LASER TAGGG

This week my group and i pretty much spent time planning and working on the  next steps of our project. Earlier this week, we met up in an AIM chatroom to discuss our project, talking about what we wanted to do in general, and then we started to create the acutal proposal. We have decided on holding a laser tag tournament in Second Life in late november or early december…before  finals. Meeting in the chatroom was a good idea, because everyone had busy schedules and it was hard to meet in real life. so meeting in the chatroom was the next best thing. we were all able to input our ideas and collaborate everything into the proposal. Doing something like this on the phone would have been difficult.

The guest speaker that we had earlier this week on thursday was very informative. The information she gave us will definately help us out in executing this project in a timely fashion with as few glitches as possible. It is definately hard to manage this project, but her tips and strategies are definately goona come in handy as we get deeper into this laser tag tournament.

 I also spent time exploring Second life trying to find other laser tag type places to try to get ideas on how to do our own. i wanted to see what they looked like and how they made the environment so that we could maybe get some ideas and work off of that. I came across one place called Laser Quest. (im trying to upload the picture right now, but for some reason it isnt working lol). I got some really good ideas from it. At the entrance it explains all the rules of the game, the controls, and all that good stuff. i think we’ll definately do something liek that for our tournament so that people  who have never played will know what to do. also everyone that plays has to put a certain amount of money into the pot, and in the end the pot of money is distributed to the winning team. I dont think we’ll implement that into our tournament, but it was definately a neat idea. time is going by fast, so our team is goona have towork hard and fast to make this tournament a success.

Group Project Continued

This week  my group and I continued working on the group project. This was a busy week, so we didnt get as much done as we had hoped, but were making progress. Some of my ideas for the project were a concert, or maybe a viewing party for a Houston Rockets Basketball game. where houston rockets fans can get together and maybe watch the game in Second Life ( if thats possible) and just talk about the season and stuff liek that. Its been difficult getting in contact with some of the other members of the group, but i believe me and maanit are planning on meeting up tomorrow to throw around some final ideas and maybe pick one for our proposal on Tuesday.

I’m not really sure the ideas that he has, but im sure he has some good ones. We’ll pick one between all the group members and then  work from there. So far mine and maanits communication has been over the phone, or by email. We have yet to meet up in Second life and actualyl work on th e project within Second Life. Working  in Seocnd Life might be a little more helpful, cuz we can talk to other residents together and get some help and feedback from them. We can also teleport to cvarious places together to maybe come up with some other unique ideas for this project.

I think this week, we’ll get some major progress done for this project. Once we get an idea and get it approved we can actually start working on it. I know im excited to get started on the project and actually do some new things in Second Life that i havent done before. Instead of just wandering around Second Life, actually working to put on a successful event will definately be a change.

Hopefully, the entire group will be able to meet up soon so that we can come up with an idea. As of right now that the biggest problem that we are having. Once we can meet up, i think we’ll have an easier time coming up with a good idea for an event.

Beginning the Group Project

This week we were assigned into our groups for the semesters  group project, so i spent this week just thinking about en event that my group and i could put together. I thought about things that people would want to do in real life. ANything that people find interesting in real life, will probably be interesting  in Second Life too. One of the guys in the group was thinking about a Laser Tag tournament in Seocnd Life. I actually thought that was a pretty good idea. Someone else in the group thought about some kind of Second Life race, like in fast and the furious, which was a goood idea and would be alot of fun. WE havent really gotten too much time to talk about it, but soon we’ll come to one conclusion as to what our Second Life event should be.

I couldnt think of many ideas for events on my own, so i decided to teleport  over  to Info Island and talk to some of t he librarians. One of them had some really good ideas, but i dont think they involved enough group involvment. We as a group wouldnt have too much to do in the planning and executing of the actual event. SHe still had some really good ideas which i will share with the  group. Even if we cant help someone else with theur event, we might be able to create one of our own similar to it.

