The report is focused on how the virtual world can be better understood and used in the context of education and training

Yoko Yamamoto’s Report on Second Life

Written by Yoko Yamamoto

Spring 2009 Generation 29 (Class Homepage)

PSY 499: Experimental Research on the Virtual World of Second Life.

UH Manoa Instructor: Dr. Leon James

Click here to visit my PSY 459 Report

This report is my experience in the virtual world of Second Life guided by Dr. Leon James. Each week I had a topic to explore in Second Life. Dr. James provided most of the topics, but some of them were topics that I’d like to discuss and had an interest in. If this is your first time hearing about Second Life, you were just like me in the beginning of the semester. Here is a quick explanation about Second Life. “What is Second Life? Second Life is a free online virtual world imagined and created by its Residents (users). From the moment you enter Second Life, you’ll discover a fast-growing digital world filled with people, entertainment, experiences and opportunity” (Secondlife.com).

Second Life is also a medium used for educational purposes. Many educational institution and colleges have started to adopt this new system. My experience in Second Life helped me to understand some of the topics I’ve studied in PSY 459: Mental psychology and Avatar Psychology (particularly in the topic of the relationship between the mental world and the virtual world). If you are interested in finding out about Mental Psychology and Avatar Psychology, please visit Dr. James’ Homepage here. Also this is my written report for the class. One of the purposes of my report is to help students of future generations to get familiar with Second Life and how to do some of the basics (e.g. changing the appearance of the avatar, how to add Animation Override, etc). I started out as a person who did not know anything about the virtual world, or have I ever played video games before so considered me a newbie (beginners in SL).

As a result from this experience I became a person who enjoys being a resident of SL. How did this change come about? One of the reasons is my attitude and motivation has changed. Before I disliked video games, computers, and technologies. But taking this class and other computer related courses helped me realize the importance of adapting to newer technologies and changing my attitude from disliking to enjoying and loving what I am learning in order to compliment the exploration of SL in a productive manner. The second reason is constantly logging in to SL. My report is based on six to seven hours a week of exploring the world so it was an effect of mere exposure. Each week, my familiarity to the SL developed and I started to feel comfortable exploring and liking the world more and more. If you have any questions or concerns, please e-mail me here.

Contents:

· Responses to Dr. James’ exercises

· Sloog

· Education in SL (My experience at Virtual Worlds in Education: Global Conference in Second Life)

· Animation Override

· Self-witnessing report

Baloon Tour

Responses to Dr. James’ exercise (Click here to see the exercises directions)

First Exercise:

My avatar name is Elle Mexicola. My first impression of the virtual world was quiet. I even felt lonely sitting in front of the computer and looking at the world through my avatar. First thing I tried was to change my appearance by right clicking the avatar. It took me over four hours to change my avatar the way I wanted her to be. While I was changing the appearance, couple of people said “Hi” and one guy asked me if I was a woman or man. I felt uncomfortable because somebody was actually watching me changing even though I avoided a crowded area. Also I got tackled* by couple of people and got really annoyed. (*tackled as in pushing my avatar away from my screen.) After I felt okay with my avatar’s appearance, I explored the Welcome Area. I clicked on Begin too. I walked around, flew in the air couple of times, sat down, tried out different gestures, and looked at the bulletin board and I clicked the one says “Welcome” in Japanese and I received a card. It gave me a step-by-step guideline to changing the appearance and information about how to teleport etc. I went to… After that, I was looking at the bulletin board again and when I clicked London, it teleported me to London. Later on when I tried to set UH as my Home, I had trouble doing it. I was not able to set it by following the instructions provided by Dr. James so I had to read some of the troubleshooting tips on the second life website in order to figure out how and it nearly took me about two hours and I was finally able to set UH Manoa Student Union as my Home. What I did was I joined the group and after that it allowed me to set UH as my home. So for the future reference, if you have a hard time setting UH LIS students as home, first join the group, and then set it as a home. My first impression of UH Manoa Student Union was it was nothing like real UH Manoa. I was expecting the Campus Center to be there but it was more like a house which had area to sit down, meeting place, some pictures on the wall, etc. I did not see a single student there so was not able to chat.

The right clicking the avatar easily became my habit. Because everything you want to do begins with right clicking your avatar. Also if you want to see other avatar’s profile, you right click them too. I clicked on couple of avatars and read their profile and their favorite places when I was exploring Ahem Welcome Center. These are some of the groups I found:

1. Ahern Welcome Center:

· Super Best Friends Adventure Club

· Hillcrest College

· IDS CUstomers

· **Script Collectors**

· Fire Department New York

· JEVN Users

· Lincoln County Fire-Rescue

· Script Seekers

· Second Life Christians

· !!!ELECTRO VIOLENCE!!!

· Second Way* musical instruments

· ***URBAN SPIRIT***

· .:[New Brujah Carthage]:.

· Black Pyramid Divinity

· downriverkillers

· DRK Land Group

· Drunken Monkey's

· Fighters Paradise

· I am not a Number

· Kingdom of Etheria

· MMA Fight Club

Third Exercise:

Griefing:

There are three major forms of griefing, which are littering, attacks, and behavioral issues. The example of minor littering would be leaving your box you bought after opening it. It is like you leave trash in the classroom. It makes the room or the world look unattractive. You can always contact the owner when the mess is too ridiculous and they can clean up. The second major form of griefing is attacks. Even the setting of the place might be attack free; you cannot avoid it 100%. You can still get attacked. The most common form of attack is called Particle. What you can do is press ctrl+alt+shift to turn it off. The third major form of griefing is behavioral issues. The behavioral issues include building own drama, inappropriate dressing, pretending to be an authority figure, public sex in inappropriate areas, etc. What you can do to these kinds of behaviors is to take a snapshot and report it to SL officials.

