I found the Second Life game to be quite interesting, and honestly don’t think I scratched the surface of all of the different things you can do in this game. One of the things I found interesting was the number of realistic destinations I could travel to. I spent time in recreations of New York City, London, Las Vegas (see photo), and Venice (see photo). I then tried to push some of the bounds of this “reality” to see if it was possible for me to travel into space. While searching through the destinations, I came across a space “elevator” that flew me into space. I thought this feature of the game was pretty cool, and obviously took some skill to develop. I then started thinking about all of these different worlds, and who took the time to create them, and wondered how difficult it was to do. So, I set out to try to build something on my own with my avatar; however I could not find any free land on which to build, and I didn’t feel like paying for land in the game. I found the fact that you can convert USD into currency in the game very interesting, and I wondered if the game’s creators created all of the items for sale in markets or if individuals could create their own businesses in the game. I thought that the introduction of a new currency in this game was interesting, and really made the game feel like a second life. However, I do think the fact that you have to (although there are games and other ways to earn money) convert USD to Linden, “breaks the metaphor” and reminded me that this is simply just an online game.
