{"id":69,"date":"2011-08-22T22:39:23","date_gmt":"2011-08-23T06:39:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/fong\/?p=69"},"modified":"2011-08-23T01:59:08","modified_gmt":"2011-08-23T09:59:08","slug":"immersive-environments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/fong\/2011\/08\/22\/immersive-environments\/","title":{"rendered":"Immersive Environments"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’re talking about Immersion this week (er, rather last week) in the final module of LIBR 559m. \u00a0So last night I gave Second Life a try, the most prominent of the virtual worlds in the readings. \u00a0Years ago I had an unsatisfying experience trying out a demo for The Sims Online and I assumed Second Life would be more of the same. \u00a0Honestly, if it hadn’t been brought up at the beginning of the course as a potential medium for the final presentation (didn’t happen), I wouldn’t have guessed Second Life was still around.<\/p>\n

How was the experience? \u00a0Well, negative, to say the least. \u00a0I thought back to Group VIII’s presentation<\/a> last week where Tristan mentioned that users’ experiences are shaped by their attitudes going in. \u00a0That is, those open to the idea of SL will have a positive experience while skeptics will remain skeptics. \u00a0I tried to keep an open mind going in, but the longer I spent the world the less I enjoyed it. \u00a0In part, it was the hideous aesthetic (like Geocities communities brought to life in eye-stabbing 3D) but mainly the ghost town atmosphere. \u00a0I started off in the virtual Toronto because I wanted to visit somewhere I knew in real life. \u00a0I was greeted in Yonge-Dundas Square by the cacophony of a rock station blaring with what sounded like an internet busker singing at the same time, yet after spinning around in circles and wandering around I couldn’t find anyone there. \u00a0After 10 minutes of wandering around aimlessly (as a floating panda torso because my arms\/legs wouldn’t load), I asked myself if this was a typical Second Life world or if I simply needed to find a well-designed, populated world to get a better experience. \u00a0I entered the Newcomers area, warping into circle with 15 avatars standing around. \u00a0Two people were talking about kilts using audio while the rest were just standing there frozen (technical glitch?). \u00a0I got weirded out, backed off slowly and flew away (unfortunately my real-life anti-social tendencies manifest in the virtual environment too). \u00a0I decided to check out Info Island where there’s a library. \u00a0The desk was not manned, but in an adjacent building I thought I saw a person in the distance. \u00a0I walked up close and discovered it was a bot. \u00a0 My feelings were mixed because I felt isolated with no one around, but I was also distinctly uncomfortable when there were<\/em> other humans around.<\/p>\n

I tried to pinpoint what was fundamentally wrong with the whole venture, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. \u00a0It was like a game with no game aspect. \u00a0It’s probably supposed to be a social environment, but it wasn’t really. \u00a0For comparison, I spent an hour messing around in the video game L.A. Noire because that stuck me as a recent example of a very immersive environment in a game. \u00a0From the company that created the Grand Theft Auto series, L.A. Noire depicts a fully realized recreation of 1940s Los Angeles. \u00a0The player is a cop rising through the ranks from patrolman to vice squad detective while working cases. \u00a0Even after finishing the main story of the game, users can simply roam freely through the world, which is what I did. \u00a0Even though there’s ostensibly no purpose or task at that point, simply exploring the meticulous detail of the world is fascinating, something I did not get out of Second Life. \u00a0I captured this short video, which does not actually do justice to the stunning visuals, of the player walking through the\u00a0L.A. County Art Museum:<\/p>\n