Alliance Virtual Library – Info island:

I went to the Peace Park. The place greeted me by sending a card, which says, “feel free to explore”. I visited a Buddha room and learned about the Buddhist terms and definitions: ahimas means nonviolence, dhyana means meditation, etc. When you click on the paintings, they will give you the descriptions of them. I also went to the Islam and prayed. This library has many conference and event information; also there is an outside stadium? Where people read their poems, etc… I tried to talk to the library assistant but I did not have a conversation with her… I received a free t-shirt.

Sci-Fi & Fantasy Portal:

I went inside of some of the machines but could not figure out the way to move them around. Maybe they do not move, but I enjoyed being in the robots, rockets? This is something I really do not get to do in real world!

Rose Garden:

I loved this place! It is very beautiful. It was too bad that I did not have a partner. Instead of dancing, I floated in the water on a floatation device. There are many places where you can cuddle with your partner, massage each other, etc. I strongly recommend to the future student to come to this place with a partner or with the class!

Reports on the YouTube videos:

I found that the youtube clip about the Virtual Ability Orientation THREE in Second Life: Part 3 of 3 very useful. When I went to the Free Dove, where you can get free stuff for your avatar, they give away their stuff in the box and first time when I tried to wear the clothes, I ended up wearing the box. The steps to open the box is easy once you get the hang of it, but until then, it is so hard to figure it out. Most of the things they show in the youtube clips were already familiar to me. The longer you spend in the world the more you will get used to it faster and discover new things easily. I think having a guide like Mrs. Gentle will help many newbie’s. Because going to the orientation and go through all the steps were difficult to me and took me a while to feel that I am doing the right things. I think the key is to go there with your friends.

Fifth Exercise:

I still cannot use the camera well... but leaving your avatar in the center or away from the camera (so when you are flying, you can see your avatar) can give you a wider view. When you are flying above the island and wants to see what is going on in there while you are flying, this view is very helpful. So I went to couple of places to practice my camera skills. First I went to ride on the boat. I focused on looking at the water surface and tried to see what is under the water and couple of times I fell into the water! I thought I was able to see through the water but did not really work that way... But I loved the place and the boat! It was like a Chinese influenced boat and had many beautiful flowers and plants around the whole water area. After that, I teleported to the Seal Racing place and I bought two different kinds of seal-rides for L$0. Riding on the seal was harder than I thought and I dropped out of the race because I missed the lane and went under the water, then I was trying to fly back up to the race area but did not let me so ended up teleporting back to home. My seal-rides came in handy when I went to Niseko, Hokkaido to do snowboarding and skiing. I was so happy to get free skiwear, goggles, snowboard, and pairs of sticks... basically everything you need to go skiing and snowboarding! First when I arrived in Niseko, I thought I had to take a bus to go to the area you can go skiing, but the bas driver was not available so I ended up searching the snow mountain by the map. It took me a while to do the skiing, but I get to explore Niseko and I even went to the big public bath!!

Seventh Exercise – Showcase locations:

Being in the virtual world gives you the feeling of connecting with other people from all over the country, which is sort of similar to the concept of how your mental world is the same as other’s mental world. Being in the virtual world can help you to realize the existent of your mental world and the similarities it has with others. We tend to only focus on things around us in the physical world. For example, if I am in Tokyo and think of a person who live in Brazil. These two places are located in the opposite sides of ends to each other, so you automatically think that both of them live in a different space. But when you realize about the mental world, you can begin to realize that those two places are actually connected and you and a person in Brazil are in the same place in the mental world.

Another similarity between virtual world and mental world is the concept of love. Some of the places in the SL are filled with the concept of love (e.g. Rose Garden). Many activities are designed to play with two people such as cuddling, dancing, massaging, etc. If two people live in the different countries then they won’t be able to connect each other physically. But in the virtual world, they can in their avatar forms. The virtual world can bring two people together and able to act as one by right clicking the ball. This is similar to the mental world. Because in the mental world, “Love is the principal force in the mental world, which has the power to bind together distinct objects so they are co-present and can act as one” (Dr. James’s lecture notes).

Questions:

Q: I am confused about the relationship between the physical world, virtual world, and mental world. I was trying to find a connection or similarity between virtual world and mental world in the paragraph above in the Seventh exercise – Showcase location section. However, after I read Dr. James’s lecture notes, number 52 under the Propositions of Mental Psychology, I started to have the feeling of misunderstanding the point about the connection between the three worlds.

Task for Week 8:

First explore the new SL search database at sloog.org See how it works.   It’s neat. Useful. Uses the tags that people assign to places they go to  in So. next use this slurl (Web browser) to teleport in world to the UH Student  Union in SL. You'll find instruction there on how to get sloog for your  avtar so you can go around using it and tagging the places you see. It  will automatically be added to the database on the Web, and you will be  able to see there from the Search.  http://slurl.com/secondlife/Infotainment%20Island/94/30/31  Email me if you have questions.   Finally, look up the group Avatar Psychology in the search engine for  Groups. See if you can join that Group. Also try to join some other Groups  and see what kind of Notices you receive about their activities.

