Tag: virtual experience

Hit the Restart Button and Be a Noob for a day

Hit the Restart Button and Be a Noob for a day

by Ellie_Avora ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

To bring heartfelt honest opinions and content to everyone I tend to never post what I won’t go out and do for myself. This time around the goal was to find out if Second Life is a virtual world that is user-friendly and accessible and easy to understand for all users who decide to choose this platform to start their virtual world journey. I decided to hit the reset button and create a whole new account and start over to bring all of you a detailed post on my experiences being a noob in Second Life today.

Disclaimer, this post is filled with ideas and opinions that are mine from my experiences if you have constructive criticism please feel free to comment or message me but there shouldn’t be any hate. This is what I went through as an individual in this virtual world experience and I’m bringing back what I’ve experienced with me to show and help you as the reader who is interested in joining a virtual world or just wanted to know more about them. Another thing to add is this post will be a lot longer than a lot of the others as I must fit in a large amount of content into a smallish type post (I tried this won’t be a small post). If there is a section, you want to know more about than another I went ahead and titled each area for all of you if there is a section you might not want to read.

Let’s get started!

Signing up:

As for most virtual worlds, you start with the whole signing up. Whether or not it is a viewer or platform-based or a browser-based virtual world the sign up is always in your internet browser. One thing I found super cool is when signing up for a Second Life account now it gives you an option to be male, female, or gender variant/non-binary (how they labeled other). Because my first avatar is named Ellie, I went with the username EllieThePracticalWitch cute huh? Anyway, it also gives you the option right then and there if you want to be basic or premium which is nice. I honestly didn’t know premium was available until a friend told me about it which is when I began paying for it about two years ago. I’ll be posting a post about that in the future. It only gives you the option to download the Second Life default viewer with no third-party software. Even though I use a third-party open sim viewer I downloaded the default viewer just to see differences and specifics since I’ll also be doing a post on firestorm versus the default Second Life viewer so stay tuned for that. Then you realize technology is a little creepier than you expect because it came up knowing that I was brand new without me putting my information in such as my username and password. How fun! But it does tell you what you’re about to experience with pictures of what each place looks like.

To the right, it says: “Your first step is learning island. Find the exit portal!”

To the left, it says: “Then explore the social island and meet other new residents!”

Well, let’s see what happens since we’re “new” currently.

It seems like when you pop in as I stood at the landing point for a little bit people get randomly put into a default avatar. You can’t choose which default avatar you want to be to start anymore. In the past you could they also had furry options which were nice if you’re into the furry community. But now most of their avatars are either human, angels & demons, vampires, or just fantasy-themed I’m assuming from the medieval era. At the beginning you also receive this message:

Freebie store at the end of the corner before it sends you on your way into the world of Second Life after the tutorial.

════[ YOUR APPEARANCE ]═════════════════

Don’t worry about how you look right now.  Enjoy this tutorial, and at the end of it, you will be led to the Freebie Megastore where you can customize your appearance.

═════════════════════════════════

Meli Imako Freebie items for male avatars in Second Life these are mesh items and super nice quality.

This is a game-changer because in the past I had no one I had to make my own money or online currency and buy things myself to not look super noobish or find my freebie store. So, I give major props to Linden Labs for moving forward giving newer players everything they need so far to get started. They also give you signs to teach you how to interact with the environment around you which is super helpful if you have no idea what you’re doing. Another huge step up in the game is for male avatars their giving away nicely made mesh clothes with full permissions created by a popular full permissions creator in Second Life whose name is Meli Imako. That just blew my mind because I normally buy a lot of her stuff and then re texture it. I’m super blown away currently. To be fair it’s only 4 items in a small shop that says “freebie” down the street, but something is way better than nothing. For those wondering you can grab a landmark to the actual freebie store that you can go to after the tutorial process.

Free to play games that you will find on gambling sims otherwise known as skill gaming sims.

