Plotting Positions in
Active Worlds
Observations:
10am, Sunday morning
I downloaded the Active Worlds browser in about 5 seconds,
entered a name, and was in the main area in a few more seconds.
I started in the general Active Worlds area, exploring the
areas, going out into a few and coming back, to get a lay of the land. A few people talked to me, and I answered,
but first I was just figuring things out.
There were lots of other avatars, mostly in tourist gear like me. There was a Jeanie figure, a number of women
wearing dark clothes, and only one man who was not in tourist gear. There were probably about 20 people in the
main area, and between one and five people down each of the paths. There were several different conversations
going on. Some seemed as though the
people met there regularly, and some seemed like they were introducing
themselves, chit-chatting about the weather or their outfits or where to go or
what to do. Some people were dancing
for each other. I had no idea how to
make my avatar do this so I was impressed.
However, it might be fairly simple and I plan to go back and figure out
some more complex ways of moving about and interacting.
Many of the smaller interactions seemed to be inane little
conversations, with people jumping around, exploring, but not really doing
anything that seemed interesting or innovative. There was one tourist who came up several times, said nothing,
but winked a lot, and then went away. I
said hello but he didn’t respond. Things
seemed random and not so engaging.
After a while, a little dog avatar appeared, but didn’t
communicate. It was unclear to me
whether this was part of Active Worlds or a person whose avatar was a little
dog. I tried to communicate with it but
it didn’t respond.
It seemed like a lot of the
areas were empty, and not that interesting.
Only the main area had real conversations going on and were active. I didn’t see any real patterns of behavior,
like in Sproul plaza, where in comparison the drumming group in the evening had
the central position and was prominent in my experience. The Active World experience seemed random
but it may be my lack of experience with it.
I have a lot more experience with Sproul in comparison.