The Alphaville Herald

Adrenaline Lite – Adventure Sports in Second Life

by Alphaville Herald on 07/06/09 at 9:04 pm

by Fiend Ludwig

I like that you can't die when skydiving in SL. The blood poolanimation when you hit the ground (much) too hard is about as real asit gets. Or is it. Why would anyone want to skydive in SL when you canfly…?

With a healthy dose of virtual trepidation, I strapped on my TerraSport III PRO parachute, took my place on the Abbot's AerodromeSkydiving Pod (vaguely resembling the seats in an airport departurelounge), and held on. The Pod launched me to 4000 meters into the skythen unceremoniously ejected me into free fall. After a bit ofexpert-looking plummeting, I pulled the ripcord and, held aloft by myCanada flag-emblazoned canopy, drifted slowly back to earth. The viewwas pretty good – once the details rezzed – and the parachute reactedto my control actions like I would imagine a real one would.  Mylanding was rated ("CRUNCH! Hard Landing") and the distance from mylaunch point was recorded (quite a long way away).

"Skydivers engage in it for the thrill of skydiving – clicking the "Fly" button just ruins the fun" says Cubey Terra, co-founder of Abbot's Aerodrome[SLurl], "Similarly, even though we can teleport anywhere we want onthe map, many SLers enjoy flying aircraft and driving cars. I see SL asan entertainment medium. People enter SL looking for a fun socialexperience. What better way to liven up a party than to fall togetherfrom 4000 meters?" Starting to be convinced about the sport, I confidein Terra my real life fear of skydiving. He quickly sets sets my mindat ease -  "RL skydiving can't be particularly dangerous. I've talkedto dozens of skydivers, and none of them have ever had a fatalaccident."

OK, so virtual skydiving is fun. But what about SCUBA diving in SL?Surely there is no need for tanks and wetsuits in a world where you canwalk around underwater as easily as down the high street.

Contrary to my RL skydiving experience (none), I have engaged inmany SCUBA dives in various challenging locations around the world, soSCUBA diving in SL will assuredly hold no allure for me.  With my mindalready made up, I TP'ed to PADI Dive World [SLurl], where the onshore build introduces visitors to various aspects of recreational SCUBA diving.

After donning my Splash Aquatics Commercial Dive Kit Bag, I exploredthe underwater part of the sim (Splash Aquatics also did thedesign/build of Dive World). It is filled with (as) realistic (as onecan get in SL) flora and fauna, and designed to take the diver throughvarious ocean ecosystems with explanatory signposts distributed on theseafloor. The feel of virtual SCUBA diving seems less 'real' than thatof virtual skydiving, but the experience was still worthwhile. Thediving body posture is accurate, and the drift-delay feel of themovement comes close to approximating the feel of swimming weightlessunderwater.

I asked John Kinsella (Cilian McCullough in SL) PADI'sVP for Diving Science and Technology (DSAT is PADI's research andproduct development arm) about the response to SCUBA diving in SL."It's a perfect match! Freedom of movement in all dimensions." He adds,"People who get in love it. We were careful to develop in a way thatcontributes to the vibrant SL community. I would offer that we are verywell received because of that: we do not give away free equipment (sowe don't undermine SL builders and vendors), we have a great place forpeople to come and spend some time, we have tried to offer something tothe community instead of hitting them over the head with our brand."

Unexpectedly, I found that indeed sky and SCUBA diving in SL werequite enjoyable despite the fact that they offer none of the adrenalinecharge of the actual activity. Both provided a glimpse of the sport,without any of the risk. (Undoubtedly, this is a also significantfactor in why virtual sex is so popular.) PADI's Kinsella feels that SLmay in fact be a place where students could learn some of the classroomtheory that is part the basic SCUBA diving courses, and this is where Ifeel that SL may provide the most benefit. Imagine a chat-enableclassroom session with a small group of student divers, where theinstructor can demonstrate key elements of the the physics andphysiology of diving using teaching aids that simply cannot existoutside a virtual environment.

And anyway, only in SL can you sip a Pina Colda while still fully-suited in technical dive gear. And that is good.

When not sipping Pina Coldas in technical dive gear, Fiend Ludwig writes for First Person : Second Life