Thing 15, part 2--Second Life

I looked at the YouTube video, as well as several other of the listed resources, on Second Life. I have to say I still don't get it. Oh, I understand the idea that it's a way to exercise one's creativity, and that it's possible to create venues for online communication and training opportunities for people from all over. But what I don't get is the whole creation of avatars to represent individuals and of virtual locations in which this communication and training can take place. It seems to me that the types of "serious" uses of Second Life described in some of the resources can be accomplished in other,less time- and technology-intensive ways. I admit that some of the images that I saw were really beautiful, and showed a lot of creativity, but ultimately the question is, to what end? Since I'm more of a gomer than a gamer, maybe it's just me, but I just don't get it.<em>

Thing 15, part 1

OK, so I just spent (wasted) about an hour playing Pirate Puzzles, and I have to say, I still don't see the allure. Granted that this particular game is free, and thus pretty primitive, but other than figuring out the keyboard commands for the various puzzles, it doesn't hold much of a challenge. I can't claim to know how the multi-player part of it works, but based on what I have seen, don't really care how the multi-player part of it works.
I know I keep saying this, but tomorrow I intend to watch the Second Life video, but don't hold out much hope that I'll be enthralled enough to actually investigate further. I know I should reserve judgement until I've actually looked at it, but everything i've heard and/or read about it leads me to believe that it's nothing I'm interested in using. However, as I've said before, it is important to know enough about it to, not only know that I'm not interested in it personally, but also to know why others are. So I'll watch the video, and hopefully understand something about it. I'll post the results as soon as I watch.