One of the upsides of using Second Life as a technology collaboration, is that it gives users a sense of a shared place, according to Professor McLeod. Also, Second Life allows users to experience places and buildings together, building group unity. This allows users to establish common ground, and we may then assume, work well together. Another advantage is the use of avatars teaching people how to communicate. Although your avatar may not be an accurate representation of yourself, you are still communicating with people. Basically, you may learn how to interact with people without necessarily revealing yourself.
There are some problems with Second Life, however. One major problem with the game was that there was no game to play. Second Life is a very rudimentary program. This is good because it allows people to build things with little expertise. But it makes for very limited interaction potential. There isn't much to do with the environment except walk around and look at it. Often users get bored in Second Life and start to crave some good action, my urge is to plug in a different game. Since Second Life is so big, it sometimes can be very empty. It would be very hard to coordinate a meeting in Second Life between members of a group, especially to someone who is new to the world.
Boellstorff also highlights that collaborative work over this medium can also be troublesome because of conncetion issues and lagging. This can lead to loss of your train of thought or choppy work.
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Second Life is a very rudimentary program, but I believe as Prof McLeod said it is made to simulate a new world where one can reinvent, and bring different hidden characteristic to their avatars or to life. I assume the creators of Second Life or the Sims thought the ability to live another life would be a great thing to get lost in, and isn't that what happens with video games? We escape the norms of life to take on a persona of someone/something else. This change still brings about the need to be included and groups, meeting, and collaboration ensues out of this ability to live a different life with no specific task to accomplish. The users create their own tasks and try to get others to join in, creating another form of reality.
ReplyDeleteThe size of Second Life is an interesting complaint although not entirely valid. People establish neighborhoods, and frequent certain places for that reason, like the club in the reading. Second Life is a virtual community that can be used for collaboration. Also, while the world may seem empty, people are always on, and people may visit their neighborhood at a specific time each day or week. These scheduled meetings enable users to have fun together, without the constant searching.
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