First time Second Life

Today, I had my chance to try out the virtual world of Second life. It was not hard to sign up an account all it needed was you email, a password and a username that you wish to be seen by others in Second life.  But what really interest me is that after supply all those basic information for an account. You are given the option to choose an avatar, not any avatar you have the options to choose from human, vampires, animals, robots and vehicles. Who have thought of such things that you can choose to become the things you can not be in real life and represent it as you identify in Second life.

I decided to choose my avatar as an human, nothing unusual and have made an avatar that suits my identify in person and in the virtual world. I am quite looking forward to see what Second life is all about. Once you log in Second life as a first timer, you are respwan  new a beach with a  ship wreckage in the water and you are required to follow the sign on road to complete a series of training. There are quite few new respwans near me, you are able to right click and a list of command that you can use to interact with other person either chat, follow and party with them. Also you can actually fly! But unfortunately you are immortal in the world and you can not die. Once you are follow the sign to the end of the road, there is a portal that teleport you out of the training part of the world into the other part of the second life world. From there you can actually teleport to different destinations, other part of world that are created by other players, you are able to choose from a list of destinations that are made upon creators interest to fulfil the needs and desires for those others. My first destination in the second world is an amusement park where its no different than the one in real life. I decided to ride one of the courses but it requires me to pay.  WHAT!? you have to pay just like in the real world. Unfortunately it is true, currency is part of second life and some part of the world require you to pay for the things you need. Strangely, a made up virtual world that allow you to do whatever you want still requires you to follow the rules in the real world. Or maybe it is a way for creators to make profit from Second life. There are a lot of other aspect that I have not experienced but it does raise my interest in the world of Second life and I would love to continue explore this different world.

However, it seems the game fulfils the needs of player in a way that's forbidden or seems unusual in real world. It still are rules that keeps players in order without messing up what other people created and their interest in certain areas in the game. It seems a lot of addiction where just by exploring the world alone, but if you find certain interest that attracts you and you can do it in a different identity without others judging you, I believe it could be very addictive. The game does have certain rules but they are not strict laws that will punish you in person, but only affect your avatar, I believe this gives you an excuse to do things that could be either unethical and unlawful in real world. Maybe this is the most interesting and addictive part of Second life. 

The things I don't like about Second life is the graphic not very good in todays prospect, it will be much more attractive, if the graphic can match todays standard. But maybe the game focuses on the interaction. Apart from the graphics that looks terrible, Second life is quite a nice way to spend off time.