Have you ever met anyone that doesn't like to travel and go new places? Some may not enjoy the trip to the place they are headed due to traffic or airplane fears, but once on location it would be hard to have a bad time when in a place of interest. In Second Life travel time isn't even an issue because of teleporting. One of the places I traveled was the Garden Center below, which is just a store of various flowers and plants, but it wasn't such a terrible place to travel once I found these beautiful waterfalls. Some people spend their lives traveling and experiencing new places in the real world as well as in Second Life.
Despite the love for travel, I don't know if I would be able to do it all the time. After a long trip I love the feeling of coming home. Sleeping in my own bed, bathing in my own shower, and spending time with my friends and family. Knowing this, it causes me to ask, is there a place avatars call home? It seems to me if you spend all your time going from place to place, especially if you were online for an extended period of time, it would be discomforting to not have a "home-base". The closest place I can call home on Second Life is Iggy's Office or the University of Richmond area. What is it though that makes these places seem like home to me?
I have not been in these places for any longer than any other place, so that cannot be why they seem like home. There is no place for me to sleep, or a space of my own either so that can't be the answer. It might be because I've been there when first starting Second Life and I know these areas are safe places. Knowing that I might run into other classmates here also helps bring the friendship aspect of home to Second Life. However, it is hard for me to believe that it is possible to have a home in Second Life and in that sense it is not Second Life, but rather "Second Traveling Life". When a gamer wants to go home, they just log their avatar offline. Despite the great traveling that can be done on Second Life it seems to be lacking in sense that there is no real way to go home when online.
I hear that feeling about "home." My SL office is home for me--I should be logging on more there during my real-life office hours!
ReplyDeleteOver the summer, the House of Usher got so oppressive while I was working on it that I needed to find a way to enjoy SL again. I'd go take a virtual "road trip" by myself just to see that SL was not all copper-colored walls and peeling paint.
So your notion of a "Home" for an avatar intrigues me. It may lead you to a critical question to shape a final project.
We say "there's no place like home." For virtual spaces, what makes a home? Where do avatars feel at home? And I wonder if WoW players don't have "homes" in that game. One friend who plays Lord of the Rings Online says that at a certain level, he got a small cottage in a village and he furnished it. He meets other players there to plan missions or just to talk.
Sounds less like a game and more like SL to me :)