Something cool they also had was some of the gambling games out to show newer players that they’re available, however, you have to be in a state that allows online gambling but you can play these free play machines if you wish to. Sorry Floridians I know for a fact that we can’t go into skill gaming regions these are gambling sims. Online gambling is now illegal in the state of Florida as well as a few other states as well.

I know I put this a little lower than when I explained this portion but this is to give you an idea of how they lead you through the tutorial. They have boards up that teach you how to do everything in Second Life which is nice. I feel you can learn at your own pace this way which is super nice some of it is confusing like this board but in other words its how to change your view point such as third person, first person, front view, etc. You don’t have to do this ever but it’s there if you want to.

Their welcome hubs are now London themed and it’s called London City. I can only imagine the main reason for this is because Linden Labs is in the United Kingdom which makes perfect sense. But the beginning tutorial is very user-friendly it teaches you exactly how to do everything in an environment you’re comfortable in with other players who are new so you don’t feel anxiety stricken that you’re around “seasoned” players who might not give you the time of day. It’s a more positive environment and everyone is on the same new level.

When you first start with the sign-up process it seems rather straight forward and simplistic. The viewer itself is somewhat complicated but you learn how to use it with time. You can stay in the beginner areas if you want or need you can also revisit back to it by taking the landmark which will be a gigantic red pin and then click it to gain the landmark. Then if you need more practice or don’t feel comfortable going out to other places yet while you’re still learning you know you’ll be accepted in London City.  

Avatar Editing:

This is going to be a little tough you can edit pretty much everything with an avatar every piece of the face, every aspect of the body, and everything else such as clothes to make-up, etc. The avatar creation process is extensive and there is so much you can do. The avatar body appearance creator is slider based with different measurements it changes the appearance of your overall body and face of your avatar. However, as far as freebies nowadays most cost about 1l each sad fact but I found it extremely hard to customize my avatar without adding a little bit of money onto the virtual world to get some virtual world currency to get started. But luckily the 1l freebies are relatively worth the buy they’re not the unwanted stuff that you’d probably find years ago. So I’d put the minimum amount that Second Life allows you to spend to get some currency to spend on creating your avatar here is what you might need to spice it up if you don’t want to grab a mesh body, etc yet.

A nice hair = 150-300 lindens

Clothes = 1 linden on up

Skin = can be expensive I’ll say 200 on up

Shoes = 1 linden on up

A nice AO = 250-3,000 lindens

This is an example of linden pricing on clothing for relatively nice items that don’t make you look too bad. Otherwise you won’t be able to find mesh products you would have to go with early 2000s prim products which users somewhat frown upon nowadays in Second Life.

You can find many things in many different price ranges but for a relatively nice avatar while not being up to date with a new body and mesh head I’d expect spending $5-$10 USD to get started. If you want things in the future, by all means, get a job on Second Life or just add more on but otherwise, you will be stuck with the default avatar and honestly, you don’t want that after the one-month point. I’ll be honest I tried to put a relatively nice avatar together with 0 lindens and it’s impossible. It was the biggest challenge, I had to settle with prim/Flexi hair which is hair made from the early 2000s when Second Life first released. Creating an avatar is not beginner-friendly it took me a good hour starting over to just finish the shape I wanted. I’m telling you I didn’t know how tough Second Life could be for a beginner just starting with the platform. For me, it would be easier because I’m an experienced user but I feel if someone in their 70s just needed something to do and pass the time while being social they would have trouble with creating an avatar unless they wanted to keep the default and just explore. It almost makes me super happy that I create How-To posts related around both IMVU and Second Life I feel without them people would be super lost on what to do. This avatar creation system could be a lot more beginner-friendly for the time being though I’ll be creating more posts now that I know how difficult this could be for a newer player. I’m sorry that Second Life can be a little complicated I never thought anything of it because I’m used to the platform and how to do everything but now, I know how difficult it can be. It’s almost awful. Keep an eye out for more posts in my How To’s.

