Week 8 Tutorial Task - 3D Worlds

For this weeks tutorial task we had to log into a 3D world and play around and compare them to your typical MSN and other instant messenger programs (I generally use MSN as a comparison as that's just what I'm use to!)

The first place that I logged into was Habbo Hotel. Firstly, I found the whole logging in process very easy, I thought it would be harder and more complex than it was. I basically put in my email and password then I was onto the fun stuff of choosing my cute outfit and diving straight into different public places. I went to the welcome lounge, cinema, comedy cafe and the park. Apart from the obvious differences, I kind of found that the experience was kind of tedious - like the clicking to where you want to go - and one of the things that frustrated me was when you were chatting to someone you could only really type one line of text - whereas with MSN you can write a good couple of paragraphs. Also, I found there was a slight delay with the messaging - maybe this is getting too technical but you know how with MSN once you hit enter the text is up - in Habbo I found there was a tiny delay which got a little frustrating. Also, with MSN you can see when the other person is typing - in Habbo you can't - so there were times when I was standing there unsure of whether the person I was talking to was typing something back at all. Another thing was that you could see what everyone else was typing and it kind of got a bit distracting. I know that I went to public places but there were different conversations happening all over the place and if you missed what the other person you were talking to typed then it disappears pretty quickly and (unlike MSN, again) you can't scroll back and see what they said. When I was in the park there were two people having a domestic because 'Ashlee17' had cheated on 'Roger5' and he was running around the park telling everyone!!! lol

In terms of the different socialising that took place - I actually found it very similar to old school seedy chatrooms. Every person I spoke to, the first thing they wanted to know was 'asl' or 'what do u look like' - which in itself is kind of funny because people generally come into these virtual worlds to escape/hide that kind of stuff. Again, I know that I was in public rooms but I still found it kind of creepy and seedy - like there were A LOT of like 14-16 year old girls on there and again, just made me think of old school seedy chat rooms!

To me the 3D aspect didn't make that much of a difference! I like the simplicity and ease of MSN - as i stated before, I like that it is actually instant, you can see when someone else is typing, and you can block people etc. I like MSN because I can have it up and chat to my friends while doing other things - with Habbo you basically have to constantly sit there in case you miss anything. And MSN can still be interactive - like emoicons and things like that - although they may appear to be 'lame', to me Habbo just had more 'fluff' and lacked the basics that I know I like about MSN.

I also attempted to log into Active Worlds - but after 4 attempts it wouldn't work and kept automatically closing on me. I am also looking at Second Life for my assignment - so this tutorial task was interesting as a personal comparison in regards to what I already know about Second Life!