Hughs Vampire Blog SL

I was late to this class unfortunately and missed the start, but was filled in by my group who said that more information about the brief and project was given and thy passed it on to me. I jumped into the discussion on online profiles and the impact they can have on our lives, which I found very interesting. It is very true that today almost everyone has an online presence but not very many people put much thought into how it affects them in the real world. In the world today social media is often seen as just an extension of yourself, like another limb and people forget that information that is posted can be online forever or can be saved and stored by anyone. One comparison that I found particularly interesting is that to the alternate personas one might have when talking to family compared to talking to friends. In the same way our online persona is not a true reflection of ourselves. Weather this is a bad thing is an interesting debate. On one hand showing your best self is a pos...

Our first meeting was in a mocked up British town of some kind. Only four of the group were able to attend as two people were busy, it proved more difficult than I thought it would be to gather the six of us. Once we were together we began to brainstorm ideas. We talked a little bit about what sort of careers that we could look at or what sort of area or industry would be interesting to look into more. Construction was one option, and the idea of machinery that can lay bricks or 3D printed houses was considered. In the end an idea about shopping in the future was put forward which seemed to interest people more. Pascal shared a link to a video of VR shopping in China that he had seen. It was a concept where people could go to a virtual shop, walk around it and even try on clothes. It was an idea that I could see manifesting in the near future that could change the way that we shop. For many goods this would be inappropriate and even for clothes shopping, people like to touch and feel...

In this class we were divided up into our groups. I was put in the red group with Olly, Ben, Peter, Cliona and Pascal. All these people are in my class which is very convenient. In the class we talked about teamwork and working with a group and it’s difficulties. Especially in the world of design, teamwork plays an important part in a professional setting. In other modules and in our core studio work we are often asked to work in teams in preparation for this and to help us become comfortable in team settings. I personally have struggled to work in groups before but have also had very successful experiences with it. It can often be hard if one team member is not pulling their weight, but even when both parties are dedicated, if there are contrasting creative ideas, or if people are just set in their ways and are not open to change, conflict can occur. The best way is to let everyone's ideas be heard and fleshed out and to always be willing to go with what is best for the group rath...

The first person I started to talk to was in a town square type of place. I asked in the nearby chat if anyone wanted to talk to someone new to Second Life who was here for college and one person jumped on the opportunity. They were very nice and really interested to talk to me. I asked them a few questions and found out that they play under an hour a day but quite regularly and have been playing for over 8 years! They seemed to have a lot of friends in the game so I asked if they see people who end up spending too much time in the game and losing control. They said that they have seen it many times but it is usually people who don’t have a family, live in remote areas or have a disability. He described how a disabled person can fly in SL. I found this attitude to SL the same with the last people that I talked to, where it is seen as not just an escape from the real world, but a part of their real world. What dawned on me from this conversation was that...