Friday, December 16, 2011

A Second Life

I've been exploring a new world as a way to potentially improve my income. I first got involved with this place several years ago--almost exactly five--but didn't look much into it at the time. Life has its distractions and its requirements. Well, one of the problems with life is that it doesn't pay well, but it requires money to continue in. I suppose I could live in a cardboard box or in the woods somewhere, but I've grown accustomed to having a clean bed and showers. I like computers, too. :)

Anyway, this new world is called Second Life (secondlife.com). It's a virtual world--sort of a matrix within a matrix, containing matrices--and last night I met a couple of dragons. You can choose almost anything as an avatar. Among other things, there are worlds with pirates, elves, dwarves, spaceships, submarines...dance halls and shopping malls abound. So do mature themes, but they're zoned so that you can set your preferences to not show them to you. Minors are not permitted to enter these zones. Virtual property owners can also set access lists to prohibit entry to their properties.

Boring details? Well, I'm a photographer; how about some pictures? Warning: My computer is not powerful enough to show these scenes or characters as they really are, so these are caricatures of what's really there. I'll work on some nice scenic shots later, when I'm not trying to explore and can change the settings to make it look nice, but for now I wanted to show one of my new friends what "she" looks like to me. (I'm just assuming she's female; she could be the queen of England for all I know. LOL!)
My avatar, and goodlessmadam Bingyi

My avatar is on the left, in black; Bingyi is the pretty one. She said my hair looked like someone had dropped an egg on my head. :D We were sitting in swings and chatting--you can use text or voice--in Siden, a realm by Sooden Ren (http://www.sooden.co.uk/siden/). A marvelous place; I highly recommend you visit. The elven caves are beautiful!

Again, my computer does not render the scenes with their full beauty; when I set it to try that, I can't move. Here's a sample of the characters that Bingyi showed me; each has natural movements--incredibly natural, from eye movements to walking, and even posture changes when standing or sitting that are very well done. Nobody stands around like a statue!
The hammers walked around like a pair of stilts! The raven hopped just like a real bird. The alien was very disturbing...

Dragon, from the Isle of Wyrm in Second Life
That's about all the shots I have now. There's a lot to learn here.