Real LIfe Second LIfe play

I needed to complete the below for a class I am so I decided to post it here as well:

Cathy Anderson

Comparison between playground and second life

In both situations there is a lot of movement and communication, there really isn’t much difference interactions between people. You also get a sense that there is a high degree of experimentation, learning, and adjusting to a new environment or situations in both scenarios.
Each situation is obvious created for “play,” whether that is on an adult level or a child level. In the children's scenarios their home and yard is obviously their place to play. There are toys, children's gear, their pets, and even a cartoon on the television, all pieces and parts of a child’s play room. The children interact with each other, their pets and other family members in the room. Sometimes these interactions are fleeting as they spot one thing after the other that intrigues them. The children are building and manipulating their environment; it seems like play but fundamentally is for learning.
It is apparent that the children learn from interacting with their environment and with each other in this environment. As they play it may not be directly obviously that they are learning something about the world they live in , about communication, and about being “human,” however that is the end result of their activities.
Communication in this environment is essential and in many ways the children are communicating verbally and non-verbally. It is these non-verbal cues that are difficult to convey in a virtual world environment such as Second Life. Essentially, in a virtual world environment the primary communication comes through text chat, this make play difficult without the verbal inflections of tone and voice and non verbal cues it is sometimes difficult to judge a person’s intent or whether they are “joking,” or serious.

In Second Life, you can enter great vast and empty virtual spaces and have little or no contact with anyone. Or you can enter “crowded” rooms such as dance clubs and be overwhelmed by the “closeness” of others. The first place I opted to go to was Caledon. Caldeon is a “steampunk” role play sim, which is a Victorian Country Village. More information on Caledon can be found here http://secondlife.wikia.com/wiki/Independent_State_of_Caledon. If being in a virtual world and creating beautiful spaces is “play” on an adult level then Caledon is a good example of that. I explored Caledon (my state of play) but did not observe many humans at play.

In a quest to find adults at play I traveled to Frank’s Jazz Club. The place was quite full of men and women “at play” in Second Life. Frank’s is an “adult meet-up” joint. Listening to music and “avatar” watching is the rule of the day. Is it fun..yes it can be if you are open minded and enter the “immersive environment,” of Second Life. In many respects one will learn a great deal from observing, watching and chatting with others here…techno play is a whole other world for sure in this arena. Regardless of the aim of people at play in Frank’s Place in Second Life or Caledon the experience of building relationships here versus “1st life” is an entirely new experience. People have different objectives while here some are here to do what they can’t do in real life, have fun, and some view it as a game, while others view it as real life and second life blending together.