My experience in Second Life was both fun and frustrating. Fun when I was with people, frustrating when I was alone. As soon as I logged in for the first time, Renee and Gabrielle were there to greet me, and took me to Svarga (?) Island, where we formed a band, Mad SCILz, and rocked it out on some percussion instruments. That was fun, because they weren't absolute novices like myself, and were able to help me. We voice-chatted for a while, and then went our separate ways, but not after taking a screenshot of our band (I'm the loser in the middle who hasn't figured out how to change her clothes):
Then, I went back in a couple days later, to try SL by myself. I found Info Island, poked around there, then teleported myself to Eduisland, where a man in a wheelchair rolled up next to me and knocked me over. Not cool. So, I teleported to the art museum on Info Island, and made several attempts at getting into a building. I wasn't able to get in - had I had friends around (or anyone at all, for that matter), I probably could have asked for help and figured it out. But instead, I figured out how to change my appearance, and called it a day:
Overall, SL really isn't a service for me. One, I'm not interested in immersive gaming, and two, my machine had a tough time with it - graphics took a long time to render, even logging on and off was tough. I can see the advantages for, say, hermits, but I'd rather go out and socialize with my real-life friends, not my Second Life friends.
