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Companies Continue to Get a Second Life

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the better-than-a-real-life dept.

PreacherTom writes "Reuters and CNET aren't the only players staking online claims in the virtual world of Second Life. Yesterday, Wired magazine opened their 1-acre digitized headquarters, complete with neon-pink sliding doors and a nouveau 50 person conference room. Businessweek takes a look at the new virtual offerings from Adidas, Toyota, Lego, and even Major League Baseball in their pictoral spread. 'We are this canvas that allows companies to do what they want to do in Second Life,' says David Fleck, Linden's vice-president of marketing. 'It mimics real life much more accurately.'"

81 comments

  1. Third Life by aapold · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm waiting for the day someone opens up a virtual world within second life.

    Third life, as it will be called, will be paid for with second life currency. Your characters use SL computers to connect to it, which then runs in a nearly full-screen window within second life (other people who don't play third life can even watch over your shoulder and stuff).

    --
    "Waste not one watt!" - CZ
    1. Re:Third Life by Enoxice · · Score: 1

      That would be SO COOL. I don't play second life right now, but I totally would if someone did that.

      --
      Anyone else think the comments just weren't rendering right before they turned off ABP and saw ads?
    2. Re:Third Life by BabaYama · · Score: 1

      So clever

      --
      Sucks
    3. Re:Third Life by j00r0m4nc3r · · Score: 1

      At which point does the universe implode?

    4. Re:Third Life by ben+there... · · Score: 1

      Great idea! Remind everyone what pathetic losers* they are staring at a screen all day instead of actually doing something.

      * this post brought to you by a pathetic loser who stares at a screen all day instead of actually doing something.

    5. Re:Third Life by bdcrazy · · Score: 1

      Check out a movie called http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thirteenth_Floor. Worlds within worlds is an interesting idea.

      --
      Tonights forecast: Dark. Continued dark throughout most of the evening, with some widely-scattered light towards morning
  2. Um.. by ackthpt · · Score: 1

    A bright, new shiny world, without all the problems of the real one? I feel this overwhelming urge to start a homeless character who will sleep in their bushes and pee on their steps.

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    1. Re:Um.. by jandrese · · Score: 2, Informative

      Interestingly enough, that's pretty much with all new players have to do, since you don't start out with a home and the newbie plots are generally all grabbed up by unscrupulus land speculators with tons of alt accounts.

      --

      I read the internet for the articles.
    2. Re:Um.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Before, I thought your habit of finishing your posts with italic one-liners was annoying, but you are now my friend.

    3. Re:Um.. by gstoddart · · Score: 1
      Interestingly enough, that's pretty much with all new players have to do, since you don't start out with a home and the newbie plots are generally all grabbed up by unscrupulus land speculators with tons of alt accounts.

      OK, so I'm woefully ignorant about Second Life, and don't play much on-line games. I certainly don't have any mad skills in making 3d models (OK, I actually don't have any skills in making 3d models ;-).

      So, assuming I decide I want to try it ... you are saying that I sign up, and have noting to do. And short of spending real money, to buy virtual money, I still won't have anything to do other than making my avatar look more cool?

      Now I'm totally confused.

      What exactly can I do with a new Second Life account that might motivate me to want to try it?

      Cheers
      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    4. Re:Um.. by merlin_jim · · Score: 2, Informative

      I feel this overwhelming urge to start a homeless character who will sleep in their bushes and pee on their steps.

      They exist... in overwhelming numbers since it became free with no verification or IP logging to create such a beast... they're called griefers... and they brought the whole world down for the last three weekends in a row...

      --
      I am disrespectful to dirt! Can you see that I am serious?!
    5. Re:Um.. by cowscows · · Score: 1

      One of the most fun things to do in SL is to hang around crowds of people but not participating in their little event. Since at least half of everything that goes on in SL revolves around some sort of sexual weirdness, you can see some really strange people doing some really strange stuff. Even if you just stand there next to their land, it'll often really piss them off, because they know you're watching them and they don't like it.

      Of course, Linden Labs is well aware that a large amount of their income is from those perverts who use SL as an outlet for all their strange fantasies, so they're likely to take punitive action against you if someone complains. You can get banned for just standing nearby someone if they don't like you. SL justice is random and unfair.

      So yeah, griefing is very much alive in SL. It ranges from stuff like I just described up to people exploiting the scripting language to crash the grid. The Second Life universe is absolutely full of problems, many technical and many social.