Sloog

Sloog is a free bookmarking service for SL residents, which allows them to save their favorite places and avatars by tagging and search for them later, both in-world with a simple plug-in or via browsing at www.sloog.org. A tag/tagging is a keyword used to describe places or people. You can install it by going to Mosi-Mosi offices and look for the Sloog stand. Then you can receive a card by clicking the stand. When you received the card just click accepts, then go to your inventory (it’s named “Sloog HUD version XX”), right click, and chose “wear”. Finally, you will see a green window on the left-top corner of your screen (below the main menu). After you wear it, you will receive a message thru your chat, then you are officially ready to go tagging!

Name of the place	Number of people who tagged
Mosi Mosi	270
Calleta (Calleta’s Hobo Railroad Infohub)	53
Prados Azules	43
Bershka Island	24
Svarga	24

First, I went to the Mosi Mosi Sim and I got the Sloog freebie! The box comes in different colors and I picked the pink one. The whole island was painted in the pink. I saw a huge paint blush, untouchable robots, etc. I was not able to meet anybody in the island.

After visiting Mosi Mosi Sim, I went to Calleta. Calleta reminds me of a movie scene where the earth has been destroyed and taken over by robots… There were buildings with graffiti on, some destroyed trucks, broken computers burning down, mouse were walking around, etc. The only thing I liked about this place was a photo stand! I was able to take my first snapshot, which I received via e-mail. Here is the photo:

The third place I visited from the list is Paradoz Azules. This place is sort of different from the places I visited before. The difference I found was the design of the island. It is animated as in trees are not moving, the huge screen was a shape of vintage looking TV, and there were UFO’s lightning up the places. It kind of remains you of a toy store. And I found out that this is the place where you can get free installer for HUD.

Instead of getting the HUD from the UH Student Union, I got it from Paradoz Azules and I tagged on the UH Student Union. I typed “University of Hawaii, Manoa, Hilo, Aloha, Warriors” then sloog.org sent me the message that I tagged on it. After that they told me to do something… sorry I forgot what they told me to do so I went to the sloog.org and log in, but they did not let me log in so my question is what do I do after I tagged on UH Student Union?

I joined the UH Student Union and they just sent me a notice saying that there will be a St. Patrick’s Day party on the 7^th at 6:00-8:00 pm and they are looking for volunteers to decollate the place for the party. I believe it said that if you would like to volunteer, come to LIS Student Union on the 5^th… I tried to look for the notice in my inventory but I forgot to keep it (or can I even keep the notice). Some of the decollations have already done and looks very nice! There are things you can get it for free such as “Green Beer” and St. Patrick’s Day textures… I am not sure what that is.

I searched the Avatar Psychology in the search engine, but I think there are no groups that particularly study about Avatar Psychology… the closest group I could find was Psychology Group, which was founded by ANO Alexandre. Is this a safe group for me to join?

Education in SL (My experiences at Virtual Worlds in Education: Global Conference in Second Life)

I chatted with a 19-year-old male avatar from Colombia. He asked me if I could speak Spanish. My response was no. He also asked me if I had MSN (messenger provided by hotmail). He was hoping that I can be his tutor for English, but English is my second language is so I had to deny his favor. He made an SL account because he wants to learn English. I am aware that people speak different languages in the world that use SL. I assume that he is not the only person who wants to learn English by using SL. I only wish I knew what kind of place he could go to explore and fulfill his needs of learning English instead of me just saying “sorry I cannot help you with it”. This week I would like to explore education in SL so I can be a little more helpful when I run into someone who wants to learn something during his or her SL experiences.

This is a summary from Second Life Grid, which you can find general information about SL enterprises & educators. Linden Lab has been working with education organizations to help them get familiar with some of the benefits of the virtual world by showing some of the inworld projects and communities and introduce them to educational peers who have already been exploring the SL. Some of the universities have their virtual campuses in SL where students can take classes, work on a project together, etc. There is an organization called NMC who give opportunities for the educators to share their learning and connect their networking in the inworld. They also responsible for running the inworld seminars and conferences about learning and creativity processes that are related to virtual world.

Links to some of the education related sites;

Second Life Eduscape Blog

Second Life Educator (SLED) List

Second Life Education (SLED) Blog

The most current education event will be happening from March 27^th to 29^th. The title of the event is called Virtual Worlds in Education: Global Conference in Second Life. This has been advertised on the first screen you will get while you are logging in to SL. This conference is mainly for the faculty, instructors, trainers, administrators, technical specialists, etc, and members of organizations from around the world. The purpose of the conference is to give opportunities for the virtual world communities to showcase their projects, courses, events, and research that can help increase a positive influence toward education and what a virtual world can provide to learners to help improve their education. Here you can buy ticket to the conference. If you would like further details on their information, you can visit their official site here.

When you first teleport to VWBPE Social and Info Hub, you will see a wood frame, which says “Conference Schedule” and there will be another wood frame behind, which says “Gift Bags and Learning Center”, when you pass that sign and keep walking straight, you will see a big message board on your left side, which will give you a schedule of different conferences. When you pass the schedule board and keep walking straight, you will see a small church looking house. Next to the house, you will find a free bag from VWBPE.

There are four other wood frames and each of them has a theme. First one was “Gift Bags and Learning Center”, the other four are “Tours, Discussions, and Round Tables”, “Professional Corner”, “New to Second Life?”, and “Cozy Cottage”. When you take the road it starts off with a wood frame labeled “Tours, Discussions, and Round Tables”, you can see different fliers that are created by the event hosts. Each flier has the title of the event, date, and time. At the end of the road, there is a red bus, which supposed to give you a tour but when I got on the bus, nothings happened. When you take the road that starts from the wood frame, “New to Second Life?”, there are several panels that give users tips on fundamental basics such as movements, communication, appearance, and inventory. VWBPE social and info hub is a simple place, as in not crowded with objects. It is more for people to communicate, socialize, and exchange information kind of place.

