second life activity

1) What is the nature of social life in Second Life? Hanging out, chatting, waving their virtual bits and pieces in your face, etc. Sometimes people, such as Yoko Ono lend a bit of art or stump for a cause.

2) How do people converge and what is the main purpose of this form of online community? They check the event guide and look for someplace to gather.

3) What types of behaviours do you notice about your own relationship to the world and that of others toward you? I am an observer, they are participants...except for one avatar that represented a psychology student from Texas. I suppose she (he? it?) would be both observer and participant.

4) What type of people do you imagine are mostly attracted to life within SL? Lonely people, bored people, people searching for a way to live vicariously through an avatar...and Yoko Ono.

5) List five types of virtual goods for sale this week - describe a) how much they were and b) who would use them. Virtual clothing, virtual real estate, virtual homes, virtual furniture, and avatar animations.

8) List five people you met online per week and a) who they were and b) what they hope to get out of SL and c) how did they view you? I met a psych major from Texas. One dude said “hello” and then disappeared. Like pulling teeth getting people to talk. Vixen said “i jsut come here to chill with my mates”. One person Scott Neutron is a musician from Germany and linked me to his band Circles. Maybe he’s there to promote his music. River was helpful and explained about SL concepts. Universally they said that they were there to hang out with friends. They viewed me as my avatar I would imagine, or maybe wondered what I was really like.

9) Is how you are treated as a 'newbie' different from how those are treated who have custom avatars etc? It’s difficult to get into a conversation. You may just be ignored.

10) How do virtual goods get bought and sold in SL? Buy purchasing virtual money with real currency. Then spending virtual currency on virtual goods. It’s virtually rewarding.

11) What types of virtual goods are on sale and how does the economy of virtual goods sales work in relationship to the broader online economy? Really didn’t get a chance to examine that in depth. Sort of an extremely broad question.

12) How do the 3D spaces used by different people online in SL reflect their interests & personalities? By type of goods sold, design of area, music being played, etc.

13) What type of informal and formal behaviour are visible in SL?
Role play and others.

14) How many compare to rituals etc in everyday life? A few. Interaction hampered by interface.

15) How do people respond if you tell them that you are a student studying SL as part of a university project? The university project didn’t cut a whole lot of ice in most instances. It was easier to try to strike up a normal conversation and then introduce the questions.

16) How closely does behaviour in SL correspond to that in RL (real life) I think it’s meant to be very different. An escape from RL.

17) Summarise your experience in SL from the point of view of a researcher, what did you learn? I learned that SL is a good place to burn through money for no apparent reason. I learned that many people don’t behave according to the same mannerly conventions of actual life. I learned that kindness goes a long way in SL and in RL.