      --

      One time I threw a brick at a duck.

    6. Re:Um.. by Onan · · Score: 1


      I must be missing the "fun" part about harassing other people.

      Nor am I seeing the unfairness of the justice you describe. Since your entire stated point it to annoy people, banning sounds exactly appropriate.

    7. Re:Um.. by Knara · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Once people start taking things such as online avatars copulating in strange ways too seriously (I'm lookin' at you, furries), then harassing them becomes great fun.

    8. Re:Um.. by jandrese · · Score: 2, Informative

      Here's the 30 second primer on Secondlife.

      When you first sign up, you have a beginners account. This account cannot buy land, I don't think free accounts get a stipend anymore because people abused it like crazy, but you do get a signing bonus. The build system is integrated into the game, and it's pretty easy to use once you get the hang of it. There are some areas ingame that have good tutorials on how to use it. Anyway, you can build anything you want most anywhere, however it is considered bad manners to build stuff on other people's land, and some people have building turned off on their land (although this is uncommon). You can also go to one of many sandboxes around the world and build stuff, however every few hours everything in the sandbox is returned automatically so you can't leave a permanent structure up. You can however save your work in your inventory and then bring it back out to work on it later.

      If you want to leave your work up permanently, you need to either buy or rent some land. To buy land you need to upgrade your account. The upgraded account costs $10/month, but comes with a weekly stipend that you can convert into real $ to help offset the cost of the account. You can also buy a small plot of land that will let you leave a small structure (the complexity of your builds is limited by the size of your plot) up permanently. Renting is similar except that you can do it with a basic account and it can sometimes be cheaper monthly than buying. You lose out on any land appreciation, although that tends to be very low in Secondlife because new land is added all of the time. Landords can offer you land cheaper than buying because there are large bulk discounts for owning huge amounts of land. Landlords make a profit off of the difference.

      Building is fairly simple. You start out with basic shapes called Primitives or Prims (Cube, Torus, Sphere, etc...) that you can deform, stack together, and texture to make whatever you like. While it is easy to make something in the system, it is somewhat difficult to make something that looks good. Like all artistic creations, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. A reasonably powerful scripting language is also available that can add a lot of life to your creations.

      You also have a lot of flexibility in your avatar's appearance. This is one reason the furry community has taken to Secondlife, it is not overly difficult to turn your avatar into an animal shape. The skeletal model the game uses more or less requires that you make your avatar bipedal if you want realistic movement, but other than that it's quite flexible. There is a big market in-game for new clothes and accessories for your avatar.

      --

      I read the internet for the articles.
    9. Re:Um.. by jandrese · · Score: 1

      Hmm, I guess my previous post was a bit more than 30 seconds.

      I wanted to mention one more thing, there is an in-game combat system should you so desire such a thing, however it is kind of retarded because you can also make your own guns. Imagine if you will your average online shooting game. What do you think would happen if you allowed players to specify how powerful their guns are and what kind of armor they can ignore and if they can home in on every other player on the map automatically ignoring all cover and terrain? That's what combat in Secondlife is like. The first person to click their mouse wins. There are some players who have specific servers set up with sane weapons rules and limits, but those are all gentlemen's rules, there's nothing in the game enforcing them.

      --

      I read the internet for the articles.
    10. Re:Um.. by cowscows · · Score: 1

      No kidding. When someone's got their avatar running around with oversized genitalia on it, and when you click on it, it makes some ridiculous moaning noise... how can you not just click it over and over again until it drives them insane.

      I'm generally happy to let people do whatever they want and not be judged, but when given a giant digital sandbox in which to create whatever you want, if you end up making big floppy animal dongs and wearing them around...you're going to get ridiculed. Common sense dictates it.

      It's fun because there are so many people who take SL so seriously. Whether they're fulfilling some weird fantasy, making up for an unsatisfying real life, or just lacking perspective... it's bizarre, and not really appropriate to a game.

      --

      One time I threw a brick at a duck.

  3. If you want.. by abscissa · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If you want to call this an "MMORPG" then it has much more freedom than any other in existance. You can literally create objects from nothing and make them ANYTHING you want -- we are talking 3dsmax anything.

    But the fact is... this "game" is not fun and straightforward enough for most users (like me!) We don't all know 3dsmax!!

    A game like WOW is sucessful because it has: defined goals, defined structure, and defined limits. People actually like that shit.

    (The download for SL is only like... 30 MB for windows, 60 MB for mac if you want to try it.)