As I entered the VWBPE Social and Info Hub, people dressed formally and seemed like it is for the older crowd. As I got there everyone was wondering about the conference because there are many message boards, but we did not see any particular conference going on. So group of us gathered and started chatting. The picture in the beginning is an actual group of us talking in a small circle. My impression of talking with them was that everyone is highly interested in the virtual world and is willing to acquire more information. They seem to have some experience in inworld and they are trying to make use of the conference experience to some sort of educational settings. Here is an example chat that I shared with other people who were also attending the conference:

[0:02] Neil Cabassoun: Hey, Elle, did you see anything in the education conference?

[0:02] Elle Mexicola: no.. I just got here and trying to figure out what is happening

[0:02] Neil Cabassoun: Me too

[0:03] Maika Giordano: ive been here one hour and trying the same

[0:03] Elle Mexicola: I visited the official conference site, but did not give detailed information

[0:03] Maika Giordano: there is a wiki with detialed info

[0:05] Neil Cabassoun: I tink we were all wondering if there were any conference events going on?

[0:05] Gray Krautrauch: Yeah, all weekend long.

[0:06] Neil Cabassoun: Anything going on right now?

[0:07] Neil Cabassoun: So where's the cool conference stuff for online distance learning?

[0:08] Elendreal Halasy: assuming there is anything going on right now

[0:12] Gray Krautrauch: Anyone interested in Astra Taylor's "Examined Life"?

[0:12] Dixie Jonstone: what is that

[0:12] Gray Krautrauch: A documentary

[0:12] Elendreal Halasy: My thoughts exactly

[0:12] Dixie Jonstone: about ????

[0:12] Elendreal Halasy: A video documentary? [0:12] Neil Cabassoun: Zizek in a construction suit!

[0:12] Gray Krautrauch: Yeah, you know Zizek?

[0:13] Dixie Jonstone: no

[0:13] Neil Cabassoun: A documentary about some philisophers

[0:13] Gray Krautrauch: Google Slavoj Zizek

[0:14] Neil Cabassoun: Some of his philisophy is actually very relevant to our experience here.

[0:14] Gray Krautrauch: It's an another doc about contentental philosphy and virtual worls

[0:14] Gray Krautrauch: worlds

[0:14] Neil Cabassoun: In that we create and construct reality.

[0:15] Gray Krautrauch: I highly recommend the movie

[0:15] Maika Giordano: sounds interesting

When I visited the VWBPE Social and Info Hub later in the same day to see if the conference is happening, I did not see any actual conference going on again, but I met VWBPE Co-Chair, MLani Montgomery, and she told me that there is a Portuguese Education in SL Panel discussion is going on. She also sent me this address, which I could check out the schedules during the conference. http://wiki.vwbpe.org/index.php?title=Schedule so my suggestion here is that if you are planning to attend a conference, which especially going on for several days, you really need to prepare yourself. I would recommend the Second Life Eduscape Blog because they update the most current events and from that information, you should be able to visit the conference official site or the organization’s site to find out further information such as the date and time of such conferences.

week11_title.psd

The Basics about AO

This week I would like to focus on Animation Overriding or AO for short. Now one may ask where can you find AOs and how can you wear them? There are couples of places that offer you free AOs. You can simply find them by typing "free AO" in your search engine. Some of the places I found are Lotsa Balls and Stars Fashion Mall. How can you buy them for free? The procedure is very simple. Most of the free AOs are advertised as "free" and if you right-click them, the small circle will show up (this circle is same as when you change your appearance, etc), select "Buy" and small square screen named Buy Contents will show up. This screen will make sure that is you would like to buy a product for how much, so if it is a free one, it should say "Buy for L$0 from Atlante Guerrero (wherever the place you are at)?" when you make sure what the price is, go ahead and click "Buy". You will also see a small square on your left side corner, which says "wear now" if you want your avatar to wear whatever you purchase right away, you can click the small box next before the sentence. After you clicked "Buy", wherever the place you are at will send you a confirmation letter on your right hand side of the screen where you usually see notecards, so click "ok". If you did not select "wear now", you need to go to your inventory and go to "recent items" and you will see the products you just purchased in there. After you found your item in your inventory, you can click on the yellow folder to open the folder and usually the folder has many items, so for AOs right-click on the one that has a picture of a brown box and choose "wear". After that, your avatar should act like the animation you bought. If you get confused with which one to select in the folder to wear the product, there should be a only one sentence that you need to right-click, so keep right-clicking the sentences until you see "wear".

The two places I found were Lotsa Balls and Starts Fashion Mall. When you teleported to Lotsa Balls, you can easily find the free AOs, but in Stars Fashion Mall, it is sort of hard to find, because there are many clothes and AOs that are for sale. So walk towards a white female statue and you will see couple of avatars being models around that statue, walk pass the models and you will see a purple pole with a yellow poster which has a picture of a flower. The free stuffs are behind that pole! The AO that I attached to myself comes with four different features: walk, sit, ground sit, and load. After I attached it to myself, seven small boxes appear on the right hand side corner of my screen and I can control my AO by selecting which mode I want to use. I like them! For example, if I chose to walk, it will give me five different choices such as walk fast, walk slow, etc. I can easily switch them by clicking the "walk" sign. NOTE: AO scripts only work where scripting is allowed. I'd say about 70% of the world allows scripts, the other 30% you will walk funny in.

