I’ve been Devi Daviau on Second Life since March 21/07 and have really loved it. The interaction on Orientation Island with people from around the world was great, and having to collect gold stars for each tutorial completed made it seem like a game. Oddly enough, walking in to the library from the parking lot this morning, I saw a flowering shrub and found myself thinking “that looks a lot like the flowering shrubs outside the McMaster Library in Second Life”!
In a way I’m sorry now that the goal-oriented, game aspect of it is over, because it reminded me of Myst, one of my favourite CD-ROM games. I prefer adventure to warfare, and don’t yet know of an immersive online multi-player game (or MMORPG) that focuses more on adventure and social interaction and less on fighting, but still has the complexity and cinematic qualities of World of Warcraft. A lot of the places I go in 2nd Life right now are currently pretty empty, though beautiful, like the hot springs pool on B-Dazzled Island, or the waterfall at U. of Hawaii on EduIsland.
Gaming and virtual worlds are of interest to libraries (other than because that’s where a lot of our user are) because they offer such rich potential as teaching tools. The most fun I ever had learning something online was when I got my first PC at home, in the 90’s. It came with a full-featured interactive tutorial on Windows, with sections on mousing, navigation, file management, system maintenance, etc. I found it so absorbing I used to get up early on Saturday mornings just to get another section of the tutorial under my belt before breakfast!
