Ollie Tristram

The brief for the module says as follows;

"Create an avatar in online 3D environments, like Second Life and Virtual Doppelganger spend some time exploring the virtual environments and communication with the residents. Keep diary of at least four weeks of your Avatar’s experiences and screen shots and publish them on your journal between weeks 20 to 32."

So after testing Second Life and concluding that it is absolutely rubbish and complicated I found another similar online community, There.com. It is much easier to use and for starters doesn't lag so much! It is fairly bandwidth-friendly and I haven't encountered any serious performance issues with it thus far. I could tell I was signing up for a more user-friendly environment just from the initial log-in and welcome pages. It used a lower formality tone and talked of how There.com is just about having fun.

I have used the username of OllieT88 (Ollie Tristram and then my birth year 1988) as its what I've used in the past and its easy to remember. This is what your default avatar looks like.



As you enter the virtual world you start on Fisher Island which has multiple billboards giving you beginner tips on how to communicate, move etc. It's very simple. Use the arrow keys to walk and double tap and hold them to run in that direction. I saw a few other avatars running around the island and went over to one. All you have to do is type and a speech bubble appears above your head. This guy was nice enough and introduced himself as being an Aussie and that a lot of people are quite cool and nice on There.com. I asked him some questions about customisation and what you can get up and he said the 'buggy races' were quite fun and other than that you just make friends. Then came along a female character and we ended having a 3-way conversation. The view switches so that you all become central to the chat. You can even use gestures to help communicate expression and feelings. Laughing, becoming mad and flirting or just a few of these.



There.com uses a currency just like many other virtual life simulators. This time its called 'There bucks' and you can use it to buy land, houses, clothes and many other accessories. Unfortunately, this money system prevents you, from having a different appearance other than the default one. On saying that, you could customise you head size and shape, including nose, eyebrows, lips and ears. Therefore, without paying you are very limited from being individual. I did try however, to make the face look like as much like my real life self as possible, so judge for yourself on how accurate I was!



After getting used to Fisher Island, I looked on the map and one of the 'Places of Interest' highlighted was Motu Motu, so I teleported there. It was a row of houses and if you walked up to them it told you who owned them. You could then click on that sign for further information such as when any upcoming events were at that house.



At the end of the row of houses was a club and on the outside were signs and posters advertising for you to pay 'There bucks' to rent out the club for whatever use. Inside the club were tables and chairs, a dance floor with moving lights and whatnot - all of which you could interact with, and had there been many people about, it would make for a good virtual social hang out.

Next time I log-in I think I shall check out all the different events and 'fun' activites you can participate in.