Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Heritage Key

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.

heritage key 1_001

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.

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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.

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Burning Life!

Well, I went through Burning Life as if I went through real life on a weekend – don’t stick to just one place, go everywhere! I traveled all over the place in search of people, and when I could not find anyone, I just danced by myself. It felt lonely and make me wish that I came earlier, but it was still interesting to see the atmosphere in which the party took place. It had a huge stage in a huge open room with cool chairs, a fake snake that basically covered the floor, and dancing cages. Lookers Paradise Lounge was a cool first stop.


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Next stop is Burning Life Rabbithole – Cocktail Time that entails story telling. When I got there, I just could not understand the “incongruity” of the place. There was an airplane/space craft, huge balloon, a huge bone structure, and an enormous tent with people in it listening to live music. It was truly bizarre, nonetheless I still gave it a chance to check out. I snapped a picture of the spacecraft with a man figure staring at me, then I went over and checked out the tent.

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The music actually surprised me, all the sudden I heard music coming from my laptop, and I thought my itunes library was playing Bob Marley. But, it was actually a rock n’ roll version of Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song”, which I enjoyed - I even danced! After the song and dance, i ventured over to a tent that had a zen-like garden in it that played very soothing and relaxing music.

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After i cooled off, I was ready for the action again, so I went over and checked out the bone structure where people were dancing and managed to take a picture from aerial view. I forgot the name of the place I visited in the bone structure, so I went back to check it out again after I logged off, luckily while the event was still occuring. I found out the name of the structure - “The Berlin Stage”, but I got more than I asked for… I walked into a big circle of naked people dancing. And that is when I decided to call it a day and say goodbye to Burning Life… Aside from the naked people, it was time well spent.



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Ready for Burning Life

As I look through Burning Life event listings to go to on my Sunday afternoon, I can not believe how much I wish this was like my real weekend. I have never seen listings for parties to attend at every minute of the day. It is like Spring Break at Cancun, only its free and I don’t get beer spilled on me! The events I am attending are controlled by the time of day, so I plan on hitting the parties that started an hour ago then the parties going on now. I am ready to party – at 6pm in the evening! The places I am going to visit are called "Lookers Paradise Lounge" and "The Rabbithole".

Free to Roam

I am very late with this assignment, but I needed to finish it to show my progress in Second Life. I hope these new pictures will demonstrate my ability with the controls and new camera angle shots. Since there were no required places to visit, I decided to roam free – with my shirt off. I decided to start my freedom trail at the Sistine Chapel, just to check out some other half naked people. Once I checked out Michael Angelo’s masterpiece, I decided to compare SL’s version of the Globe Theatre to Shakespeare’s version created in 1599. I stood at the center of the stage, zoomed out for the full view, and took the picture. This was my first realization of what Dr. Essid always insists at the point of Second Life – to see the actual building and feel that you are actually in it. Its not like a 360 degree virtual tour, because it feels as if you are actually walking into the building in reality and going to any step of the building as if I was actually there. The replica in SL is precise down to every last detail of the original.


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As my last stop I decided to see the Chichen Itza, which was outstanding and very impressive. It was also where I met my first SL friend; Mercedes Elan. She was with her friend, Elizabeth Falmer, and kindly introduced themselves to me. Next thing you know, I found out things about them such as they are from Holland, love the ocean and palm trees, and apparently love to dance. They friend requested me, then brought me to a dance party. At this dance party, I found myself chatting with various people who even taught me how to dance. I never would have fathomed that a Scavenger Hunt where I looked at historical sites would have turned into a dance party. And, to make things even more interesting, 5 out of the ten people there were dancing with sheep…


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I feel that this second scavenger hunt was very beneficial to me because it felt as if it were a road trip; traveling anywhere I wanted and feeling the freedom of traveling anywhere with no strings attached. I really enjoyed the Scavenger Hunt, and I hope you enjoy my pictures!



Thursday, October 1, 2009

Scavenger Hunt Pictures!

Shopping 1_006
This is my favorite snapshot because it is a perfect example of what I picture real life Harlem to look like. I tried to get the most out of this picture by taking a snapshot where I could fully see down both roads, along with high in the air so you can see the buildings. This shot, in essence captures the dark, concrete jungle of Harlem. There is no grass and no area for kids to go outside and play. The dark colored buildings show Harlem as being gloomy and depressing – a place that you could get caught in where it would be tough to get out.



Shopping 1_005

This snapshot is my attempt at capturing a work of art from a unique angle. My goal was to get the largest view possible of the Casablanca, while at the same time being able to see my avatar admiring the structure. All the archways of the Muslim mosque show the very unique design, and all the steps and open arena in the center show that it is a very special, famous mosque that can hold many people.



Shopping 1_004

This snapshot is of the “How to” and tutorial landmark on Second Life. The arrows point out the first attempts of walking, and familiarizing yourself with direction. The billboards posting the information show the tutorial stage in Second Life. My avatar looks like a “newb” because he is dressed in the standard shirt, and looking up at the information billboard in the picture. The scene shows not much going on, being very simple and helpful for starting the first stages of your Second Life.





Shopping 1_003

I took this snapshot because it implies a message to modern society – that we have destroyed our natural land and replaced it with tall, ugly buildings holding materialistic possessions with many advertisements on the outside. It shows what modern culture can do to our atmosphere; destroy it with material wealth. I zoomed out in this picture to show how the massive the building is, and how it is nothing appealing but some place that holds a bunch of material.



Shopping 1_001

This was my first experience with taking a snapshot. My avatar is in a normal standing position, in which he is initially entering the shopping center. I found this picture interesting because there are so many bright colors that catch the eye – you almost don’t know where to start. The horizontal rows of various items make the store seem real, along with the aesthetic tile my avatar is standing on. All the pictures on the wall are models of clothing – resembling real life when they have the most beautiful models posing in underwear. You can see the outline of these model figures from where the avatar is standing. In summary, this is a basic snapshot at the first glimpse of a Second Life store.