House of Usher in Second Life

My group had a very interesting trip to the House of Usher. Together we convinced Roderick that Madeline was not dead and saved her from being buried alive. Because of our efforts, we got Roderick, Madeline, and her friend Margaret out of the House of Usher safely. When went to the House of Usher each group member was asked to beta-test some part of the experience and I was asked to try to figure out how we could expand Margaret’s role while keeping other possible outcomes available, which I think is very possible and would offer a unique interpretation of the Poe’s short story.

When we first arrived to the House of Usher, we were greeted by Madeline, Roderick, and Margaret. We followed them to the library where Meghan led Roderick to try to distract him while Chelsea searched for clues and I learned more information about Madeline and Margaret. Madeline constantly talked about taking some medicine and went searching for it, immediately Margaret and I followed her. I tried to convince her that she did not need to take the medicine, and if she was tired, she should just lie down and relax. Madeline did not listen to me and she took a small amount of the medicine then fell asleep. Then Roderick came in and tried to move Madeline to a different room, because she was not in the correct room. I tried to convince him not to move, because I was afraid if we left Roderick move her then he would move Madeline to the crypt in fear that she had died. Fortunately, Madeline woke up and waked to her rooms where she went back to sleep. After Madeline was in her room, Roderick and Meghan went downstairs to investigate noises that were scaring Madeline. Chelsea went to talk to Margaret while I watched Madeline so no one would think that she was dead and move her to the crypt. Then suddenly Madeline disappeared and I went to Margaret to find out where Madeline would have gone, then Roderick came upstairs and then shouted where Madeline was and then disappeared. We had no idea where they went but then Chelsea said to come down to the crypt quick, so I ran down with Margaret to the crypt. There I found Madeline laying in a coffin with Roderick standing beside her and Chelsea talking to Roderick. Then Roderick got into the coffin lying in the room, Chelsea talked to him and go Roderick to come out of the coffin. While Chelsea was talking to Roderick, I was trying to convince Margaret that Madeline was not dead. Then Roderick came over and kept saying that Madeline was dead and Chelsea and I kept saying she had a heartbeat and her cheeks were flushed. However, the coffin kept closing and I kept opening it so Madeline would not be buried alive. Finally, Madeline woke up and started to question why she was down in the crypt. She did not want to come with us because she thought that we put her in the crypt. Eventually we convinced her to leave the house with us and then we all left the house unharmed and all alive.

My beta-test was to help figure out a way to expand Margaret’s role while keeping the story line open for many possible outcomes. During the whole experience Margaret was trying to get Madeline to take the medicine and then was convinced she was dead. This made our job of trying to convince Roderick that Madeline was not really dead a lot harder. Despite the difficulty, I think that Margaret could have a very important role within the story. Margaret said something in passing about her being a nurse and companion of Madeline. One possible thing that Margaret could do is to try to steel Madeline’s “dead” body. This would incorporate something into the House of Usher that was originally part of Poe’s story. Also, you could have Margaret try to keep Madeline on her daily schedule, which would include taking the medicine. Basically, I would try to get Margaret more involved in the story line because he could offer a unique character that could really influence the outcome of the role-playing.

Altering Poe's Story

If I was a participant in The House of Usher, I would try to stop Roderick from putting Madeline into the tomb. I would try to explain to Roderick that Madeline is not really dead and he should let her stay in her room. But before Madeline goes into her coma, I would have tried to get her to leave the house and try to get Roderick to leave the house. Because if both people were removed from the house then possibly Roderick, Madeline, and the house would be saved.

If I could not remove Roderick and Madeline from the house, I would go into the crypt and take Madeline out of the tomb. This would hopefully prevent her from dying, and Roderick dying from grief. If none of these options worked I would use my last resort and lock Roderick in his rooms so Madeline could not get to him. Basically, I would try my hardest to keep both Madeline and Roderick Usher alive.

Second Life: Prolbem with Communication Technology?

Second Life is a place where anyone can do or be anything they want to. Although SL provides all of its users with the ability to do or create anything they want, within SL rules, the virtual world does not have the capability to be a common technology for communicating at the moment but it has the potential to.

Today, almost every teenager has a Facebook, there are more than 300 million users. Because of Facebook's prominence in society and culture it is has become a main form of communication for many people. Since Second Life does not have as many users and is not widely used in today's society or culture it has not reached its highest capability for communication.

Although there are groups and business in Second Life they are usually confined to the virtual world. And during my time in SL I have found that many of the residents do not communicate with their friends in Second Life outside of the world. I believe this because I do not communicate with any of my SL friends outside of the world and I do not want to be contacted by them outside of SL. Also, Second Life could be used as a tool to "escape" from ones real life so would they want people from SL contacting them in the outside world?

Thus from my personal experiences and knowledge about Second Life and other forms of online communication I believe that SL is not a common form of communication. However, I believe that in time SL might evolve into a technology that many people in society use for communication purposes.

Heritage Key: Initial Reaction

Contrary to Second Life the creation of an avatar in Heritage Key is very straight forward and simple. I really liked using Heritage Key, it was straight-forward and they explained all the controls in the first few moments you were in the world. Also, Heritage Key provides all of the clothing you need right when you start and that makes it easier to use than a virtual world like second life. Also, I think that Heritage Key will be very useful because of the educational purpose of the virtual world. Heritage Key will only have people who are in the education field in the world, and the world gives a person the opportunity to learn about something that they might not ever see in reality, King Tut's tomb.

Heritage Key explains every important object and lets you interact with the tomb, which makes the whole world interesting and enjoyable to be in. I think that Heritage Key provides educators and students with an excellent opportunity to learn and be part of King Tut's tomb.

Burning Life Fashion Show

During Burning Life I decided to go to the Fashion Show. I decided to go there because I am interested in learning about how a business can work in Second Life. I had many questions about running a business in SL, but my main question was is it worth in monetarily to run a business in SL or is a business more profitable in the "real world". I did not ask these questions to anyone in attendance, but I did begin to realize the real money that you can make in SL. Before the fashion show I thought in using Second Life as a business one could only make a small amount of money. But I soon discovered at the fashion show, people can make really good money from in this case designing clothes in SL.

In addition to learning about running a business in SL I discovered that you really need to follow the rules of etiquette in SL, because people will get mad at you if you do not, but aren't their rules both written and unwritten for every society including virtual worlds. Thus, the rules of etiquette were expected.

Overall, I enjoyed the fashion show and got answers to my questions although I did not actually ask any questions. And I discovered the importance of business and rules of etiquette in Second Life. Although I did notice how unrealistic most of the clothes were, most were so unrealistic I did not really appreciate them but there were a couple of outfits that I really liked. I really enjoyed going to the fashion show because I got the opportunity to interact with other avatars.

Second Life Scavenger Hunt Entry Two

I was really interested in all of the places that I went to during the first part of my Second Life scavenger hunt but I wanted to go somewhere that was interesting and informative. So for the second part of the scavenger hunt I went to the Genome Island. I chose to go here because we talked about it in class and it sounded really interesting. I am not interested in science in any way, but I still enjoyed Genome Island. I got to go into a cell and see all of humans chromosomes. It was very informative, but at points I had a little difficulty understanding which each 3-D object was or meant. This is from my complete lack of interest in science and lack of understanding of anything related to science. Although I dislike science I found that Genome island was very informative and interesting because of all of the cells and chromosomes on display.

Field Trip: First Blog

I plan to attend the Burning Life fashion show or the Fireworks Show. I chose either of these two events because they looked interesting. I will choose between the two activities the night they are due on the timing of each and my work schedule.