Second Life
by Don Singleton

I watch all of the CSI shows on TV and noticed when CSI-NY talked about being able to solve crimes in Second Life (http://alpha.cbs.com/p rimetime/csi_ny/second_life/). I had heard of Second Life before but had never really done anything with it, but this sounded interesting, so I signed up (it did not cost anything). I took my avatar through the initial phases, learning how to make it walk, ask questions with chat, pick up clues, take them to the lab, but then I became more interested in the interface, and began exploring the world of Second Life, and not worrying so much about CSI-NY.

I had a little trouble getting started, and I thought I would jot down some things I wished I had known at the first, just in case anyone else wants to explore Second Life.

The best way to get involved is to first join Second Life and go through Orientation Island. Once you have fully learned everything OI has to teach you, then you can go to the CSI-NY link and click on “Already have a Second Life account?”. It will mean you will have to download OnRez software in addition to the Second Life software you get before Orientation Island, but that is not a problem.

The two can do the same things, just with features in different places, and with different names.


Second Life Interface


OnRez Interface

To get started go to https://se cure-web16.secondlife.com/join/index.php/Choose-Name and choose the name for your avatar. You select your first name (2-31 characters) and pick your last name from a dropdown box listing about 500 possible last names, and click a link to check the name for availability. Be sure you get one you like, because it cannot be changed later.

You also list your birthday, and an email address where they will send an account activation link. Children under 18 go to a special Teen Second Life, and as I understand there are additional checks done to make sure they really are children (they want to keep child molesters out).

You then must download some software, and install it on your computer, and you can then logon with your avatar’s name, and you will go immediately to Orientation Island. There you will be put through four tasks, to teach you how to change your avatar’s appearance, how to move, how to communicate, and how to search for things.

Once you pass those four tasks, you will be urged to go to Help Island, to further learn about Second Life, but you may want to explore each of the four areas just past each of the four tasks first, because if you ever leave Orientation Island, you are never allowed to return. There are a lot of other things to explore elsewhere, of course, but the nice thing about the areas in Orientation Island is that whenever you enter an area a little box will ding up in the left corner to explain what this area is about. Sometimes that is an annoyance (like when I am doing screen captures for this article).

If you proceed after the Open the Map Required Tutorial for Search.

down the bridge to the round building with Searching for Land, it has a number of neat maps I have not been able to find anywhere else in Second life, and you can go down a walkway to learn about Searching for Events,

and then down another walkway to learn about Searching for Groups.

There are three more required tutorials for Orientation Island, and a number of optional tutorials, but I am out of space in this issue. If we get the response I am hoping for, and enough people volunteer to help with distribution, we will pick up here in the next issue and ptoceed to the Appearances, Communicate, and Move tutorials.

Remember, all these Reality Communities can have good and bad people surfing them and participating in them. That is why you have to be 18 years of age or over.

Because of space limitations, this is all that we were able to include in the Premier Issue, and we had to save the rest of this article for the next issue, but I am including it here in case people want to explore Orientation Island before the next issue comes out.

In the castle for Appearances you have the required tutorial, but if go inside the castle you can learn about Purchase an Outfit,

and upstairs you can learn about Changing your Shape,

then Appearance Editor,

and all they way up to Send a Postcard.

And apparently I missed how to open your Library, and maybe others.

Past the Require Tutorial for Communicate, Say Something,

there is an optional tutorial for Say Your Name,

there is one for Chat History.

And apparently I missed how Gestures can be used as a form of communications.

The required Move tutorial Your First Steps

leads to an optional tutorial to Find a Vehicle,

and then you can drive around, killing rats.

Then you can go to the Flight Institute and Learn to Fly.

When you finish exploring Orientation Island, and are ready to move on, click the Key to transport to Help Island.

One thing you want to do there is be sure to get a free Explorer Guidebook.

Just like Orientation Island, once you leave Help Island you can never go back.

There is an Orientation Island Public and Help Island Public you can go to.

The Help Island Public is similar to the initial Help Island (I think), but Orientation Island Public is not at all the same as the original Orientation Island, so I advise you to spend a lot of time on the initial OI before you leave and go to HI or the mainland.

Next issue we will explore Help Island.