SL Observations, Newb-style

Hi folks,

I just hooked up with SL yesterday. In RL, I'm a long-time gamer, a pro writer, designer, and artist. I keep a near-daily blog, and posted my impressions of my first few hours in Second Life.

It's a long-ish post, but might have some interest for other newbs or even seasoned SL folk (you may want to skip over some of the introductory paragraphs): http://www.clickableculture.com/comments.php?id=1879_0_1_0_C
I'll be posting more observations in the days to come.

Feel free to leave your thoughts on the blog or chat me up next time I'm lurking in SL. I need to be coaxed into sociability

Welcome Zero!

Hey Zero, well I see that you enjoyed your time in SL. As a long time user I do agree with you on the quantity vs quality of stuff inworld. When I was a noob, I admit... I did make crap, but now (ok I still make crap, it's just fun usless crap ) when I present something (on my land) I try to make it a good as possible. If I don't like it I tear it down!

As for quantity vs quality stuff, come see me and I can show some stuff (mine and from others) that i'm sure you would love!

Looking forward to your next post!

Welcome Zero!

-Zero

cool site, Zero!

Thanks for the welcomes, all. Today I am wandering around marvelling at all the creations for sale. It's just astounding...

Part two of my SL adventures has been posted.
http://www.clickableculture.com/comments.php?id=P1881_0_1_0

More on user-created content and IP rights, plus fashion, racing, and avatars

Much of what the writer says is fairly accurate, but I think it's grossly unfair to infer that all of the art displayed in-world is illegally copied from real-world artists. A great many of Second Life's players are painters, photographers, and graphic artists. Visit Chip Midnight's gallery for proof of this.

Also the reason behind the Second Life surnames is to allow *more* flexibility than the usual games. In other games, users have to resort to numbers and cryptic names in order to have a unique name (e.g. bobk56 or sue_23, etc). By giving us surnames, there's a much better chance that we can have the first name that we like -- one without numbers or symbols in it.

The review was extemely superficial. Second Life isn't primarily a chat game. It's about creativity and collaboration. It's about designing an online world. The reviewer must have missed that.

Gonna have to side with Cubey there.

Not only are many of us artists to one degree or another (I'm not terrible if you put in in front of photoshop, I can normally manage basic textures), but a lot of the textures in second life also come from free graphics archives on the web (Designed for things like website backgrounds, or 3D artists to use), or in some cases, are actually purchased... I myself have spent 20-30 dollars US on a couple of texture packs because I wanted the textures in them.

Likewise, a lot of the, I guess, "true" art as such in the game is from very good artists who also play SL... Eddie Esher, Damien Fate, etc.

Zero,

There are some wonderful artists in SL who do completely original work. Unfortuanately, in a big world, it can take a while to find them. I know that when I first got to SL, I found very little that "excited" me for the first few days - and the world was much smaller then! Then I stumbled across Eddie Escher's home in Hawthorn... and I was blown away. It was the moment I signed up for a paid membership, after having thought maybe I'd just stick it out for the trial period.

In a world this size, it wouldn't hurt to have a tour guide. I'm going to drop you a notecard full of landmarks of original works. I hope a few others take the time to do the same. It would be a shame if, in all the noise and clutter, you missed what I think is some truly groundbreaking artwork by some very creative people.

Bhodi

Thanks for the comments, folks.

Cubey,
I didn't mean to suggest that all the material in SL is pirated What I was trying to communicate was that a huge majority of what I have seen has been "borrowed." Part one of my article was based on three hours of play and is 1500 words long. I'm not sure I would want to write anything longer in one article, but I think the article represents well what I did in my very first three hours inside SL. I think you may be mistaking some observations as criticisms or complaints. It's true I wasn't greatly impressed by my first day in SL, but it's growing on me rapidly

Reitsuki,
The material that I noticed was "borrowed" wasn't so much textures (because the sources of textures are hard to pin down) but rather actual artwork, corporate graphics, and photographs. It seems that wherever I go in SL, I'm seeing a lot of "borrowed" material. Again, this is merely an observation. I'm not really concerned with who is or isn't pirating something unless it directly affects me I think borrowing the work of others can lead to some very creative situations.

Bhodi,
Thanks for the suggestion. I would love to get some locations for really excellent stuff. It seems every hour or so I spend in SL that I find something new and creative. My first 3 hours weren't so lucky, but the following 3 (discussed in Part 2 of my article) were much more fruitful.

Again, my thanks to all for the replies.

Yeh. I saw seven paintings in world for sale, and IMed the creator asking who made the art. He had no idea. Makes me sad.

BTW, no one gets L$1000 stipends, 'cept maybe the top few people in SL. It's L$500 base, plus ratings bonuses and dwell.

The third and final (for now) installment of "My Second Life" has been posted here
http://www.clickableculture.com/comments.php?id=P1885_0_1_0

In today's article I give my own answers to the questions
-- What is Second Life?
-- Where is the Narrative?
-- What Good is Second Life?
and get into
-- Control Versus Freedom

My thanks to the commenters so far, I appreciate all construcitve feedback.

whoa! nicely written! I pretty much agree with everything said in there (3rd one). Welcome aboard!

Excellent articles, Zero. Thanks for sharing your insights and thoughts. Sometimes it gets hard to remember what it was like in my first few tentative days in SL (a year ago now) so it's nice to be given the opportunity to experience it vicariously through the eyes of a new player. I think in time you may come to find the surreal, justaposed, and constantly in flux nature of SL to be one of its greatest strengths. I've been here twice as long as I've stayed in any other mmog and have yet to get bored looking at the same places and repeating the same activities ad nauseum. Excessive planning and cohesion can lead to a kind of inertia which might see desirable in the short term but would lead to stagnation and boredom in the long run. Just my two cents

Thank you Jarod! When I read Zero's article, I went looking for your script but couldn't remember the name. Kept searching for "Blog". hehe.. Anyway, was going to let him know so I"m glad you found this thread.

Thanks for the blog info
If I understand correctly (I am not a programmer) your scripts post from inside SL to the Web, correct? Congrats on the system, I think stuff like this is a great idea. The more exchange between SL and the Web the better. If a system like yours was able to post to LiveJournal or MoveableType, that'd be particularly cool. Maybe it already does, I don't know, I can't parse your code

SL is also playable on a Mac, you hack. Word of advice, from a mere blogger to a "real reporter" (yes, I'm a troll, I guess), spend a few minutes researching your material before you write about it.

Hey, I'm just a blogger too My post was written this morning, and obviously rather hastily. Thanks for your comments via IM, they were very constructive Since I wasn't writing for a magazine (just my own blog) I didn't spend more than a few minutes doing fact-checking, so I made some mistakes-- also I don't have an editor, so basically I write, post, and there it is. I think it's amusing that you're the only one who pointed out the error Thanks for the correction, I'll go alter the entry.