Sunday, August 12, 2012

VSTE Home Tour

This happened a while back, but I haven't blogged in ages.

VSTE in Second Life meetings are sometimes just for fun. This was one of those meetings in early summer. Someone from the membership suggested it at a planning meeting and it seemed like a good idea: let's tour the "homes" of some VSTE Second Lifers. So we put out a call and asked who among the VSTE family has a home in SL, or some personally owned or rented space, they'd open up for us to see.

Seems silly, having a virtual home, I guess. There are a lot of good reasons to do so. I like having one little place where I call the shots. My little rental is mine. I don't have to ask anyone else if the tree I put at the southwest corner is okay there. I like to share it with friends. I have a couple of game tables there and a movie screen with some DVDs available. I can't afford to keep it all year. It's $22 a month rent. That's US dollars for an idea, a virtual 3D representation of... a house on an island.



Leko's home, almost completely built by Leko himself.
Cyrus' home, Expedition Central, a place to find landmarks to explore.
Mandie's home

Em's home on Timbucks

Em is amazing at finding deals in SL

Jazzmemo's home

Always comfortable, a nice place to have a chat

If only she were online more. :)

Thunder's home

I love having people over, even if I'm not there.

Flying carpet tour of Timbucks



Polling Educators on Griefers


Serena Offcourse led the ISTE SIGVE social meeting this week. Quite a few educators came out to particpate in her activity. She prepared a set of statements about "griefers" in Second Life and we responded by walking into the Opinionator, a scripted Likert scale.

When we walked into areas that matched our level of agreement with Serena's statement, the piechart in the center of the Opinionator created a matching chart. Discussion ensued after each statement. Sometimes there was quite a spread in opinion, which made for lively discussion.

Are griefers mostly teens? Do they add to the SL experience or are they merely an annoyance? What's your opinion?