    1. Re:If you want.. by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 0, Troll

      SL is not *for* you. It was made for creative people so that they could better express themselves virtually. It's much easier to consume content created by others (*ahem* us). I'm sure that you have much more fun playing WoW than "playing" a "game" like SL. Don't feel bad because we're better than you - dealing with the total absence of your kind of person is one of the best things about SL.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    2. Re:If you want.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      -1 Conceited.

    3. Re:If you want.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I shouldn't reply to a troll, but it has to be said: without the type of people you're talking to, you'd still be using crayons and canvas to design shit.

      There is absolutely nothing from any realm of your life, real or virtual, that any of us would desire to have.

    4. Re:If you want.. by GeorgeS069 · · Score: 1

      SL is nothing but IRC with some crappy graphics
      Wake me up when they put a virtual world online that more like something from the movie "Tron"

      --
      I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy
    5. Re:If you want.. by argent · · Score: 1

      Wake me up when they put a virtual world online that more like something from the movie "Tron"

      No thanks, I look horrible in spandex.

    6. Re:If you want.. by Rei · · Score: 1

      I just checked out screenshots, and ... uck. I mean, seriously.

      The graphics of 1996/1997 looked like this and this. The graphics of 2003-present look like this and this.

      Which does Second life (this and this) look more like to you? :P Yes, user-created content adds additional optimization challenges. But this is just rather pathetic. All issues of models aside, their lighting and shading models are just crummy.

      How is it that Linden Labs, raking in millions per year, can be outdone by open-source MMORPGs with a few hundred players on at a time, like Eternal Lands, in terms of graphics quality? And there's probably better examples than that, as EL doesn't even have normal maps yet, needs to lower their ambient levels, and ought to subdivide some polys that are closed to fixed light sources.

      --
      You're treating a symptom while the disease rages on. The fish rots from the head. Why not cut off the head?
    7. Re:If you want.. by CronoCloud · · Score: 1

      I play SL and that Eternal Lands is no match for it in the graphics department.

      Remember, content in SL can and is changed at a whim. So you don't have a dozen lookalike guys in camo with M16's., running around in areas that don't change. You've got a dozen very very different individuals. You've got land that anyone could put a giant cow on at any time. A store owner could change their swiss chalet type store to polynesian grass hut in mere moments. Content is streamed on the fly.

    8. Re:If you want.. by Rei · · Score: 1

      Content is streamed on the fly

      That's absolutely no excuse for a lousy lighting and shading model. That's an excuse for a low poly count, but SL doesn't look to have a low poly count, so they can't blame the poor graphics on that.

      An images.google.com search for "Second Life" reveals crummy graphics, plain and simple. Sure, anyone can create them. That doesn't change the fact that they look bad. Not due to the designs that users choose, but because the engine does a poor job with surfaces.

      --
      You're treating a symptom while the disease rages on. The fish rots from the head. Why not cut off the head?
    9. Re:If you want.. by CronoCloud · · Score: 1

      The poly counts aren't that high in the environments....I think. It's hard to tell. But judging SL by the screenshots might be like judging HL based on the screenshots that someone took when it was running on some ancient machine with minimum detail at 640x480

      So depending on who took those screenshots and what hardware they were running and what settings would determine how it looks.

      For example I have some settings turned up (for avatars) but environments are turned down (mostly) I've got shiny and bumpmapping on but ground detail on low, draw distance set at the minimum and local lighting off.

      http://ccslfashionista.blogspot.com/ (yeah I know, yet another SL fashion blog) but that's what it looks like on my Gateway 400SP Plus with integrated graphics. I don't think it's that bad. It'd look better if I turned on local lighting and upped the ground detail.

      I've seen builds that look horrible, but I've seen builss that were simply breathtaking. See if you can find images of the 2006 Second LIfe Relay for Life.

      I do agree the client needs optimization work and bug fixes.

    10. Re:If you want.. by Rei · · Score: 1

      You think that these look *better* than the examples that I showed before? If anything, they look even flatter.

      It's not about poly counts. The curves are plenty smooth enough, so poly counts aren't the issue at all. It's about the lighting and shading model. It's crummy. It makes these surfaces look like they're from the mid nineties.

      --
      You're treating a symptom while the disease rages on. The fish rots from the head. Why not cut off the head?
  4. How much? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How much is Linden paying these companies to get their names on the Obligatory Corporate Logo-Filled PowerPoint Slide they use at presentations? It's pretty obvious that this is all contrived to make Second Life seem less like a playground for virtual BDSM fantasies and more like a playground for profitable corporations.

