A lot of marketers wanted SL to be the next TV, where they could
advertise to another captive audience. It doesn't live up to the hype.
In my opinion, the tech is just not good - the controls are clumsy and
moving around the world feels awkward and glitchy. The developers have
admitted many times over that the server code is horribly inefficient
and requires much more hardware per user than your average MMORPG (e.g.
Everquest or World of Warcraft). In fact, when trying to get any "event"
together they are pretty much limited to about 60 people. When Wm.
Gibson made an appearance like a month ago, people had to "get a seat" a
couple hours early just to make the event (also, apparently they were
all disconnected a few minutes before the event started and had to
scramble to reconnect).
I attended an event a few months ago when Sun released Java under the
GPL. Some Sun people and Mark Shuttleworth were there at the Sun
Pavillion, and their avatars stood around like zombies while their
voices came over the audio. Very interesting subject matter and
speakers, but holding the event in SL had no benefits whatsoever. Yeah,
sure, the attendees were able to ask questions (i.e. they could text one
of the coordinators who would filter and choose quality questions). The
whole thing could have been done with a live audio-cast and an IRC
channel or IM chat group for the attendees.
For more on how much money has been wasted on the Hype (TM), this
article is amusing:
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/magazine/15-08/ff_sheep?currentPage=a
ll
My previous experience with SL (before the marketers moved in) consisted
of exploring for about an hour until I found myself at a "furry" party
where a bunch of anthropomorphics were enjoying an orgy to the beat of
high-energy techno. I managed to disconnect before I lost my lunch on my
keyboard.
So much potential, so poorly implemented....
- Jason L.
________________________________
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Quentin Hartman
Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2007 9:19 AM
To: Eugene Unix and Gnu/Linux User Group
Subject: Re: [Eug-lug] waaaaayyyyyy OT; are any of you living
Second lives?
Second Life has been "big" for a quite awhile, and is arguably
in decline at the moment. And, in my opinion, good riddance. The
Register calls Second Life "Sadville". I played with it once, and I'd
have to agree with The Reg's assessment. It seems like a good way to
waste your real life by sinking money and time into a fake one. I try
not to be a parade-rainer, but SL just strikes me as a way for Linden
Labs (and the people who learn to game the system) to take advantage of
people with unfulfilling First Lives.
On 9/11/07, John Sechrest <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I have been paying attention to second life , but I have
not yet been able to
get the linux code to work without crashing. So every
couple of months, I try
to connect in and try again.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
% ??? While cruizing the web this morning, I happened
upon a rather
% interesting web-site. It's called Second Life. I
don't know much
% about (as of yet) but I'm currently reading the
FAQs, and if these
% claims are even partially true, I cannot begin to
tell you what I
% think could be done with this!
% -E
%
%
________________________________________________________________________
% Email and AIM finally together. You've gotta check out
free AOL Mail! - http://mail.aol.com
%
%
----------MB_8C9C293B1E9EF8B_700_55E6_WEBMAIL-DC12.sysops.aol.com
% Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
% Content-Type: text/html; charset="us-ascii"
%
% <font face="Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif"> While cruizing the web this morning, I
happened upon a rather interesting web-site. It's called Second Life. I
don't know much about (as of yet) but I'm currently reading the FAQs,
and if the
se claims are even partially true, I cannot begin to
tell you what I think could be done with this!<br>
% <br>
% -E<br>
% </font><div class="AOLPromoFooter">
% <hr style="margin-top:10px;" />
% Email and AIM finally together. You've gotta check out
free <a
href="http://o.aolcdn.com/cdn.webmail.aol.com/mailtour/aol/en-us/index.h
tm?ncid=AOLAOF00020000000970 " target="_blank">AOL Mail</a>!<br/>
% </div>
%
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%
% --===============1414741047==
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% _______________________________________________
% EUGLUG mailing list
% [email protected]
% http://www.euglug.org/mailman/listinfo/euglug
%
% --===============1414741047==--
-----
John Sechrest . Helping people use
. computers and the
Internet
. more effectively
.
. Internet:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
.
.
http://www.peak.org/~sechrest
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EUGLUG mailing list
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--
-Regards-
-Quentin Hartman-
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