For my English class, we are using another virtual world called Heritage Key for its specialization in education. I was excited to see this new virtual world as an alternative to Second Life and see how it compared with regards to graphics, my avatar, and of course the performance of the application. Well, I started by giving my avatar my roommate’s name, and I was impressed with how fast the registration process was completed. That is, until I downloaded the application software – it took 20 minutes.
Once I arrived, I found as I saw in class the same exact controls in heritage Key are in Second Life. I did like Heritage Key’s tutorial building, even though it was in a building, I thought everything was more organized and easier to understand. I found it very simple to change my appearance, but I encountered one problem; when I saved changes to my appearance my face turned gray. (See the snapshot below). Then, I decided to go check out the Kind Tut Exhibit – because that is the only place that Heritage Key had to offer. Once I got there, I found that the software lags much more than Second Life. Then, my largest problem occurred which made up my mind about Heritage Key – the application suddenly quit! Then, when I clicked relaunch, it told me that “you appear to already be logged in. If this is not the case please wait for your session to timeout. If this takes longer than a few minutes please contact the grid owner. Please wait 5 minutes if you are going to connect to a region nearby to the region you were at previously.” ----Are you serious Heritage Key?? Once I logged back in, I noticed that along with the lag, it takes awhile for the signs to fully buffer so they are readable. I took the unnecessary air balloon ride over to the exhibit, where I was immediately cynical and unimpressed with the “grey scene”. The entire place was just very unattractive and took way too long to load.
And finally, I found my way to Tutankamen’s Tomb, which I found to be the first impressive scene I found in Heritage Key. I really appreciated how you can click objects and have the narrator give a summary of the object I clicked on. The replica of the art on the walls was good, yet I would rather just see it in a picture. I just do not get the same “I feel like I am there feeling” like I get in Second Life. Heritage Key, you could do better.
just a formatting note, you say see picture below, yet the picture is above the writing. try moving the picture into the second paragraph.
ReplyDeleteit is a good post, and i like how you comment about how you are used to the second life rezzing faster and having more things and interactiveness, but remember that second life has been around much longer than HK. it is still in alpha testing