Entering Second Life though Linden Labs
Everything in Second Life (SL) is free unless you want to own land. In the past, you were asked for a credit card number to verify your age. This is no longer the case. You will not be asked for a credit card number to receive your avatar.
These instructions are for using the Second Life Orientation Island, which is open to the world. Alternatively, since the University is a member of the New Media Consortium (NMC), instructions are also available on the UD Second Life web site (www.udel.edu/secondlife) for entering SL through the NMC's Orientation Island. You will find them with a group of files in the getting started link. It is a little more relaxed at the NMC entry point, but there are advantages for entering either way. We will leave that to you to decide.
When you have received your note from Linden Labs (or NMC) confirming that your account has been activated, please send me your avatar's name.
Getting your avatar
1. Go to secondlife.com and click on the big orange Get Started button.
It is located on the right side of the page.
2. Select a last name from the pre-selected list.
You can't chose your last name; the list of available names changes regularly.
3. You can choose your first name! Pick one and click "check this name for availability" (this often happens automatically).
If the name you choose is already taken, some name combination options will be presented to you. You do not have to accept any of them. If you do not like them, you can try a creative spelling of your original name choice or try adding some caps or a middle name.
4. Fill out the rest of the Basic Details form with your real life information, then click continue.
5. Next, you will chose your avatar's appearance.
The first set of avatar appearance choices are the boy and girl next door. These are the easiest to adjust later, but feel free to pick the avatar appearance you like best. If you hate them all there's no need to worry, you will probably want to customize your look at some point in the near future anyway.
6. You will be taken to the welcome page with your avatar name. Here you will fill out your real world information in more detail. Be sure to check to agreement to terms of service box before you hit the submit button!
7. Next is a window with an offer to upgrade to a Premium account. You can skip this set by clicking on that button saying skip.
8. Now a confirmation window appears to tell you that your account has been opened and an email has been sent to to activate your account. It is VERY important that you receive this mail and use the included link to activate your account. If you do not receive your e-mail conformation in just a few minutes, check your junk mail folder. The message may have been filtered.
9. While you are waiting for your e-mail with activation link to arrive, if you have not already done so, go to the download section of the Second Life web site and locate the software download link for your system.
http://secondlife.com/community/downloads.php.
10. When your e-mail with link arrives, you must use the link to access Second Life.
At this point, you can send a note to jeffers@udel.edu with your avatar's name.
You should now be running the Second Life program and logged into Second Life.
When I receive your avatar name, I will offer you friendship and will drop a folder in your inventory. When you next log on a blue dialog box will appear telling you that Firery Broome has given you some library items and another saying I offered friendship. You must click "accept" to actually transfer the items to you and add me to your friends list. You will need these items for the hand-on session so please except them.
The first stop is Second Life's Orientation Island.
Here you should take some time to learn how to navigate and communicate in your new virtual landscape.
When you land on Orientation Island you will automatically be wearing your clothes and a HUD (short for heads up display). The HUD will be in your upper left hand corner of your screen and has icons and text that will guide you through the four main learning areas. The puzzle pieces will become filled in as you complete your tasks.
A word of warning, when arrive on Orientation Island you may appear as a gray figure until your clothing finishes to download (rez). Do not be alarmed if you see gray figures all around.
You will have to click on your preferred language button to get started on Orientation Island. Follow the instruction as they appear in the HUD.
Areas for learning are the city scape where you learn to move yourself and drive various vehicles; a castle where you will learn to buy and take things into inventory, change your appearance and create a post card; a tropical island, where you learn the various ways of communication and when to use each one, and then there is the search area where you learn how to locate islands, events, people and objects of interest.
Take your time moving through the learning modules. You can assume 45 minutes to an hour for your training.
Once your training is completed, you can use the landmark to the University of Delaware Island that I will send you (if you remembered to send me your name!). You can detach the Orientation Island training HUD once you leave Orientation Island (you will have learned how to detach items while on Orientation Island).