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How to ease the learning curve of Second Life

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How to ease the learning curve of Second Life

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After the hype of Second Life, the research is starting to see if Second Life really has a potential to replace the web 2.0. It is interesting for the “Faculty of Economy and Management” to know more about Second Life. It is nice to see that the “Faculty of Economy and Management” is interested in Second Life. Together, we want to know more about how we can decrease the learning curve of Second Life. A lot of people are unaware that Second Life is not a game but a Metaverse. Many of them are making mistakes to compare Second Life with other popular MMPORG games like World of Warcraft, but that will not happen because they are both operating differently and have different purposes. At this moment Second Life is not the only virtual world, but none of the other virtual worlds is as big or have so many options. The only one that is close to Second Life is the virtual world “Hipihi”. There are a lot of other potential virtual worlds, but most of them are not launched yet or still have too many problems. The reasons why people do not use Second Life another time is because there is no game play, a high learning curve, unstable software, a user unfriendly graphical user interface and low quality of the graphics. There are a lot of aspects why the graphical user interface of Second Life is unfriendly. It is not clear, not consistent, not simple, not direct, not forgiving, not aesthetic, difficult to get feedback, and there is no control and no affordance. But for all these lack of usability, there are solutions to improve. We can change the graphical user interface of Second Life, but it is limited to make changes in Second Life itself because the software does not offer the options. Users can only change the size of the text and that is about it. But there are ways to change the graphical user interface. One of the ways is by changing the source code since Linden Labs has open-sourced the viewer’s code of Second Life, but is very difficult to make changes, because people need to have experience on programming. Changing the graphical user interface through the LSL language is not possible, since there are no functions available to do so. But there is another way to change the graphical user interface by editing the XML files in the Second Life folder. With the XML files it is possible to (re-)arrange the menus of the viewer. However there is no need to change the graphical user interface because there is alterative software made by third parties. The OnRez viewer therefore is very good, because the viewer is much more intuitive than the default viewer from Linden Labs. Users that do not have a computer with good performance can also try to use AjaxLife. It is a web based viewer that loads faster since there are no visual appearances. But due to the popularity of AjaxLife it is slower to use than the default viewer. At this moment most of the times, people will drop out or have a connection time-out. By using a 3D controller like WiiMote and Nunchuck it is an easier way to navigate or control Second Life than using a keyboard with a mouse. Another advantage of 3D controllers is their motion sensing capability, because people can directly point the WiiMote at the display screen. But there are also other solutions to decrease the learning curve. Communities can use the RegAPI so it is possible to streamline a group of users. By keeping a group of people close together they can bond easier and help each other. By implementing an interactive tutorial, new users can use it in order to get along in Second Life for the first time. With guidance new users will get to know Second Life step by step. Another way is by working together in a group, so people can help each other all the time. Linden Labs should make more standard contents for new users, so there is no need for them to create everything themselves. The last option is by using third party tools instead of the Linden Labs default tools, because these have a higher learning curve and are not user friendly.

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OrganisatieHogeschool Utrecht
OpleidingMediatechnologie
AfdelingICT
PartnerVirtual Business Lab
Jaar2007
TypeBachelor
TaalEngels

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