To be honest, I could rarely - if ever - see the appeal of Second Life. Although I thought it was a great extension of video game technology, there was part of me that felt kind of depersonalized from it. No matter how much fellow Junk Fewd contributor Ryan advocated for it, it just seemed...well, kind of there. Unless I could do something - interact in little more than chat with pictures - I really couldn't find anything excitable about it.
At least, it was until I was plagued by a brief spell of insomnia one night - as well as some boredom - when I decided to go whole hog and "explore" SL, using my love for <b>Doctor Who</b> as a launchpad.
So armed with some recently purchased Linden Dollars, I made a quick visit on Google, and found an article all about Who in SL. Within minutes, I found myself in a different world, focused specifically on Doctor Who SL items...much like my favorite Time Lord. From there, I was able to find a free Ninth Doctor skin, which seemed more appropriate to my personality - a slightly embittered loner who was somewhat unwilling to connect - than his later, Davy Jones-after-several-double-espressos tenth incarnation.
(If you're worried about my mental health, please don't worry - I'm actually quite pleasant. I just think the Ninth Doctor is cooler than the Tenth. And that fact will tear the internet in half).
And after that, I bought a TARDIS. OK, there's no real inside (although you can buy ones with control rooms for role playing), but it had one feature - the ability to randomly transport the user to a different location. (Wow, shades of the Key to Time!). Admittedly, the Ninth Doctor skin is not too accurate, looking more like Moe Howard gone metrosexual - but this was merely an experimentation; I could always default back to my Duke Nukem avatar.
But then, I clicked the blue box on my screen, eagerly awaiting my next adventure....
...and found myself falling from a great height.
Three times.
Soon, through, I found myself in various other environments (although my TARDIS never "materialized" due to the owners not allowing it). But quite frankly, it was one of the best ways to learn about interacting with virtual environments - it was the equivalent of "backpacking through Europe" in virtual environments.
Plus, since I could make my TARDIS disappear/reappear, it became helpful when dealing with several of my more testy colleagues. Nothing quiets people down like having a big blue box suddenly appear around them....or sounds even more disheartening when, in a virtual environment, I hear my TARDIS' familiar "vworp" sound as it leaves....
But it was, well, my main moment of SL glory - didn't meet any Daleks or Cybermen, didn't take on any companions...but it was the closest I will ever come to the adventurous daydreams of my youth, and/or even being case in one of my favorite television shows. At the very least, I will earn a small amount of mockery from my favorite Doctor Who podcast.
Well worth every minute. It was the time of my (Second) Life.
At least, it was until I was plagued by a brief spell of insomnia one night - as well as some boredom - when I decided to go whole hog and "explore" SL, using my love for <b>Doctor Who</b> as a launchpad.
So armed with some recently purchased Linden Dollars, I made a quick visit on Google, and found an article all about Who in SL. Within minutes, I found myself in a different world, focused specifically on Doctor Who SL items...much like my favorite Time Lord. From there, I was able to find a free Ninth Doctor skin, which seemed more appropriate to my personality - a slightly embittered loner who was somewhat unwilling to connect - than his later, Davy Jones-after-several-double-espressos tenth incarnation.
(If you're worried about my mental health, please don't worry - I'm actually quite pleasant. I just think the Ninth Doctor is cooler than the Tenth. And that fact will tear the internet in half).
And after that, I bought a TARDIS. OK, there's no real inside (although you can buy ones with control rooms for role playing), but it had one feature - the ability to randomly transport the user to a different location. (Wow, shades of the Key to Time!). Admittedly, the Ninth Doctor skin is not too accurate, looking more like Moe Howard gone metrosexual - but this was merely an experimentation; I could always default back to my Duke Nukem avatar.
But then, I clicked the blue box on my screen, eagerly awaiting my next adventure....
...and found myself falling from a great height.
Three times.
Soon, through, I found myself in various other environments (although my TARDIS never "materialized" due to the owners not allowing it). But quite frankly, it was one of the best ways to learn about interacting with virtual environments - it was the equivalent of "backpacking through Europe" in virtual environments.
Plus, since I could make my TARDIS disappear/reappear, it became helpful when dealing with several of my more testy colleagues. Nothing quiets people down like having a big blue box suddenly appear around them....or sounds even more disheartening when, in a virtual environment, I hear my TARDIS' familiar "vworp" sound as it leaves....
But it was, well, my main moment of SL glory - didn't meet any Daleks or Cybermen, didn't take on any companions...but it was the closest I will ever come to the adventurous daydreams of my youth, and/or even being case in one of my favorite television shows. At the very least, I will earn a small amount of mockery from my favorite Doctor Who podcast.
Well worth every minute. It was the time of my (Second) Life.