Exploring:

To be fair you can start exploring right away! However, you might be frowned upon for doing so but screw it you’re here to experience new things and have fun. Don’t let anyone stop you from doing so whether you’re new or not. When I went to certain clubs in my default avatar, I was pushed to the side from a lot of players but in the sea of seasoned players, you find that one person who is nice to everyone. I found this individual and were friends now she took me out exploring even though I have the experience, but she doesn’t know that. I thank her for being the one person in the whole game that I’ve talked to that wanted to help and be friends with me in this vast world. I wrote a post on Noobs and what they fear the most. The answer was acceptance and it is the truth I can see how newer players could get discouraged. Honestly, it hurt that players either ignored what you said, talked behind your back in IM’s, or talked right in front of your face because you didn’t look as good as some of the other avatars in the area, you’re in. It put a lot of things into perspective for me but with this one individual, she showed me around some of her favorite places. She brought me to virtual theme parks, stores, online museums, you name it we were there. Exploring is as easy as going to the destinations guide in your browser or hitting the icon that looks like something, you’d find on Google Maps and picking where you want to explore in the popular destinations. To the right, you can see what this icon looks like and to the left, you can see the browser version and how everything is separated into categories. Exploring and learning the controls is the easiest part of Second Life anything to do with creation is more advanced. People might say no but there is a lot to putting a good avatar together at the start as I explained above. For newer players, I’m posting a small How-To below on how to explore using the destination guide with photos hopefully this helps some of you who are reading.

How to use the Destinations Guide & How to Pull it up:

  • In your Second Life viewer, you will see icons at the bottom of your screen one says destinations click that to pull up a popular or editors pick version of the destination guide.
  • Or you can open up your browser go to www.secondlife.com and at the top tabs, you’ll find world map click that.
  • Once you have clicked the world map in your browser on the side you will find the destination guide which is the same thing you’ll find in your viewer to the right of the destination guide in your browser you will find the map and where that spot is located that you’re looking for. Almost like Google World or Google Maps.
  • If you want the full destination guide at the top there are more clickable words one says destinations click that and it will bring you to the destinations page. The destinations page is labeled by category of what you’re looking for as seen in the photo below.
Click Destinations
What the destinations guide page looks like in the browser
Destinations guide labeled by category off to the side that you can pick what you’re looking for easily.
The page has a recently added places so new places that you can visit in Second Life.
They also have an editors pick of some of the places that Second Life individuals and editors enjoyed the most during whatever month it is. For example, these are Septembers editor’s picks.
  • Once you click a place in the destination guide it will give you two buttons you can view it on that map, I told you about in your browser or teleport straight to it. It will open up in your viewer for easy teleporting and you’re good to go just hit teleport in your Second Life browser when it pops up.
When you click a destination in the web browser this comes up. It has a description of the place and two buttons. One says teleport the other says view on the map. Viewing it on the map will bring you back to the page with the destination guide and the world view map. Teleport will open up a window which you can see in the next photo.
When you hit teleport this will pop up or something similar to this if you’re not using Firefox. You will click Second Life and then open link if you want you can click the remember my choice. Then you don’t have to continue doing it every single time.
You will then get this in your viewer and you’ll use this to either view it on the map or teleport to the location in your viewer.
How it looks like when you press view on map in a browser setting you will get something similar on your map in the viewer as well. I wanted to show this so you knew what would come up if you did it.

