Moving Around Virtual Worlds

Hey, there. Jolie here again. This a demo of how to get around in a virtual world. Now if you click the link here to the shopping world, it’ll take you to the Kitely page and you’ll have to log in with your Facebook ID. If it’s the first time you tried to log in it’ll ask you to download the plugin, which is completely safe and virus free. Once that is done you click the big blue button to the right that says enter world. It takes a minute or so for all the software to do its thing and launch the viewer. I want to reassure you that no one but players here in this game will be inworld. The link is not searchable in Google, so you won’t run into anyone but players you see interacting here, and there are few enough of you that odds are you’ll usually be inworld alone unless you ask someone to meet you there at a specific time.

Now, this video picks up at the point where you arrive inworld. It’s just an orneriness of the Internet in that you always materialize facing in a direction opposite of where you want to go. Remember that(hint)when you visit the Wasteland. So you’ll materialize in this village and if you turn around you’ll see this big brown sign. Lilly opens the view menu and activates the movement control menu. You can use the arrow keys on your keyboard to get around. Try them, forward, back, right, left. She’s using the mouse with that movement menu so you can see which arrows she’s pressing to make her avatar move. You can use the menu bar, like Lilly does, if you find that easier.

Lilly turns around and walks close to the sign so she can read it. Now, before she goes anywhere, she decides she wants to be able to find her way back here easily. So she’ll create a landmark. She clicks the world menu and selects “create landmark here”. The landmark is automatically saved in the landmark folder of her inventory, but it usually has a name that doesn’t describe the location well and once you’ve saved a few of these you’ll want to be able to tell what they were for, so Lilly shows you how to click the inventory button and rename a landmark.

Once the landmark is saved she left-clicks the first name on the signpost, “classroom”, and like magic she materializes in a classroom. And of course, she’s not looking at anything useful, but once she turns around she can see desks, chairs, and a door. At this point she could use her landmark to get back to the sign, but this is a great opportunity to show you how to deal with doors.

Walk close to them before you try to open them because most doors have a timer and they always close on me right about the time I’m walking through. Once you’re close, left click the door with your mouse and then walk through it fast. When Lilly is outside she can see she’s not all that far from the signpost, but rather than walk over there, she opens her inventory and clicks on that handy landmark she made and reappears right in front of the signpost.

Now it’s your turn. Go to the signpost and make a landmark. Then click the gift shop sign. Kitely sets all new users up with one of two avatars and rather than everyone going around looking the same, it’s about time we showed you how to make your avatar reflect your unique personality. I’ll post another video on how to do that, but one lesson at a time. Lets work on finding the store first. Walk around, explore the village. See what you can figure out all by yourself and tell us about it in the comments. Fifty points for each new discovery you make on your own. Send me pictures! I want pictures to post.

I wanted to post this video for you last night, but after I did all the edits and hit save, I wound up with a blank reel. I hate when that happens. I’ll try to get the next up this afternoon or evening.

***A note about scores: Michelle is doing fantastic. Congrats on working that Big Door toolbar, Michelle. Don’t take the score you see there as your final score. It only counts how many times you log in at the bar or tweet or like posts. You get points for lots of things that I have to count manually. I’ll try to get you a new point standing by tomorrow. Just off the top of my head, I know Michelle and Joder have earned the 200 points they need to get in this week’s drawing. We’re giving away a $15 gift card. If you’re just joining in, getting in the shopping world will get you half the points you need. Getting a friend to do it will get you the rest. Follow the Passionatereads.com blog and comment there and that’s fifty points. Log into that Big Door toolbar with your Facebook ID and click all those buttons. I think you get a bunch of points each time you log on and you can log on fresh once an hour. Joder, I know you were already following Preads, but I’m giving you the fifty points anyway for having such good taste ;).

There are lots of ways to build those point scores, so don’t sweat it. Join in, have some fun and points will take care of themselves.

**video filmed using Fraps and the Linda Kellie V2 oar on Kitely. A scripted version of the navigation sign was supplied by Maria Korolov