Slashdot Mirror
Second Life Hits 100,000 Users
Gamasutra reports that the virtual world Second Life is boasting 100,000 users. They've had a large influx of users since they opened the games for free to non-property owners. From the article: "Statistics released by the creators say that the game's inhabitants hail from 95 countries in all 7 continents (apparently including Antarctica). Users spend an average of 4 hours per day playing the game, which has no specific completable goal, but places importance on in-game item and building creation by Second Life citizens."
http://www.activeworlds.com/
These people really need to get out and a life!
The reason why players only spend 4 hours per day on Second Life? Simple -- they spend the other 20 hours discussing the hypoanthemics of paradimensional economies in the blogosphere.
For more information, click here.
Let's see, 4 hours daily playing game in a lonely room, 8-10 hours sleep, 8 hours work (lol), 2 hours meals. Getting a life: Priceless
This parrot has ceased to be!
Users spend an average of 4 hours per day playing the game, which has no specific completable goal
Wow. That sounds like it's a lot more fun than watching paint dry.
Consindering the fact that folks can "play for free", and that you don't really cancel your account, but simply cancel payment for it... I wonder how many folks are actually playing at least once a week.
Heck, I cancelled my account payments more than 6 months ago, after giving it a quick shake to see what all the blathering was about. I checked the site, and my account is still considered active, but I haven't been in game in over 6 months.
I bet Guild Wars can boast some pretty impressive numbers, too. That doesn't mean that many people are actively playing once a week or more.
Let's see, 4 hours daily playing game in a lonely room, 8-10 hours sleep, 8 hours work (lol), 2 hours meals. Getting a life: Priceless
24 hours a day playing a game in a crowded room, 10 seconds of sleep between map loads, 5 minutes drinking Red Bull and No-Doze every 12 hours. Dying of heart failure on the way to the bathroom after 96 hours of this: Priceless
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
I've been starting to notice that a lot of my extra time was spent in Second Life, though I have no easy way of tracking it all...I really should cut back.
Despite the often lackluster performance, frequent crashes, copious bugs, and strange userbase: it's still THAT fun and addictive. Imagine walking along and suddenly getting an idea for something; you whisk basic objects out of nowhere and mold them to the right shape, then write some code in a language similar to Java or PHP. Voila, a spaceship. Or hummingbird. Or peanut-butter sandwich. Second Life satisfies an urge many of us have, the desire to see ideas come to life NOW.
Second Life has a lot of potential. There's a lot of interesting and creative people on it. There's a ton of cool things for coders and modelers to put together.
The engine is a piece of crap. Lag makes it unusable a lot of times. The promised fixes never come, pushed aside for pointless features nobody requested. If they ever upgrade to Havok 2, like they've been promising...well, forever, it might improve somewhat.
It's fun in short spurts when you feel like creating something to terrorize new people.
Nerds need a life.
Granted, Second Life is something special. (Yes, I'm one of those 4 hour people.)
But I think the 100K number equals the total number of unique account names ever created.
At night, there's always under 5,000 people in world. Looking right now, 16:30 EST, there's 3500.
Many of those accounts (especially for those 4 hour users) are alt avatars, perhaps 30%.
But I have to agree with a previous poster, bugs and all, it's a quite remarkable environment.
Too bad you can't host your own server....
Over 100000 users, it's free, and the users spend an average of 4 hours a day playing.
Am I the only one who's suspicious of these numbers?
I know several people who have a free account, and they don't even play 4 hours a week.
Perhaps, of the people who played at all last month the average is 4 hours a day,
but I'd be skeptical of even that claim.
I wonder if there's any way to determine the numbers independently?
-- Should you believe authority without question?
Second life is basically free, the basic account (in which you are poor ;D ) is completely free of charge, you do have to use your CC or Paypal but you are not charged anything unless you become a land owner and therefore change your subscription plan.
Ive been playing for a while and I know several people playing who have never payed a dime and stil make a nice (virtual) income there and have a ton of friends, jobs, etc.
If you are not currently in an mmog and you want to know what the fuzz is all about but you dont want to expend the cash, this is pretty much your best bet, although is not actually an rpg is just a virtual life simulator. Be warned though _it is_ just as addictive as most mmorpgs.
Go ahead MOD my day!
More opinions here
Life has no specific completable goal. Maybe you should stop playing that for so many hours a day?
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
I ask becouse theres places in second life that pay out Linden dollers based on how long a user camps out in the area on a special item such as a "dance cloud" or the more generic "camping chair"
"I want more life, fucker."
-Roy Batty
Sometimes my arms bend back.
Say...what's the sex like on Second Life - I hear it's a big draw. But then I also heard there's lots of furries and weirdness too. I'm too lazy to actually see for myself so I am willing to rely completely on heresay - so make it good. details...I want details...
You had me at merlot
There was a story on /. recently so the influx was probably from that. I know I installed to have a look at it and the game sucks.
I downloaded and played Second Life earlier this week because of the slashdot article. I must say, the game is pretty weird and it was more like a bad dream (or nightmare!) than anything else.
Everywhere I went in SL there were people camped out in chairs like zombies. They weren't talking to anyone; they were just sitting there for hours on end. There were a number of dance clubs too. Filled with people just dancing. No chatting or talking. Just dancing. Very strange...
Then I tried to build things. Very difficult for the novice user. I wouldn't dare try to explain how to build things to my girlfriend, sister or mother.
Gambling. There is gambling everywhere. The only way people seem to make money on SL is from gambling. Virtually everywhere has some sort of gaming spot where you camp out in chairs and gamble your hard earned L$ away.
Finally, the lag does suck. Really bad. It takes forever for the world to load. It's almost unbearable at times.
Griefspheres for everyone!
-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.