Overall, Second Life is a lot of fun but for newer users, it can be somewhat frustrating to a fault, but it is possible to overcome this. Now that I know the truth and how hard it can be for newer individuals I’m going to be releasing more and more How-To’s as you have seen in this post, I added a few How-To do certain things like finding the destination guide to explore, etc. If I had to compare IMVU is a lot more user-friendly to start with virtual worlds but on the other hand, there is more to do and experience in the world of Second Life you’ll never be bored and there is always something new you can learn. My experience was interesting, but it had its moments where I was trying to create an avatar with 0 lindens (Second Life’s currency) which as I stated is almost impossible to do. Or shape creation which could be more for the advanced users. The only non-beginner thing I could experience during this test was avatar creation everything else seemed rather simple and straight forward when you get used to the Second Life default viewer. This was my experience some may find it harder than others and that is okay we all learn at our own pace. If you’re struggling, I encourage you to ask questions even if you might get ignored and always remember there are blogs like mine aimed towards newer members getting started in virtual worlds and of course YouTube videos. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them I’m always willing to help if I can.

Until next post!

Introduction to What The Virtual World in Game Systems A&D And Bloodlines Are And How to Choose One to Get Started

Introduction to What The Virtual World in Game Systems A&D And Bloodlines Are And How to Choose One to Get Started

by Ellie_Avora ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

The first question that I’d like to address is what are A&D (Angels and Demons) and Bloodlines?

A&D and Bloodlines are considered to be HUD based systems on Second Life which helps you to enhance RP (roleplay) experiences. As you might know, there are some games categorized as MMORPG’s (Massively multiplayer online roleplaying games) which are open-world games that you explore with quests that you can play with other players from around the world. A&D and Bloodlines are focused on providing that same idea and environment in a virtual world atmosphere. However, in a way, this has become a virtual world lifestyle for some players. For some virtual world users this is why they come into Second Life every day to play these systems and in A&D’s terms skill to raise HUD skills. Or these users come on to play these systems to immerse themselves in a roleplay that sometimes people may seem is all too real. It is fun to do and is somewhat of a time-waster, I’ll be honest I’ve played both and they get your mind off of things and both are super interactive you have all of Second Life to explore and play with these system HUDs in. A&D is an Angels versus Demons system where you can choose what side you want to play on (being an Angel or a Demon) you can play with others or solo. However, a lot of players are part of what is called hordes and chorus’s (hordes for demons chorus’s for angels) experienced players tend to search for newer players to bring into their little families. Each horde or chorus operates differently and has specific things they focus on in the system. Some focus on family and are extremely active. Some other active hordes and choruses focus on the roleplay aspect where you have to dress as the character you want to be and act like the character you create of yourself. Then there are also ones that skill and don’t fight which is the one I’ve learned to appreciate and enjoy the most. Then there are inactive hordes and chorus’s which if you’re worried about drama with large groups of people is going to be the best for your play style this goes for Bloodlines as well. These hordes, chorus’s, and families aren’t always around at the same time and you may only meet like 5 people from the entire group this is more for if you want to play these systems solo. They will be there to help you if needed but otherwise, you’re on your own you can pretty much do what you want to do and experience through the HUD and A&D and Bloodlines systems. I prefer this way more than the active hordes, clans, families, and choruses. There is less room to be brought into bull shit that you don’t want to be a part of (pardon my French). A&D is a lot more interactive than some other systems on Second Life for the fact that you can skill such as herbalism, mining, and crafting just like you would in an MMORPG such as Final Fantasy 14 Online (FFXIV) or World of Warcraft (WOW).

Even though I pretty much explained it through my A&D description there is also Bloodlines. Bloodlines have families or clans that you are a part of. For the most part, this system is multiplayer whether you want to play with others or not. So, you would be forced to join a clan or family. But if you want more of the solo experience than you would pick more of an inactive clan instead of an active one. Bloodlines revolve around Vampires, Lycans, and recently through the past few years, you can now just be part of the system as a human which is nice if you don’t want to roleplay as a fantasy creature. The idea of this system is to go out through the world of Second Life and hunt or battle other players to gain achievements and reach new “levels”. It’s a very similar idea to A&D so if you read the description above it’s straightforward as to what Bloodlines is as well just with Vampires and Lycans. Each system is based on personal preference. The systems are for everyone and they can be quite fun to play.

