Message #118481

[Bianca]

Technical Problems


First, I have to say that I was warned by Second Life right from the start that my computer graphics card was not up to speed. I think my Internet connection is also not up to the requirements of an event; my guess is to be able to attend and participate in such an event you need an ethernet connection.

So, technical problems I experienced were almost certainly a result of that situation. They included an incredible amount of visual noise. Constantly repeating flashes of patterns and color were hard to ignore; I assume, maybe I'm wrong, but I think it was from the 30 or so other avatars that attended the event.

As an aside, avatars are really interesting, and it could be a great social science study in and of itself. Avatars at the Çatalhöyük event ranged from a close physical approximation of a person, down to his dirty tennis shoes (I swear I've met that guy); to Ruth Tringham's cool, multicolored manga-like avatar; to an adept orange wallaby named Pocky. Oh, and somebody else was using the same canned avatar I was. Twins! But the flashes of light emanating from these avatars was overwhelmingly distracting.

I got kicked out of Second Life at least a half-dozen times, and eventually gave up before the end of the tour. Although I had several questions and typed them into the chat space, no one could "hear" them--and I suspect that was true for others, because I "heard" another person's question that no one else did.