Second Life
For my study of emergence in the gaming world, I set up and account on and played the game of Second Life. At first, Second Life brought me back to the days of the Sims. The avatars are very similar in style and mannerisms and they are totally customizable. This is where the first instance of emergence came to play in a type of open source in the game. That is, I was thrown into a world where I was able to take control and create my own content and environment to a certain extent. I really enjoy this aspect of games so when I saw all the possibilities for avatars, I ran with it and spent a majority of my time on my character. At first, I didn’t like how limited some of the characteristics that you could customize were. For example, I had trouble finding a hairstyle that worked fore me. But I soon found out that n the game, you are able to buy and find new hairstyles objects and add them to your avatar. This can be defined as part of Second Life’s meaningful play. There are endless possibilities to add to and upgrade your player. Second Life is also a very complex game when it comes to exploring and interacting. When I started, I skipped the whole tutorial island and went straight to this island that was having a "party." The ability to fly and transport adds unexpected results and things to be done. While I was initially angry that your avatar could just fly and teleport anywhere, I grew to find it was necessary in the overall scheme of the game. Ultimately, I grew to love it and its convenience. On this new island, I found that avatars were dancing, socializing and fighting. It was scary, because it seemed like a total representation of an actual club scene in real life. I came to find 2 avatars verbally fighting over a female avatar and her company. As I made my way over to the dance floor, a female avatar started talking to me. I let her know who I was and a little but about me and she proceeded to try and hit on me. This caught me off guard as she had totally amerced herself into the game’s world as her own. I soon came to find that the game had its own couples, dating, and even marriage. This was too real for me.
After wards, I was invited to play the popular game Slingo. While I am still not particularly sure how to play (as I got bored very quickly), it seemed to be a lottery type game to earn the highest number of points. You must first get your Slingo card, and then play under the given rules. While I never won, I did play against players who had the game mastered. They seemed to thoroughly enjoy it.
The most exciting element of Second Life is the ability to customize your entire world and surroundings. I was able to buy small portions of land, build a house, put furniture and accessories in the house, get a car, and go to a diner or dance club. The overall game of Second Life has taken me to an emergence I have never witnessed before in a game of its kind. The game is basically left for the players to decide after the development parameters have been outreached, I hope that the project and more time playing the game will bring about as much emergence as I have experienced so far in such a highly interactive gaming environment.
