Second Life®

MOBAC Future Technologies Workshop May 2, 2008

Danielle Kane

Rise of Gaming

• MMORPG Massively-Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game

• MMO Massively Multiplayer Online game

• MUVE Online, Multi-User Virtual Environments, sometimes called virtual worlds

http://www.opencroquet.org/index.php/Main_Page

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/index.xml

http://secondlife.com/

http://www.activeworlds.com/

Is it Just a Game?

YES• Sense of play• Has the look and feel of

a game

NO• No objective, no way to

“win”• Content created by

residentsVendor Space on Imagination Island – Opened 3/19/07

TerminologyAV, Avie, Avatar

GridGriefer Inworld

LagL$

A LindenNewbie

RL/SLResident

RezSim

How Big is Second Life

223,616 acres

What is Second Life

• Chat / IM / Voice• Import / Export• Video / Snapshots• 3-D graphics• Rich Build Tools• Streaming Audio• Creativity• Collaboration • Ownership• Community• Expressive

• Lag• Distracting• Griefing / Harassment• No Preconceived Objective • Experiment• Economy• Slang• Social Environment• User Generated / Owned

Content• Social Networking

Getting Access

• Download client http://secondlife.com/support/downloads.php

• Create an account– Last name chosen from list– First name your choice

• Learn how to move, communicate, dress and build on orientation island

Second Life Communication

Non-verbal• Gestures, animations, visual appearance

Verbal• Text or Voice

• Private (IM)• Public (Local Chat)

Road Trip

Teleport

Walk or even Fly!

Building Your World

• Build using 3D prims

• Import textures, sounds and animations

• Linden Scripting Language

Education in Second Life

Sandra Rotenberg

OnslaughtGoogling “second life” schools…

645,000 results.

Adding (college OR university)

1,660,000 results.

Adding Information competence

115,000

If it’s in USA Today…

http://vhil.stanford.edu/projects/

Why?

Fun.

Possibilities – language, 3d models of weather, molecules, insects, etc., cultures, sociology, psychology, information competency.

Library instruction

Not a geek

And not Stanford, either.