Last tiem we did a group activity, there was three people in the group, and one of them was my roommmate, so it was really easy to communicate, because i lived with him. This time theres 4 people in the group, 2 of which i dont really know, and they didnt come to the last class, so i still dont really knwo who they are. Communication between group members has  been difficult the past week, but we will definately have  to improve on that if we want to hold a successful event in Second Life. Hopefully, the group will be able to meet soon, whether in real life or in Second Life to throw around some ideas and eventually come to one conclusion about our group project.

Group Tours

This week in Second Life the class split up into groups, picked an island to go to, and gave the class a tour of that island. I thought this was a pretty cool activity cuz we got to see a ton of different places that are present within second life. My group gave a tour at an amusement park. We thought since amusement parks are places people go to in high numbers in real life, then people in second life would want to go to them also. when we took the class on the tour there werent many people there, but when we went one evening, there were ALOT of people. The reason i really liked this amusment park was cuz they had a variety of rides. There was a ferris wheel, hot air balloon ride, a merry go round, a water ride, bumper cars, and many more. On top of all that, all the rides were actually rideable, meaning, the avatars could actually sit on the rides. This made the island alot more interactive, and we thought that the class would enjoy it. Unfortunately, there wasnt enough time to see the entire island, or to ride all the rides.

Some of the other islands that i particularly enjoyed were the nasa island and especially the NBA jam session island. I love basketball so that island was definately something that peaked my interest. i actually went back to that island after class was over, and i got to meet and talk to several other basketball fans, and even some Houston Rockets fans . The nasa island was also pretty cool, cuz it actually reminded me of the actual nasa space center i used to go to when i was a kid. It brought back childhood memories.

Overall, i really enjoyed doing this activity. This activity was much more group oriented than activities weve done in the past. My group first had to decide on which island to go to, and then once we figured that part out we had to decide wihich parts of the island to show and who would talk when. Usually group work is done in person, but this time most of the work was done electronically over the internet, and even in second life. That was something new to me, and it took alot of getting used to.  Parts of our tour went according to plan, while at other times, we had to change our plans on the spot. I guess, we’ll be discussing more of this during class tomorrow, so ill save it for the class discussion.

my long lost first post of the semester lol

Imran Kungfu

My avatar is a male, and it looks like a real person. I decided to make my avatar a real person cuz it makes the whole experiece seem alot more life like. Even though i had the option to make my avatar look like a fantasy creature, i felt that this appearance describes be better. This is my first time using Second Life, and before this i had no idea what it was. Since we are still in a classroom environment, i felt that making my avatar look like a human and resemble me would be a better idea. My avatar;s name is Imran Kungfu. I decided to keep my real first name, and to be completely honest, i chose the first last name that stuck out to me. I didnt feel like changing my first name for Second Life becuase i felt that it would make the SL experience less realistic. Also, i have never thought about having a different first name, so i was having a hard time coming up with one lol.

 So far my experience in SL has been a good one. I have learned how to walk and to fly while on orientation Island, i have also learned how to drive and communicate with others in SL. One thign that i still need to do is tweek the appearance of my avatar, cuz the way it looks right now does not relate to me too well. THe next chance i get, i will take some time out to tweek my avatars experience. SL makes me feel like there is a completely different world out there. Before i started this class, i had no idea that big time companies such as Dell used SL for various business/company activities. When im using SL, it makes me feel liek im playign a video game. My only fear/concern about Second Life is that in the future, everything will be virtual, not that thats a bad thing. I do believe that SL is an amazing creation and has alot of potential in gthe future. i was also amazed to find out that SL has a real economy with real money that can be compared to the US dollar.

 I am very excited to continue to use SL and learn more about it. I am anxious to get to our classroom island and begin the different thigns that we will be doing this semester. I am really looking forward to the group project  later on in the semester. I am really glad that i took this class, i feel like it will be a great learning experience, and that i will be able to apply the things i learn in real life.