What are groups?

One of the activities Dr. James suggested me to do was joining a group. The first time I joined a group, was a group called the LIS student union. My main purpose of joining their group was to set the place as my home for my emergency and safety. One of the things you will receive after joining a group is their notice. The notices pop up in the top right corner in your screen. The first notice I received from them was an invitation for St. Patrick’s Day party. The second notice was a reminder of their place moving in the different island. The notices will give you some heads ups about the group and their events, project, finding people to volunteer to prepare for the events, etc, all thoughts of things that they want you to know as a group member. LIS student union has their own place in the world so it is easy for avatars to go there and check what is happening, but not all the groups have their own place in the world so in that case, you need to rely on the information that are given by notices.

Groups are organizations you can join and belong to in Second Life. Belonging to a group does not inherently improve Second Life, but group members can take part in certain special privileges (Second Life Info). Almost every avatar join at least one group and you can tell their groups by right-clicking the avatar or see their title above their names. When you join a group, you will see a title right above your name. Titles are depends on which groups you are joined and what position you applied within the group. All groups start with three Roles: Owner, Officers, and Everyone. For example, I joined Cyberpsychology group and my title says "Member". You are able to switch around your title if you join multiple groups and also you are chose not to show your title too. Go to Edit in the top left corner of the screen and choose Groups. When you select Groups, small window call Communicate pop up on your screen so choose the group that you want to show in your title, and click Activate. There are other options in the Communicate window. If you click Info, you are able to see the Group Information. I decided to join CyberPsychology because it sounds relevant to what I am studying in Psy 459 and the quote in the Group Character section was from Dr. Suler's online book, which I am familiar with. You can also see the owner and other group members in the Info window. Other features in the Info window are Notices. Sometimes the group sends you a notice and let’s says that you accidently discard it. If you want to see the card, you can go to the info window and you are able to see all the notices that have been sent to you. Another thing you can do in the info window is leaving the group. You join a group and does not like it anymore, you can leave your group by selecting the group you would like to leave in the Communicate window and click Leave.

What can I do as a “Member”? The tasks for the roles are based on how much control you will have over a group. For example, Owners have full control over their group, and have access to all group abilities. What are abilities? Abilities are define a role’s level of control over group matters: land, Linden dollars, membership, titles, and more. In a CyberPsychology group, Members are the lowest position out of three, which is everyone. As a Member, there are no abilities so far, but once I became an Officer, I am able to invite people to the group, eject members from this group, and toggle ‘Open Enrollment’. I am still a new member of my group and have not met any of my group members. It is hard to feel that you are part of the group when you do not see other members of the group or do not see the action, such as group activities and get togethers. But you can always IM to your members and owner so if you are a new member, it is best to keep in touch with others and finding out more about the group. If you need further information and assistances about groups, you can go visit this site. I think it is beneficial to join a group. One of the benefits is the notice. When you are in the world, you are with a bunch of strangers and people you do not know well. By joining the group, you can kind of break the loneliness and acquire a sense of comfort and belongingness.

AO shopping1_001.jpg

Week9 – This week’s topic is AO. AO stands for Animation Override. “An Animation Override (“AO”) is a scripted Attachment which replaces standard animations (walk, jump, sand, run, etc) with animations created by Residents” (www.wiki.secondlife.com). My task is to search for animation and observe Imago effect. How is it going to affect you in real life? Find evidence in yourself.

AO stands for Anim Overide, which adds cool actions and poses to your avatar. This would allow your avatar to become more experienced looking and it helps get rid of your newbie look! Where can I find an AO? The best thing you can do to find it is just search "AO" by using the search engine. This would give you hundreds of places where people offer many kinds of AOs, but mostly every AO cost money. But the price range varies so it is up to you to find the one that satisfies you.

I started to look for AOs by simply typing “AO” in the search engine, and teleported to couple of places that seemed like it offer what I wanted. I was looking for two particular AOs. One of them is female walk AO, and other one is AO that would add some style towards when I am flying and when I stop flying and land on the ground. The first place I tried was Abranimations – Dance/Animation/Gadgets/Dance Animations/Toys. One thing I discovered and thought that was neat about this place was it is well organized. First, when you teleport to Abranimations, you will arrive in the center of the shops where you can find screens that are categorize into different animations that they offer, such as dance animations, animation overriders, walk animations, avatar animations, tinies abranimations, couples animations, etc. All you need to do is right-click the one says “Anim Override” and it teleports you to the particular place within the shop. This place was offering 6 different Anim Overide sets for the male and female avatar. This sounds very like a limited selection, but I consider them neat for the newbies. These sets cost around L$500 to L$900. If you do not want the whole set, they also offer single movements such as fly-flapping, wipe sweat and stand, leg-over-other-leg, swimming, sexy walk, etc and these only cost around L$30 to L$100. Mostly all the places that offer AO will let you try them on before you purchase. You are able to see or try out the AO by light-clicking and select sit or pose in the little circular object in front of the image of the AO. This is almost same process as sitting by right-clicking the place that has small circular object named “sit” or “chill”. If you decide to purchase the AO, you can right-click again and this time you would select “pay”, and you can pay with your Linden dollars. After you purchase the AO, you can look for it by searching for it in your inventory and wear it.

