time is the same as USA Pacific Time) c. How many people have logged in the last 60 days d. How many people are currently logged in

After entering your Avatar name and password select ‘connect’.

d

c b a

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What to expect when you arrive

Welcome Island

After agreeing to the Linden Lab Terms of Service Agreement and reading the Community Standards that include Behavioural Guidelines, and Policies and Policing, you will be launched into the ‘world’.

Your first landing spot will be Welcome Island. Computers sometimes struggle to download clothes and other features of the landscape so don’t be alarmed at this stage if you appear as a foggy ball, you will appear!

Welcome Island has areas with tutorials that will help you to learn the basics of Second Life including; moving, communicating, changing appearance and searching for people, groups and events etc.

**Note** Some people on Welcome Island, and in other areas of Second Life, can be a bit, shall we say, forward (just like in real life). If anyone hassles you in any way you can just tell them to get lost – like you would in real life. If anything really disturbs you just close the program down and go and have a cup of tea.

Finding Friends

To find people in SL who aren’t on your ‘friends’ list you can do a ‘people’ search and contact them via instant message.

Finding Your ‘Home’

To come to the Behavioural Studies offices you will need to teleport to the location. To do that:

1. Search for ‘Behavioural Studies’ using the main search tool (see ‘Finding Friends’ above)

2. Then click Teleport

3. This will bring you to the entry of The Behavioural Studies Offices.

It’s a good idea to set a landmark to this location so you can get back here any time you want to; especially handy when you’ve been wandering elsewhere in Second Life. To set a landmark you

Search for people not on your ‘friends’ list

Send an Instant Message (similar to a real life text

message or SMS)

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simply click World, then Create Landmark Here. When you go wandering and want to come back here you click Map; then My Landmarks; then find the landmark in the list, and Teleport. Easy.