Second Life
Second Life - First Impressions
My first, general impression of playing Second Life: interesting, cool, but outdated.
It took me a while to get used to the controls. I am not the type of person who actively searches for know-hows of the game, but this game was an exception. I had to find the tutorials on the official website and YouTube to get used to the game. However, the complicated part proved how free the game environment is. It gives a complete freedom to the user of how to play out the game. The nature of the virtual world triggers imagination and creativity. Nevertheless, I am a little doubtful since that will make players sustain playing unless the players have a clear purpose of role-playing, hanging out with friends, or etc.
It is maybe because I am not familiar with the game environment, yet, and the game style contradicts with my preferred game experience.
Nextly, the impression of the marketplace.
First of all, I was surprised by the “rating” of avatars and gadgets. When I first went into the marketplace, I didn’t know that it was an adult rated game. It was really.. “adult-ish” which made me feel awkward. At the moment I became curious about the age limit, so I searched and found that “Second Life used to offer two main grids: one for adults (18+) and one for teens. In August 2010, Linden Lab closed the teen grid due to operating costs.” (I was relieved after seeing this!)
It took me a lot of time to select the apparel or accessories to purchase because, frankly speaking, I was not able to find the style that I wish to put on. I am going to talk more in detail about the shopping experience, but it was like being in a store that is far from my style. In terms of usability, I believe that there needs to be an update on information architecture and flow because it is not very user friendly right now. It is kind of far from being modern as well. I don’t know whether it is the nature of a sandbox game or it was intentional following the mood of the game, but again, it was remote from trendiness.
Shopping & Equipping Experience
It was no different from shopping at an online store for myself. The website in general was designed similar to the online shopping mall, and the processes involved - item selection, adding to cart, purchasing with linden dollars - made the experience more realistic than just buying it in the game. It was cool that the items (referred as rezobjects in the game) were directly added to the inventory. However, without watching the tutorial, I had a difficult time unboxing the item for wearing.
In order for me to unbox, I had to transport to the [public avatar sandbox] and drop off the box there, right click to open, and copy the item to the inventory.
I became curious about the reason why (1) transporting to another world for unboxing was needed and (2) what is the significance behind. I still wonder why. I have not found the answer to that.