There are many AOs offered by Residents and I even found animation for “drunk-walk” and they also offer many dance movements such as salsa, line dance, club dance, ballet dance, etc. I tried pole dance and this is something I would never get to try in real life lol. I bought female-walk, but it looks like I am running... I had a hard time figuring out using the AO automatically. I assumed the AO would play automatically when I start walking, but you have to go to the inventory and select between play in world and play locally. I am still trying to figure out how to use the AO. It is still a mystery, but now I am walking like a sexy female and whenever I stop moving, my avatar does a little pose (the arms crossed in front of chest are and one of the arms moves next of my cheek). I really like the AO! It gives your avatar more human like movements and I feel closer to my avatar. The additional thing I discovered while looking through Abranimations was Tiny. Tiny is like a stuffed animal, which you can dance, cuddle, and hug. Tiny is around L$350. I have seen other avatars with pets and always wanted to get one. Tiny is a little different from the pets because with Tiny, you can actually do things together and there are also a special AOs to add animation to your Tiny too. I often feel lonely in the world, so Tiny would give me the company and companionship I need.

The second AO place that I visited was SE motion Studio. It provides you with new animations, best AO hud, poses, and dances. This place is little more expensive than the Abranimations, but it gives you many different modeling poses in which you might be able to use for different occasion. Both of the places offer animations for couples. I think this is important because Dr. Suler who published his study about the virtual world, Palace explains that the virtual world is a socializing environment. People are looking for to make friends and interact with others in the world so the couple features would be very important aspects of AO. I have seen many couples trying out the AO together while I was searching one for my avatar. I think looking for AO is a fun process just like how going shopping is a fun thing to do for many couples. By adding an AO, couples can beneficially feel a bonding sense of connection and love fore each other.

Lastly, I would like to talk about the Imago Effect. Dr. James has briefly explained to me what Imago effect is and it is how AO affect you in real life. I never thought about my avatar can affect the way I am. I was thinking that it would be the other way around. When I created my avatar for the first time, I was making it more like who I am than something I want to be, or totally different from me. Then, I faced the fact that I could not make my avatar’s face like mines (Asian features). When I first started SL, I did not know anything and now I know that I can probably buy an Asian face, but back then I kind of gave up on making my avatar look like myself. Even the clothes I made for my avatar was wearing short pants and T-shirts like what people normally where in Hawaii. But I changed all of that into something I want to be, or something I would like to have. I changed my hair from long to short, looked for nice dress that I do not get to wear daily, made the body skinnier so I can be skinnier in the future, etc. Then when I added the female-walk AO, I started feeling different. When I saw my avatar walking in the world, it is completely different from how I walk. She has a nice posture and walks confidently, but I am opposite of the way she walks. I have a bad posture, which people might automatically assume that I do not have confidence in myself. I get a good feeling and confidence when I see my avatar walking around the world with the female-walk AO. My thought process has changed from I am affecting my avatar to my avatar affecting myself in real life. I might be able to work on my low self-esteem by making the avatar more like ideal picture of myself. I have been using SL for over a month now and I might be able to see more Imago Effect as I explore the world with many different features.

Avatar Psychology Self-Witnessing Report

Date and SL Time: 4/25/09, 4:42 am

Episode 1: You are doing something and you notice something

· I was in the info international - Second Life Resource Center observing the inworld. All of a sudden, a helicopter appeared a couple of feet away from where my avatar was standing. I went close to the helicopter and notice that the propeller of the helicopter is creating debris and dust in the air. But when I went into the dust, it did not affect my avatar (my avatar's hair did not blow away).

1. Noticing: Describe what you noticed. How did it come to your attention? Were you looking for it or was it unexpected and new? What were you doing when it came to your attention?

· The appearance of the helicopter was very unexpected. This unexpectedness or unexpected feeling is different from what you would feel in the real world. (For example, I am eating lunch at the beach and all of a sudden a helicopter appears in front of me out of nowhere without any evidence of its origin). This unexpected feeling made me realize that the action that I take when I face an unexpected experience is different from what I would do in real world. What I’ve realized about myself is that I use my consciousness when I am in SL. Even though it was unexpected event, I can still manage to find the meaning of it or understand the occurrences of that event. I am able to contact with the owner of the helicopter, ride on the helicopter, touch the helicopter, etc. I am able to do all sorts of things through my avatar. Everything I do, experience, and understand is through my avatar. This is a different

2. Appraising: Explain what you made of it you when first noticed it. What meaning did you make of it? How did you interpret it?

· I should find out if I am able to ride on the helicopter. The owner of the island rezzed a helicopter for a particular service or reason. It is an expected event because the islands in the Second Life are always changing. This is a new transportation system just like beautiful ships and fancy airplane rides you can find in the different islands.

3. Value Attaching: How did you evaluate it? Give answers to each of the following explaining why: Is it something useful to you or not? Are you surprised or not? Are you pleased or not? Are you grateful or not? Is it something you feel like telling others about it or not? Use rating scales.

On a 1 to 10 scale:

· Embarrassing (to tell): 1. I wanted to immediately tell someone like I found a UFO or something. It was not embarrassing. It was surprising and an exciting event.

· Humiliating: 1

· Aversiveness:

· Urgency: 4. I did not feel urgent immediately, but when I thought about dealing with this actual situation in a real world setting, I would feel urgent.

4. Intending: What intention are you forming as a result of evaluating it? Give answers to each of following explaining why. Do you have the desire to do something about it? Do you intend to behave differently now? Are you motivated to do something with it? Use rating scales.

· I need to right-click it.