Active versus inactive hordes, clans, chorus’s, and families:

I want to bring to the forefront the main differences between active and inactive groups in the system. I’m going to refer to them as groups so I’m not typing each one out individually throughout the rest of the post. When a group is active there are going to be for the most part a lot of people in that group or you’re going to become the outsider of such a close-knit family until newer players continue to flood into the active group, you’re in. Sometimes this creates drama which I’ll explain in a later post regarding my experience with A&D if you want some real piping hot tea spilled. But for the most part these groups you will be with a lot of the time these groups become more of a lifestyle in the virtual world atmosphere where you spend most of your time with your group and even sometimes live on the land, they’re on. However, if you’re more private like I am and want a more solo unrushed experience playing on these systems I would suggest an inactive group. These groups are sometimes online but they don’t base their life or virtual world lifestyle around the system. They normally do it when they’re bored or just want something to do while being a part of the system. This is the type of group I prefer because you also are less likely to run into any type of drama or issue with anyone and still get the same experience as playing with an active group. This is something to consider if you want to join one of these systems just be mindful of who you play with and what you want out of the game as a whole. These are things to think about before joining. Also, another thing you should consider is if you can dedicate time to keep yourself fed in either system that means logging on, I’d say once a day or once every other day. There is a sense of dedication to these systems but like I said it gives you something to do if you’re looking for that sort of experience in your virtual life.

You said there is drama? But I don’t want to deal with drama! I get that enough in my reality:

Don’t we all! But with anything that brings together a large group of individuals together with different personality types and interests, there will be some sort of conflict at some point. This is why I suggest inactive groups if you do join one of these systems. This is because even though there are different people with personality types and interests there not always around at the same time or just keep to themselves which brings less drama into, your atmosphere. Through the years while being a part of these systems I’ve seen people come and go while taking part of the active group experience. I’ve also seen full-on active groups die and become non-existent altogether because of drama. The system itself is a game however the impact that human individuals make on one another is not. Just be mindful of people and if you do join an active group just lay low, be mindful of others, and be careful. You can be in an active group and avoid drama there are always ways around things for example, when you see it starting just distance yourself. Stop going around as often etc. and communicate with those you trust in the group to see if it is okay to come back when the drama dies down. They will wonder where you went but then you can just say real life has been taking its toll. For the most part, if you stay out of the drama it won’t find you, however, if the drama includes you…good luck and Lord have mercy on your soul young padawan.

Achievements:

Both systems have an achievement system in the HUDs this has got to be my favorite thing with both A&D and Bloodlines. It’s the only thing that made me want to continuously play because if you’re getting rewarded for something, you’re doing it’s like validation. It’s like you’re doing something right an instant gratification. Which to be honest, I’m the type that needs instant gratification to feel like what I’m doing is right or okay, etc. I love the achievement system on both the websites are clean, easy to follow, and it just makes me want to beat everyone in the high score and achievements table because then you are well known. Other than that, you don’t get much out of it. Skilling and items: Well, this is a fun one to explain so the best way to describe this is on a smartphone you have an app store whether it be the Apple App Store or the Android Google Play store. Let’s say there is a game you want, and you find there are in-app purchases. That’s kind of how these systems run their game on Second Life. You can buy blood, tanks, caskets, etc. for Bloodlines to help your chances in the game with the virtual world currency Linden which you buy with real money or earn doing a Second Life job. With A&D there are add on’s, skilling items, etc. that you can buy to put on your land to craft in the comfort of your land, etc. So welcome to the land of in-game purchases though both claim that they’re all free. But to be fair they are free, but they have to make their money from, somewhere right?

In the end, it just comes to personal preference on pretty much everything discussed above do you want an active or inactive group? Do you want angels versus demons or vampires versus Lycans? The sky is the limit and just like everything else you can do in a virtual world you can be who you want and do what you want. These are just roleplay experiences to either get you into roleplay or put you on a set quest path like in a video game. Ready to add some spice to your virtual life? This may just be what you’re looking for.