pieter kaan

Some of the comments I have read about Second Life from people who are seemingly interested in being in it just don't quite add up. They are referring to it as a "video game", which it really isn't, if fact, it isn't even a game because there is no objective. Perhaps a better description would be a social platform, like Facebook except that it is set in a virtual world wherein apart from the basic platform being Land, Sea and a Sky, everything else is made by the users in it. Much of what is made for Second Life is made in Blender and Autodesks's Maya where mesh models of anything you can imagine, is made and uploaded into this virtual world. It is an environment that is in fact human driven in that, real people around the world make their communicative self available to interact via an Avatar of their choice, with others. It is a creative environment for people who like to build landscapes and houses etc within utilising the included builders hud where shapes of basic objects such as the Cube, Sphere and Cylinder among others can be manipulated into other shapes. These are called Primitives. They are fun to build with but have limitations. There are applications outside of Second Life where you can learn to make Graphic 3D models not only for second Life but also for games. Unity is a popular app for building for Games. The quality of graphics and running scripted animated objects in Second Life are pretty interesting but do have some shortfalls and this is by and largely because it is Streaming within a global Server Network. The end user performance is greatly dependent on your graphics card, CPU speed, RAM capacity and Internet Speed and since it is streaming graphics and animation scripts, is very heavy in data density. Long term participants who have participated with Second Life since its early days have seen a significant progress and to a great extent, with marvellous results. That said, there is another downside and that is that wherever there are people, be it in real Life or a Virtual Life, you are going to experience human behaviour. Most of it is good as it is in real Life however, just like Real Life, there is also anti social behaviour. Lastly, Second Life is mostly suitable for people living on their own who prefer to stay indoors most of the time, are home bound perhaps through long term illness or sadly one of a terminal nature. There are many different reasons why some people are in SL daily and for most of the day. They can be computer savvy aged pensioners and also some with face to face social disadvantages. Second Life is like a mask for such and can be a great medium for one to be creative and share their work and communicated quite freely from behind a mask. second Life avatars are really like a mask for many. relationships with a very strong bond between friends can evolve since people get to know one another without the usual judgements made in a real life visual sense. This requires some understanding. Second Life is not a game when you consider it however, games can be played in Role Play such as War Games for Fighter pilots and Commercial airlines / pleasure flying with planes and helicopters etc. Yacht Racing is very popular. There are night clubs and discos, shops to visit and make purchases with an in world currency called Linden Dollars. There is an economy within second Life wherein you can sell goods you gave created or provide managerial services etc. Second Life is for many an extension to their real life. It is good to have some balance and get out of the house, exercise and meet people face to face, go for walks and bike rides, do photography.