Valleywag: Once Again

January 24th, 2007

TechnologyI’m thankful that today, when I don’t really feel like writing, Valleywag is kind enough to send another link my way concerning my bow-out from Second Life. Read the original post here.

I’m not going to post about Second Life any more despite the noteriety I may receive as the Andy Rooney of virtual reality. The subject is wearing rather thin for me, and I don’t want to be found guilty of beating a virtual dead horse. Besides, there are many other things I’d rather write about, such as James Bond films, Web 2.0 sites, and ferrets. So here are my final, abridged thoughts on the matter:

“I think in total I logged in about six or seven times, way more times than I think the average person would, and certainly more attention was given than to any of the Web 2.0 websites I’ve poked around on in my ‘Interesting’ posts - and I still didn’t find Second Life appealing enough to get seriously involved with it.”

“When virtual reality gets to be more like the Star Trek holodeck, putting you in a personal episode of Battlestar Galactica (with the cast of Gilmore Girls as a stand-ins for all the Cylons), I’ll give it another shot.”

Additional reading: Ballpark, The Guardian, Mathew Ingram, h4×3d, Slashdot, digg

In the interest of fairness, here’s Second Life’s reply to Valleywag: Second Life Insider

Check out some user photos of Second Life at flickr

My travels: Second Life

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Viewing 3 Comments

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    I would be curious to know your opinion on more "polished" virtual worlds like World of Warcraft, etc. Granted much of the game revolves around fighting and questing, but you'd be surprised all the other bizarre "real life" activities taking place online. And there's loads of dancing, sex, live theater, online marriages and the like taking place.

    Much less lag and probably more refined gameplay. Though if you're looking for holodeck level quality, you won't find it. But who knows, it might be a step up from Second Life (which sounded a bit problematic from you reviews -- I've never tried it myself).

    Of course it is crack. So I cannot in good conscience give a full recommendation since I've been "clean" (from WoW) for well over a year now.
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    Having played other Blizzard games I'm guessing WoW is way ahead of Second Life. Maybe I'll try it, next. In terms of graphics, Second Life pales in comparison to even the PS2.

    The idea of questing actually I find more appealing - at least there is something to rally behind; a purpose. In SL it seems the larger purpose is just buying stuff, making stuff to sell. There's a lot of ads in there, too, which I find a turn off.

    Anyhow, the idea of virtual reality is a seductive one. My critique has been at Second Life specifically, not the concept of virtual worlds. There's no question, eventually technology will catch up to the concept, and it will be awesome when a really immersive virtual world happens. But I wouldn't bet on Linden Labs being the one to make it happen. Things change in tech so fast - companies come and go.

    I actually think a gaming company has a better shot at creating the next virtual world and a virtual world economy than Second Life.

    For example, weren't there like 2 million copies of Burning Crusade sold already? That's huge!
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    I've been on Second Life for 2 weeks and in that time I've figured out that it will only be interesting if you find a sim to be part of and then immerse yourself in the sim. Unless you are in there to make money or get publicity (by selling your Second Life creations or trying to market your Real Life brand) or are there for cybersex (plenty of 'orgy rooms' and places to rent escorts).

    For example, I have a friend in the Gorean sim (Gor is a world of its own created by author John Norman in his series of books). Members of the sim participate in role-play... she had to do some reading up on Gor and take some kind of test to become a physician. Physicians are summoned to "heal" the warriors who are injured in wars. I told her it sounded like too much work. Then there are the slaves, or 'kajira' as they call them, who follow their masters everywhere and do whatever the masters tell them to do. Also too much work.

    I haven't yet found a place to belong, which means I don't have anything to do in Second Life apart from flit around aimlessly, exploring. This is getting boring fast. And lag is very annoying. So I don't know how long I'll last. I don't exactly want to participate in a normal sim with shopping malls and residential areas and go to work every day (a lot of Second Life people do have jobs). I already do that in real life, cannot figure out why I would want to duplicate that in Second Life!

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