· I need to touch or sit inside (to ride)

5. Planning: Do you have a plan to do something about it now or in the future? Do you know a strategy by to proceed? WIll you be seeking more information for this plan?

· I need to know where it (helicopter) is coming from

· I need to know where it is going to take me to if I decide to ride it

· I need to know how to get off

· I need to know who owns it

6. Executing: Describe how you engage the system using its optimizing affordances. What do you do in the interaction with the system - select options, press keys, give commands, search somewhere else?

· Click on the panel or message board near the helicopter

· Move your arrow on the helicopter to see who is the owner

Add additional comments and explanations here:

Date and SL Time: 4/20/09, 7:15 am

Episode 2:

· At the shopping mall. Crossing over the street and hit by the taxi.

1.Noticing:

· It was very spontaneous and unexpected. I did not know it was coming. I noticed the taxi when it hit my avatar. When she got hit, the screen moved slowly (like when you are downloading a file that is heavy, it slows down your screen), the taxi drove away and my avatar stood up (like when you do not have AO and stop flying high in the air, it makes crushing? move).

2. Appraising: Explain what you made of it you first noticed it. What meaning did you make of it? How did you interpret it?

· I did not see any sign that says, "watch out" or "taxi is coming". How do I know when it is coming? Then, I looked at the road; it has a special mark on it.

On a 1 to 10 scale:

· Embarrassing: 8. It was very embarrassing. Right after I got hit, I looked around and made sure that no body was there.

· Humiliating: 6. It was humiliating right after I got hit, because I did not know about the warning sign and I assumed that somebody might of seen me getting hit. But I noticed that it was my avatar that got hit, and it was not me... so my humiliation went away.

· Aversiveness:

· Urgency: 6.

· I need to pay attention more just like I am in the physical world.

5. Planning: Do you have a plan to do something about it now or in the future? Do you know a strategy by to proceed? Will you be seeking more information for this plan?

· I got curious about why people decorate their islands to the way it is.

· I need to know if I am able to catch the taxi... will they take me to somewhere?

· This noticing made me realize that is there any other transportations besides flying and teleporting... why there are no such things as trains and free ways in SL that connect islands together?

· If the taxi would stop, I would right-click it to see if I am able to ride it.

Date and SL Time: 4/23/09, 11:39 am

Episode 3: You are doing something and you notice something

· When I purchase free stuff (e.g. clothes, hair, AO, etc).

1. Even though they are free, you go through the same process as paying money. You right-clik the box, and select "buy" and the screen would tell you L$0.

2. When I am trying it new clothes, hairs, AOs, I tend to take off everything my avatar is wearing (when I do it, my avatar turns into a naked doll) and I start off from adding all the features all over again. Very frustrating.

2. Appraising: Explain what you made of it you first noticed it. What meaning did you make of it? How did you interpret it?

1. Why do we go through the same process? First I thought this is a way for the users (newbies) to get comfortable with purchasing things online and getting familiar with the system. Second, I noticed that if the place offers free stuff, the users are more likely to go back to the place to check if they updated on free gifts (Free Dove is a place which has the most free stuff and it is always crowded with newbies).

2. I noticed many people go completely naked when they try on or put on things. This probably happens to newbies only, but after 10 times of trying and failing, you notice how to keep your hair and AO to change clothes. This is part of a learning process from making all your mistakes. I got frustrated and felt embarrassed when I go naked in front of avatars in the beginning, but when I separate my thinking (I am not going naked, my avatar is going naked), I was able to take my time and stay calm to handle the fixing process of making my avatar.

On a 1 to 10 scale:

· Embarrassing: 1. The process of buying for L$0 is not embarrassing. However, going for free stuff instead of buying could be a embarrassing feeling.

· Humiliating: 1. It is not humiliating, but when the free gift is not nice (even though it is free, people expect it to be nice), I feel little humiliated.

· Aversiveness:

· Embarrassing: 9. Even though I am not going naked in front of other people, I still feel embarrassed when my avatar gets naked in inworld. I think I am not embarrassed about being naked; I am more embarrassed with my lack of computer skills (why I am not wearing underwear... I feel like there are things I can do to avoid getting naked).

· Humiliating: 6. When I imagine people looking at my avatar being naked or laughing at it, I feel humiliated.

1. I need to be more selective about free gifts, because it piles up in my inventory.

2. If I need to change my outfit or try it on, I teleport HOME first. Because I do not need to worry about what others are thinking or looking.

5. Planning: Do you have a plan to do something about it now or in the future? Do you know a strategy by to proceed? WIll you be seeking more information for this plan?

· I need to know which part of body, clothes, AO, I am going to attach or replace.

· I need to protect my avatar from people's sight when I have to change her.

· I need to know a place or island that has no people

· To avoid taking off all the clothes, I need to be careful with the command options. If I am ready to take off everything and put new ones, I should select "Replace outfit". If not, take off the piece of clothing (e.g t-shirt) by right-clicking the avatar and take off only that and select "Add" or "Attach" to put new stuff.

My impression on LIS Career Fair and the Library Fair in Second Life.

This week I was assigned to participate in LIS Career Fair and Library Fair in Second Life. First, I participated in the orientation sessions for new avatars. All the new avatars gathered around the librarian and followed her instructions. She would tell us specific commands to do which were basic moves such as jumping, teleporting, how to open a gift box, etc. It was very easy to understand and everyone was able to follow her steps. She was speaking to us through the speaker and using the local chat both at the same time. When we have questions or would like to answer her or give feedback to her, we used local chat. Everyone including myself seemed very satisfied with the orientation. After the orientation, several people gave speech on skills for getting a job in a bad economy. My impression was that the speakers (librarians) are proud of their job and have a strong love in order to satisfy the needs of themselves as well as helping out others. During this time, as I reported in the self-witnessing report, I had trouble sitting on the chair and I was embarrassed with myself. I had a short period of time participating in the fair but I saw many avatars stopping by and listening to the speech, which shows that many people are interested in the different opportunities that could be potentially available in SL.

