Dear Mr. Sanchez,
I
am a new user of Second Life. I started using the program for one of my classes
for my minor and so far, I am not a fan. I do not like going onto a virtual
world and living a fake life through a computer program. From reading your chapter,
“A Social History of Virtual Worlds” I found it interesting how far virtual
worlds have come since they were created in the late 70’s. They have grown a
lot since they were text based programs but I feel like there is no purpose to
having these virtual worlds. If
the programs were entirely games I could understand the purpose of them
but I personally think it is useless to pay $9.99 to play a stupid online game
that could suck you in and make you waste your time for hours.
It
is intriguing that computer software has come so far to be able to create these
virtual worlds, but I think with this new innovative technology, it should be
put to a better use, rather then being used as a “second life” virtual world. This
technology advance could be used for educational purposes within programs that
could teach students through virtual worlds. For example, right now I am using
the program for education but they are people logged on who are using it for
personal use. I think it should be used for just education. There is just no
purpose to having an avatar in second life beside entertainment. However in my
eyes, how could this be entertaining is there is no gaming purpose of the
program or no goal to actually reach? I just feel like it is a waste of time
and money. We have a real life to live, so why would someone want to sit at a
computer and waste their time on a computer living a fake life. Like I said
before, I am using second life for a class, I am not sure what we will be
learning by using it yet, but hopefully throughout the semester my thoughts
about the program will be proved wrong.
Sincerely,
Deanna Dimino
Hopefully this video can help prove my point that virtual
world technology should be used for education: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOFU9oUF2HA
A bit confused by the extreme dismissiveness in the body and the link at the end.
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