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A More Pointless Second Life

March 7th, 2007

I gave up on Second Life a while back. I haven’t logged in since, and even stopped writing about it on this blog. But two recent developments spur me to mention it again.

First, PlayStation Home for the PS3 was just announced. It’s a free interactive world where avatars can interact and play games together. The graphics in this video clip blow Second Life’s away. Just check out the avatar facial manipulation sequence.

The other development is that World of Warcraft just hit 8.5 million subscribers. Second Life has around 2 million.

Virtual worlds are a seductive idea. I think someday we’ll see a realistic virtual environment that everyone will want to participate in. However, I wouldn’t bet on Linden Labs to be the company that makes it happen. Things happen so fast in technology. Personally, I think a game company has a better shot as they have huge advantages in terms of graphics, usability, networked game play, and game design.

Additional Reading: Wonderland Blog

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  • I played Second Life exactly one time, for about 30 minutes a few months ago. Maybe I didn't give it enough of a shot but I just couldn't get into it. I had no idea what to "do".

    I was invited into the new Lord of the Rings Online beta which I was very excited about as though are some of my favorite books and movies, but unfortunately it seems to be Windows-only at this point...
  • I really gave it shot - mostly because of all the hype in the tech world as a successor to the web - but I couldn't shake the feeling it was like the sims but with graphics from the days of Doom - the graphics on the PS2 are even much better ...
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