Self-witnessing report

May 8, 2009 4:15 pm SLT

This episode is from an orientation for new avatars during the LIS Career Fair and Library Fair in Second Life. I arrived at the conference five minutes late so one of the speakers was already giving the presentation. I hurried to sit on the chair. Then I noticed that I am not sitting right. So I tried to re-sit but no matter how many times I tried I could not sit right. This was frustrating because every time I re-sit, I needed to stand up on the chair. I was extremely embarrassed because I knew that I was distracting the other avatars and the speaker. I ended up standing up after the last law.

1. Noticing - I noticed that I was not sitting properly during the career fest

2. Appraising - I noticed because instead of sitting on the chair, I was sitting under the chair.

3. Value attaching-

Embarrassing-10 I felt so embarrassed to the point where I wanted to leave the place.

Humiliating- 9 I was humiliated because I did selected the chair and used the right command to sit, but the chair did not let me sit properly. (I tried many times to sit properly).

Aversiveness - 10

Urgency - 9 I felt urgent, because it did not look right... when everybody else was sitting right and only I cannot do it... I felt urgent to change my situation.

Worry about others - 7

While the speaker was presenting, I had to try to fix myself. I was so worried that I am destructing the speaker. So after trying for two times, I stopped and decided to look weird, instead of destructing the speaker.

4. Intending - I want to sit right so I do not look weird in front of people.

5. Planning - I planned to try and sit down on the chair before the conference started. If it is too hard to fix it during the presentation, I can always leave the conference quietly or stand up and watch the presentation instead of fixing my position in front of the speaker and other listeners.

6. Executing - During a conference or when someone is giving presentation, I will not sit on the chair. Unless I already have tried and knew that I can sit properly.

May 8, 2009 4:20 pm SLT

During the orientation, the librarian showed us a command so everyone can do the high jump (for Mac, alt + arrow that pointing top). Everybody was trying so I tried it too. Then, I noticed that my avatar jumped differently than others. They jumped high and back to the ground, but my avatar jumped high and rolled in the air and arrived to the ground. After three times of jumping differently from others, I noticed that my AO was on.

1. Noticing - I noticed that I jump differently than everybody else.

2. Appraising - I figured it out by looking at other avatar jumping.

3. Value Attaching -

Embarassing - 7 because we were following one of the librarians and i was the only one who was not following (accidently).

Humiliating - 1

Aversiveness - 6

Urgency - 1

Worry about others - 7 I of might confused others... because they seemed very eager to learn new movements that the librarian was teaching. So, me doing something different distracted them from learning the basics.

4. Intending - I did want to jump normally and follow the librarian.

5. Planning - I plan not to jump in front of the crowds. Or I plan to detach my AO.

6. Executing - I right-clicking my avatar and detached the AO. Or I could search my inventory to unworn the AO, or I could simply turn off the AO by clicking the icons that are showing on my right hand side of the screen.

May 8, 2009 4:15 pm SLT

I decided dress nicely for the career fair. I picked a white shirt, gray pants, and black shoe. I thought I dressed nicely but when I flew in the air, I saw my feet and I noticed something was wrong. So I stopped flying and right-clicked my self and checked my appearance and found out that my shoe was not fitting right. It was good that I noticed it before the fair started. Other wise I would have embarrassed myself again. So I looked through my inventory to see if I have other sizes, but I did not have any. I decided to go to the fair bare feet because my inventory did not have any other shoes and I was going to be late.

1. Noticing - I noticed that my shoes are not fitting my feet.

2. Appraising - I noticed because front part of my feet was showing and shoe was only covering the bottom part.

3. Value attaching

Embarrassing- 9

Humiliating - 8

Aversiveness - 8

Urgency - 8

worry about others - 5

4. Intending - I want my shoe to fit my feet.

5. Planning- I plan to check the inventory to see if the shoe comes in different sizes. Or resizing my avatar's feet so the shoe can fit the feet.

6. Executing - I tried looking for different sizes in the inventory, but it did not have them. I tried resizing my feet but the shoe still did not fit right. I went back the store where I got the shoe and tried to get different size. So I will always try it on when I purchase something (even they are free).

Episode 5:

This episode was from the time when I just becoming a user of SL. When I first went to the Library, I wanted to know where is the librarian and I happened to see this avatar so I started chatting to her and after receiving “Welcome to…” message, I finally noticed that she was just an assistant, not the real librarian. I laughed at myself for not noticing, but I really did not notice when I just started becoming a user.

1. Noticing – I noticed that I was talking to uncontrolled avatar.

2. Appraising – I noticed because the avatar was not responding my questions.

3. Value attaching

a. Embarrassing- 10

b. Humiliating- 8

c. Aversiveness- 5

d. Urgency- 1

e. Worry about others- 1

4. Intending – I wanted to talk to librarian so that I can receive information that I needed

5. Planning – I plan to pay more attention to the signs or the note cards so that I am able to identify them from avatars that are controlled by users.

6. Executing – I will read the name and group on avatar carefully. By attending more conferences I noticed many places have assistant avatars that are not necessarily controlled by the users.