Slashdot Mirror
A Year In Second Life
GameSetWatch looks back on the year in Second Life. The freedom-loving virtual world has had a lot of major milestones this year, and it looks like they have a lot to look forward to in 2006. From the post: "Firstly, according to the Second Life Future Salon, a recent virtual appearance by O'Reilly's Phillip Torrone confirmed the existence of a forthcoming 'Second Life Hacks' book. The exuberantly named Hank Hoodoo comments of the attached cover mock-up: 'I really hope O'Reilly actually uses that spork on the cover of the real book.'"
It took me like three hours to figure out how to make a custom t-shirt in Second Life.
Once I was done, it was clear that there were further refinements that I would never be able to make. Although if you look at that screenie, the book vendor's t-shirt has similar fuckups.
So maybe I could have used that book.
I'd pay L$ to make my avatar look the way I want, but I'm not sure that's possible. They have a reputation system for avatar creators and whatnot, but it isn't sufficient.
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
Joking aside, I hated Second Life. Second Life is like living in Snow Crash, and I don't mean in a good way. The place is one massive strip mall. There is almost nothing there except for casinos, porn shops, a few dance clubs, and strip malls. It would be one thing if it was a world full of interesting art (and there is some), intellectual debate, or anything of that nature. Instead, it is like slugging your way through the absolute worst of the Internet; nothing but casinos, shopping, and porn. Second Life COULD have looked like the Burning Man Festival. Instead, it looks like some anarchocapitalist hell as envisioned by a Marxist. Someone wake me up when an interesting online community is built.