Second+Life

toc == =Using Second Life= Second Life is an online virtual world created by Linden Lab. A number of free client programs called Viewers enable Second Life users, called Residents, to interact with each other through avatars. Residents can explore the world (known as the grid), meet other residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, and create and trade virtual property and services with one another. //For the hybrid portion of CSE 606 - Video Games and Learning, we'll be meeting via Second Life on April 23rd and May 7th, at the usual 5:00pm time.//

Instructions for Getting Started
If you've never used Second Life before, just follow the steps below:
 * 1) Create an Account - Account creation is free. You'll have a lot more choices for your avatar once you log into Second Life itself.
 * 2) Post your avatar name on the discussion board for this page - I'll be setting up a group voice call for the two Second Life sessions, and I need your avatar name for this.
 * 3) Download the Second Life client - Second Life runs on both Mac and Windows, and doesn't require a lot of graphics processing power to run.
 * 4) Install and launch Second Life - When you first enter Second Life, you can follow some of the tutorials about customizing your avatar.
 * 5) Teleport to Eduisland 9 - Once you've successfully created an account and downloaded and installed the software, click on the link below to launch Second Life and 'teleport' your avatar to Eduisland 9: Eduisland 9 in Second Life.
 * 6) See if you can find the location in the image below (//Hint: Click on the 'Move' button at the bottom center of the window, and click on the symbol of the person flying//):



[[image:Edit_shape.png width="124" height="198" align="left"]] Customizing Your Avatar
To make changes to your avatar appearance (e.g. facial features, hair color and style, height and weight, etc.), right-click on your avatar, and choose 'Edit My Shape' from the popup menu that appears.

// //

Presentations
One of the main activities during the two online sessions via Second Life will be presenting your Entertainment and Educational Video Game Review projects. As well as voice chat (if you have a mic), for visuals you can actually pull up your review page on the course wiki right in Second Life. Here are the steps to do that:
 * 1) Under the 'Build' menu, choose 'Build'.
 * 2) From the window that will appear, click on the cube, and then click on an empty space on the ground.[[image:build_cube.png caption="Build a new cube object"]]
 * 3) Choose 'Stretch' from the window, and then click and drag the sides and top of the cube to form a fairly flat, tall rectangle.[[image:stretch_cube.png width="384" height="248" caption="Stretch the cube object"]]
 * 4) Choose 'Select Face' from the window, and then click on a large face of the rectangle.[[image:select_face.png width="368" height="255" caption="Select a face of the cube object"]]
 * 5) Click on the 'Texture' tab from the window, and look for the 'Media' section at the bottom of the window. Click on the little '+' symbol there.[[image:select_texture.png width="406" height="225" caption="Choose 'Texture'"]]
 * 6) Type the address of your game review page into the 'home page' field, and click OK. You should now have a cube object with your review page on it. Viewers can read and navigate the page, and even watch any embedded video clips on it.

Instead of displaying an entire web page on an object face, you could also display a slide or image. For example, you could create a few Powerpoint slides, export the presentation as a series of image files, upload these image files to this wiki site (under 'Manage Wiki' and then choose 'Files' to get to the upload screen), and then place them one at a time as the media for the object face (step 6 above). = = = = = =