  5. Some People... by foistboinder · · Score: 0, Troll

    ... should consider getting a first life before messing around with Second Life.

    --
    Yet Another Web Site
    1. Re:Some People... by clem · · Score: 1

      That joke sucked up its last mod point a few stories ago. The well's dry, friend.

      --
      Your courageous and selfless spelling corrections have made me a better person.
    2. Re:Some People... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That joke sucked up its last mod point a few stories ago.

      In soviet russia, the last mod point sucks you up!

      The well's dry, friend.

      I live in a desert you insensitive clod!

    3. Re:Some People... by node+3 · · Score: 1
      ... should consider getting a first life before messing around with Second Life.
      I think you left of the part at the beginning where you say, "note to self".
  6. Tried this out...several times...not worth it. by sgant · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It was free and even THEN it's not worth it. Now I have about the quickest high-speed internet connection and yet it still just sits there for a few minutes downloading everything you walk or fly through. Go to a new place, it starts downloading again....forever.....

    Ok, so I know it's not all just about how fast your connection is blah blah, but it's a major problem for me as it NEVER feels like you're in another world. It feels like what it is, bad artwork in a bad 3D environment. Fine, but the people that play must really be nice right?

    Well, every place I go where I see on the map a lot of people have gathered usually end up just being either virtual prostitution or porn. Or worse, just people sitting in these chairs that generate for them 1 Lindon per hour or something. Just sitting. Or dancing....AFK people sitting and dancing. Wow, fun!

    Also, don't know what the point is. It's a chat/social/networking thingy that's laggy and unreal. Ok, so basically a instant messenger with badly made 3D avatars that all look like nymphet women wearing very skimpy clothes that still look unreal. We're talking animations and models that are pre Everquest. I felt like I was in some world that was made 15 years or go or something.

    It also didn't seem finished. It felt like a beta of something that was abandoned about 3 years ago and just barely hanging on.

    I don't know...I just don't get it.

    --

    "Leo Fender was in a 'state of grace' when he designed the Stratocaster." -- Paul Reed Smith
    1. Re:Tried this out...several times...not worth it. by Andrew+Kismet · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Sigh. Sadly reflective of 95% of the game world, but the other 5% is good. It's just hard to find, like on the internet itself - what is the internet if not filled with porn and idiots trying to earn a pittance of cash?
      The social aspect is good once you find the right kinda people. At that point it becomes a 3D chatroom. Now learn to build and collaborate. Now learn to script and mess with inworld behaviours - maybe go to your desktop, make animations and sell them inworld? There's a lot of possibilities. You've scratched the surface and not even attempted to dig into it. It's no fun and easy game, it's a world and a time investment. There's a lot to see and do, albeit a lot of it shallow.
      With more and more businesses setting up shop proper, hopefully it'll drive the world in a new direction.

      Although honestly I'd wait before jumping back in - the world has been damn near unusable recently due to mass-griefing. Tighter security is a different issue, albeit an important one.

    2. Re:Tried this out...several times...not worth it. by j00r0m4nc3r · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I don't think our current technology is really ready for something like this. I would say give it another 10-20 years and try again.

    3. Re:Tried this out...several times...not worth it. by jcrash · · Score: 1

      That sounds the internet in 1994. Shame it never went anywhere either.

      --
      I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them. Isaac Asimov (1920 - 1992)
    4. Re:Tried this out...several times...not worth it. by LordSnooty · · Score: 1

      I concur with the parent. Just this week I tried it out, and I came to the same conclusion - it's IRC with graphics. I also did the dancing - this made me laugh with pity and I had to log off. I'm sure that some fool will "buy" the animations or clothes you've created with their fake Linden money, but if you're talented enough to do that, you're probably already doing it in the real world. One of the most annoying things was having to click "yes" to all the objects you get offered, kinda ruins the flow somewhat.

    5. Re:Tried this out...several times...not worth it. by Criterion · · Score: 1

      "One of the most annoying things was having to click "yes" to all the objects you get offered, kinda ruins the flow somewhat."

      Wow, I guess now we know who to blame for spreading all the email viruses now, don't we?

