Friday, September 28, 2007

No second helpings in Second Life

I tried out Second Life for the first time recently. Couldn't get the hang of it. I got bored in the tutorial island and set off to explore the real world before I really understood the commands. I went to a Reggae club, and stood around awkwardly until somebody nearby finally explained how to make my avatar dance. It wasn't as fun as it would have been if I could have figured out how to turn on the audio.

Then, because I had heard that Second Life had become an interesting forum for building political communities, I searched for some political sites. I started with the Hillary Clinton campaign island (no endorsement or non-endorsement implied). Unfortunately, my avatar was still dancing like a fool to an inaudible Reggae beat. I logged out. For all I know, my automaton is still there at the Clinton headquarters silently dancing.

Meanwhile, the adrants blog has faint praise for Second Life in its review of this anti-obesity ad. I'm not holding my breath that this campaign will cure our nation's eating problems.

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