I know ... I'm posting like crazy today. But my mind is buzzing with all sorts of stuff.
I've been at a Computerworld blog reporter meeting in Second Life tonight. And although that was fun, I must admit that I still find it a little hard to really get into the Second Life thing. I've created my avatar and chatted to various people, but I tend to get slightly bored. It's all so stiff and square, the context somehow makes it difficult for me to get that sense of ... immersion.
Maybe it's because I'm used to playing RPG's (Role Playing Games, for the uninitiated), and because the immersive experience in these games is getting so good that any other interface falls short.
At the moment, I'm playing The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. My character is a Dark Elf with Spellsword skills (the ability to use both melee weapons and magic spells). And I must say, that I've never encountered an immersive experience quite like Oblivion.
The graphics are breathtaking! It's as simple as that. The light shifts during the day and night, the weather changes, the trees and leaves move in the wind. And, on top of that, I get to kill people! Right now, I'm doing a series of quests for The Dark Brotherhood. Mostly assassinations, which is why I'm wearing that sneaky outfit.
Anyway ... it's escapism, it's a chance to get away from all the things that usually keeps me busy (as hell) during the week.
And the question I'm beginning to ask myself is: will Second Life - which aims at looking as much as reality as possible - ever provide a type of escapism as seductive as the RPG's? What in Second Life may eventually capture me the way gaming does? Or will I simply use Second Life as a 3D interface of another type of Internet?
Okay, it's getting better now. I found (bought!) a hairdo that resembles my own, and I'm still tweaking my face to make it look more like me. 
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