First Life is Better- #10

I decided to explore "Second Life:" an online, synchronous, 3-D virtual world where members can create avatars of any size, shape or form they want and interact with others. Since my experience with online gaming is limited to never, the virtual space was very new to me and I had trouble at first getting started.

I entered a location created by a resident of the game where many people were basking in the sun and holding conversations with one another. I noticed immediately how uncomfortable I was with the way my avatar looked. I had started off with a generic character offered to new members and knew that I wanted someone who looked more like me. Since I had no idea what I was doing, I asked for help in the public chat space. Immediately "Glenda Noel" came to my rescue. She explained to me how to modify my appearance and gave me encouraging words after I had explained that I was new to the game. After learning how to do all these functions, I proceeded to modify my avatar to my liking.

Right after I learned how to change my appearance I became obsessed with my looks because I wanted my avatar to resemble me. I soon realized how fascinated I was with the fact that I could modify my looks with a few clicks and continuously changed things. This alone wasted 30 minutes of my time and I realized how easily this online game could become a time sink when I haven't even started to interact with others in the room yet! (Besides Glenda of course).

After being somewhat satisfied with the way I looked, I proceeded to talk with others in the room. I had no problem talking with people, but nobody seemed to really respond. Then one member commented, "XES, you have big hair. It's hot." Other male members in the room proceeded to comment on my looks and I began chatting with them. I felt perfectly comfortable chatting with people but I realized that these types of games weren't really for me. After about an hour of chatting, a member asked me how Second Life was treating me and I told him "First Life is better. I'm heading out. Bye!"

There were two things I noticed immediately about the game. First was how willing members were to help noobs like myself get started in the game. This type of online support is mentioned by Wallace who states that people are always willing to help out other new members to an online gaming world, especially if they are a girl. This held true in my case, even when the space was not your typical MUD/MOO such as WOW and Everquest where members are participating in duels.

The second thing I noticed was how easily this game can cause problematic internet use. Members seem very absorbed into the game and from their appearances, seemed to have a lot of experience in the room. When I signed onto the game at 11:30 p.m. on a Friday night, statistics showed that a little over 80,000 members were signed on at this very moment and about 1.5 million members have been on within the past 60 days. These figures surprised me, along with the familiarity many of the members seemed to have with each other. This indicated to me that they had established relationships for quite some time now and were frequent users of the space. The aspects of the game, such as anonymity and accessibility could easily lure members in. Along with the fact that many members could feel the need to maintain their social presence or could be much more comfortable online than off socializing with others due to the removal of gating features, furthering the possibilities of PIU.

Finally, I felt that the appearance of my avatar, to some extent, did have an affect on how I interacted with others in the game. Yee and Bailenson hypothesized that people with more attractive avatars would be more intimate with others around them and present higher self disclosure than those who find themselves less attractive, this is known as the Proteus Effect. I realized early on that I would not communicate with others until I was fully satisfied with my appearance and after modifying myself I began interacting with others in the game. I found this tendency to "walk up" to people that I was talking to in the game and got as close as possible. I did not share much personal information, however, and did not see a huge deviation from my usual personality on the space. Thus, once I was comfortable with the way I looked, I behaved like my normal self again.

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3186874989969223722&postID=6141872903994476151

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3186874989969223722&postID=3724983790778995835