freeeeee

So I don't really know what to talk about, but i guess ill talk about the class since the semester is almost over.. At the beginning of the semester I didn't know how I ended up in this class, because i'm not a big "gamer" like the rest of the kids in the class. But i decided to stick with it, because it was kind of interesting to me. I actually found it kind of fun, and interesting that virtual worlds are such a big deal in some peoples lives. I also made some friends in the class, where if i didn't take this class i probably wouldn't have met them. Overall the class was good, and i'm glad i didn't switch out. I liked how it was entertaining and quite easy, a good transitition from highschool to college. Even though it was easy i still learned af ew things, that i didn't know anything about.

My sister would always play a game called penguin palace ( i think), it was a virtual world, which is ironic now because i would always make fun of her, because she would literally be on the computer for hours playing it. You make a penguin and choose what color you want it, and you can dress it up, and if you have enough money you can buy a pet and it can follow the penguin around the game. I'm not quite sure what teh game totalyl consists of but i know that you can talk to other penguins, and its meant for children so if they say anything inappropriate they are banned from a certain part of the land. There are a lot of places you can travel to, you can talk to other gamers, you can play games, make money and buy things.

the most precious thing in SL

I think the most precious thing in second life is the education and the non-profit organizations that have things set up there in second life. I think its sweet that people take the time to reach out to more people and set up posters, buildings so people can be educated about non-profit organizations. There are also a lot of campus' of actual colleges in second life, where students can go to classes for free at Harvard. I think thats really nice because some people that are really smart and wanted to get into that school, but couldn't because of their financial situation now can, virtually through second life. I also went to a place that is a non profit organization called the The Rescue Park at Canis. And it is a way to promote and fundraise and create awareness of animal shelters and rescue places around the world.

Something I've learned this semester is how much people use Second Life, or Virtual Worlds in general in their life. I didn't think businesses would set up places in Second Life, or candidates used second life to get more people to vote for them. A lot of people's lives revolve around second life, they use it to meet new people, make a living off of, or just be themselves where maybe in the realworld they aren't as accepting. I think it's interesting how much people rely on Second Life. Some people make a lot of money and thats how they make a living. They can create clothing or other things that people want to use, and these people can buy them with lindens. I didn't know you had to actually pay with real money for things in virtual worlds, or that people would actually use their money for that purpose. In my paper i learned a lot about eductation in virtual worlds, and how it is becoming a big thing. Harvard is granting free courses in second life. There is also a campus on Teen Second Life and places where teachers can lecture virtually, so that their students are able to do it anywhere that they have the internet.

Last week me and my friends were really bored, there were five of us just hanging out in the dorms. My friend ali really wanted to play Grand Theft Auto. I have only played it once before and i remember being horrible at it and getting killed by the police in minutes. So we all took turns whenever someone died they had to pass the controls to the next person. This went on for a good hour, it was funny how bad my friend ali was. I surprisingly was pretty good, i last for ten minutes getting chased by the cops the whole time and there were so many ways that i got out of it. Eventually i tried to swim across this whole like, and i thought i was out of the red zone, but they caught me, there were boats comming after me and helicopters shootting at me.

The geography of Second Life is endless, there are many places to travel to and probably one person couldn't go everywhere. Second Life runs on server host machines called sims. People can buy land and build on it from their own computers. Each sim runs about 2-15 server processes that regulate the different regions in Second Life. The first time some one becomes a member of Second Life they first start at a place called "Orientation Island", that tells the person how to navigate through Second Life. I think this is really helpful because i know it took me a while to get used to how to use Second Life. Every region in Second Life is 256 meters squared. The Linden lab calls this the grid (all the regions put together). People can buy land where they can build things, they can either make it private so that no one else can go there or make it public for other to visit. These land owners can also set rating of PG or mature for their land.

For Moberly's class we are suppose to be writing a Proposal essay, the problem in my essay that i am addressing is video games and social development in children and teens. The stance i took on this essay is that, yes they do alter a childs development. Kids these days seem to be more interested in playing games with violence, where they either fight other players or characters or shoot one another. Children who play these games have the tendency to grow up with violent behavior. One article i read from the Wall street journal regarding this topic, was written by a man, who is having problems with his two teenage sons. After they were introduced to video games such as War Craft and Counterstrike he saw a big deference in how they began to act. They were more reclusive, never going out side they became pale, they lost muscle mass and weight, from doing nothing but playing video games, he ultimatly called them zombies. I think this is really sad, parents should regulate more what their child is doing, they should make them do more activities that interact with more people.