      --
      We have enough youth, how about a fountain of SMART?
    6. Re:Tried this out...several times...not worth it. by LordSnooty · · Score: 1

      Fair point, but since I have no way of inspecting what the object actually does, it seems to offer little protection. I'd imagine that the SL environment is enough of a sandbox to remove any real chance of damaging my machine. There must be another way. Sure, have the prompt if someone gives you something unsolicited, but it gets tedious when I click to get a drink, click to choose the flavour then click again to accept the drink I already accepted.

    7. Re:Tried this out...several times...not worth it. by CronoCloud · · Score: 1

      Ahh, those places with lots of people on the map or in the event list? Don't go there. Really. You're better off going to less popular places or going to someplace like the Shelter or the GNUbie store and asking passerby interesting places to go. Or perhaps searching the various SL blogs.

      And yes, the club gals tend to look unreal but the fashionista avatars are some better:

      Yes it's slow and laggy, but it's "special" and I think SL or something like it is the future.

  7. Waste managment? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "'We are this canvas that allows companies to do what they want to do in Second Life,' says David Fleck, Linden's vice-president of marketing. 'It mimics real life much more accurately.'""

    Is there digital dumping?

  8. Playing games for a living. by GodHead · · Score: 1

    Presumably there will be people logged in as the companies. Does one apply for a job as a second-life avatar?

    Or is this like 90's web pages - companies know only they need one so you could make $100/hour as a "e-commerce consultant" playing with notepad.

    Now I just need to convince my boss that playing my WoW pally is somehow an important part of the company...

    --
    Just wait till some crappy band steals your nic.
  9. Oblg. Penny Arcade by techpawn · · Score: 0

    I'm watching him watch his sim watch TV...

    --
    Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what your country did to you
  10. Um..Fleeing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "A bright, new shiny world, without all the problems of the real one? "

    Escapism. It brings you games, and supports the slashdot community.

  11. Get a Second Life? by Speare · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Okay, I finally checked out the Second Life client yesterday, and flew around looking for something to *do*. There were about two billboards per active person in the world. It seemed like a third of the buildings I flew past were little businesses to personalize your avatar or house or sell real estate, a third of the buildings were nightmarish personal constructions that looked like those paintings done by elephants in the zoo, and a third of the space was blocked off by barbed wire ("not on the access list, cannot enter").

    It seems like the only way someone would think it interesting is if they are playing with people they already know, 100% of the time. There was no call to action. There was nothing drawing my attention as an activity. I mean, I have actually WORKED in the MMORPG industry, have played several games and have thought about online social spaces for years. I still couldn't get a handle on what Lindon expects people to *do* in Second Life, except of course to pay Lindon some actual money.

    What am I missing?

    --
    [ .sig file not found ]
    1. Re:Get a Second Life? by AdamTrace · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I completely agree. I started my Second Life account, similiar to you, just to see what it was all about. This was in March or so. I also had heard that people were actually making money by creating and selling objects, and since I'm a coder, I thought that sounded like a fun challenge.

      I spent some time in world, watching what people like to do. Mostly, this involved spending time in some sort of dance club, dancing and chatting. I noticed there are a lot of "mostly empty" casinos. Lots of extremely simple gambling devices, lottery type things, etc.

      So, I made some casino games, based on real life games. I made some lottery balls with my own twist on 'em. I made some fun party game kind of things, and put them up for sale on a popular shopping website.

      I never bought into the system, bought any land, etc. My total investment is $0... I have, on occasion, rented a store spot in a mall, or some floorspace in a casino to test a game, but that was all purches out of profit.

      Now that I'm sort of over the kick, I rarely log into the world anymore. Even was I was more active, I never really "got it". I wasn't looking to make friends, chat, shop, or hook up, and their appeared to be nothing left. But I still get emails that my stuff sells, and occasional messages (that get routed to my email) if someone has a question about a product of mine that they've bought.

      Since March, I've made about $500USD. Certainly less than minimum wage per hour of coding/testing that I've done, but getting paid for programming little games and having some fun is certainly a change of pace.

      I've posted it before... In the real world, you simply cannot make up your own casino game, rent floor space at a casino, and see how it does. It's prohibitively difficult for most people to make clothing and sell it in a shop. However, in Second Life, it's almost trivially easy. I think this is the appeal.

    2. Re:Get a Second Life? by vertinox · · Score: 1

      What am I missing?

      The problem with Second Life is that there is no direction unless you happen to know about something or stuble across it.

      From my understanding, there is a Quake like arena in which you can attack each other with weapons and there is a RPG in the works somewhere.

      There are some art projects going around with some rather interesting devices and vehicles...

