For those of you who have already read about the Virtual MTV site and have tried it, you know how much fun it is. Well, you do IF YOU DON'T HAVE A MAC. It's like "Second Life", only in Virtual MTV it's all things that exist in an MTV world. My biggest curiosity was The Real World Sydney. I am a big Real World fan, and I love Australia, so I recently tried to sign up and download the Virtual MTV application on to my computer, but found to my disappointment that it was not Mac compatible.
I waited to get my hands on a PC to see what the hype was about. When you finally download the application, you go through the steps of creating an avatar (virtual person), naming him/her, picking the wardrobe, and you're off to the races. It gets tricky trying to figure out how to "teleport" or move places and how to even chat. Once you get the hang of it and ask the other avatars for tips, it's actually pretty simple. You move with your arrows, you jump with a right click, and to chat with people, all you have to do is start typing.
As soon as I figured out how to get around and "enter" places, I found myself wandering around The Real World house. It is set up exactly like the one you see on television. It's a little difficult to get around, but by walking around you finally find your way. I stumbled upon some people making out in one of the bedrooms and I nearly fell off the floor laughing. I was like, OMG, this is a "real" virtual world where you can talk, ride on scooters, and make out. When I saw the two people making out on the bed, this intrigued me and I interrupted them to ask them how I can make out. The girl avatar by the name of hot_one stopped kissing the other avatar male by the name of sexy_mike and simply told me: I just have to sit down and go to the gestures section. And viola! I found myself a cute avatar boy and made-out! It's really funny being the puppet masters of these avatars. You find yourself so engulfed once you start playing that it's hard to stop.
Other things to do while in The Virtual Real World is visit the Cargo bar where the actual cast parties on the show, shop at The Harbourside Market Place and walk around outside. You even have the option of renting or buying a scooter, a pharaoh (almost like the Back To The Future 2 skateboards), and going shopping. Once you set up your avatar you get $1000 virtual dollars, and you can either earn money by playing for it, or actually buying virtual money with Real money. One of the cool features I found on Virtual MTV is that you have a running jukebox that plays the latest hits. However, the one annoying thing I found was the commercial pop-up notices like, "Don't forget to tune-in!" VMTV is genius marketing for MTV because they're getting their ads and promos out, it's a great version of "Second Life" where you get to hang out with people virtually from your favorite MTV shows, and you're constantly stimulated. The site even has contest like: Get chosen to be one of the virtual cast members!
In a way it's almost just like Vegas: the only way I can get money is to buy money, I'm stuck at a table in front of something I can't get up from, and I'm people watching. For those of you that are second-life users and want to meander over to the MTV World, I highly recommend virtual MTV.
Personally, I loved The Real World Sydney, but if you get bored of Sydney, you can always go to Los Angeles and vist the Virtual Hills, Virtual Newport Harbor, Virtual Laguna Beach, Virtual Pimp My Ride.
It's like going on virtual vacation. Go on! You owe it to yourself unless you're a Mac user. Hopefully MTV will get that glitch figured out because I have to tell you I was pretty bummed about it. It's virtual discrimination, I demand equal rights!!!
To visit The Virtual Real World: Sydney go click on: The Virtual Real World Sydney
G'day mates and have a good weekend. Nads.