      I once stumbled across this user made Japanese Castle that was breathtaking... But from my own personal experience there is no direction unless you know someone else who knows or you read forums or just spend hours exploring... Which most of us don't really have the time to do.

      --
      "I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
      -Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
    3. Re:Get a Second Life? by CronoCloud · · Score: 1

      You had the same problem I had, not knowing where to go.

      SL is huge, and there's no helpful "quest givers" out there to give direction and purpose to it. So you have to talk to people in world, or read about SL on the various blogs and websites or both.

      Start with the New World Notes That will get you started, tons of links.

      http://nwn.blogs.com/

      The communicating is very important, because in SL what you know and who you know is important It also determines your subcommunity. Scripters tend to know each other, but work with builders and content creators. Fashionistas hang out together but often know builders and scripters.

      And don't be afraid to explore.

    4. Re:Get a Second Life? by writermike · · Score: 1

      In the real world, you simply cannot make up your own casino game, rent floor space at a casino, and see how it does. It's prohibitively difficult for most people to make clothing and sell it in a shop. However, in Second Life, it's almost trivially easy.

      I get your point, but didn't Nolan Bushnell do exactly what you say can't be done?

      Okay, okay! So, it wasn't a casino... and it was a "casino game..." but I've told you a million times to never exaggerate!

      --
      If Nalgene water bottles are outlawed, only outlaws will have Nalgene water bottles.
    5. Re:Get a Second Life? by asjk · · Score: 1
      Okay, I finally checked out the Second Life client yesterday, and flew around looking for something to *do*.

      I concur. My take on The Second Life experience is that it was more for people new to the VR space--maybe an AOL analog. It's more friendly then trying to learn the complexities of an RPG and yet have the elements of the social interaction. VR training wheels?

    6. Re:Get a Second Life? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "It's prohibitively difficult for most people to make clothing and sell it in a shop."

      It's actually not that hard. Most grandmothers can knit at a commercial level, it takes perhaps a year of light practice and you can do it while you're watching TV. You're just not going to make anything for Gap.

  12. Is online gambling still legal in Second Life? by joe+user+jr · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Thanks for your interesting comment. It just made me wonder about the gambling aspect... Wasn't there some sort of US law passed about that recently?

    --
    .sigs: Just Say No!
    1. Re:Is online gambling still legal in Second Life? by Speare · · Score: 1

      In all the MMORPGs I have been involved with, the "bright line" seemed to be that it was okay to allow gambling with the fake currency (e.g., Linden dollars, shells, clams, gamebucks) as long as there was no direct way to convert fake currency back into real money. However, this is precisely what Second Life supposedly allows, so it does seem a bit like an IRS Audit disaster waiting to happen.

      --
      [ .sig file not found ]
    2. Re:Is online gambling still legal in Second Life? by hotdiggitydawg · · Score: 1

      Why do you think he got out when he did? ;-)

    3. Re:Is online gambling still legal in Second Life? by AdamTrace · · Score: 1

      Heh.

      I've seen no evidence of any reduction of gambling in Second Life. I don't pay too close attention to the official boards, but there are still MANY casinos with active games ready to play...

      Adman

  13. Linden Lab advertising? by Cthefuture · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Is it just me or do you guys think Linden Lab is sponsering all these stories?

    There have been at least a couple in a last few days on Slashdot and I have seen a few more other places. Feels like a giant marketing plan. I mean this is a hell of a lot of press for something with such a small online community. I think the general consensus about Second Life is "meh, kinda slow, kinda outdated, nothing to do, it has no point, boring".

    I have tried it myself, it felt and looked pretty clunky.

    --
    The ratio of people to cake is too big
    1. Re:Linden Lab advertising? by Andrew+Kismet · · Score: 1

      Second pretty much typifies what Slashdot is about: geek stuff and real stuff. This article fairly much sums up that the real-world businesses are moving into Second Life; it's news, it matters, it's nerdy. Slashdot has covered SL no more than it's covered Debian and "IceWeasel".

    2. Re:Linden Lab advertising? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Results 1 - 10 of about 123 from slashdot.org for intitle:"second life". (0.28 seconds)

      Results 1 - 2 of about 6 from slashdot.org for intitle:debian intitle:firefox. (0.19 seconds)

      There are no results for stories containing "Iceweasel" in the title.

    3. Re:Linden Lab advertising? by AlXtreme · · Score: 1
      I've seen quite a few SL-articles in the real media recently. Their marketing divison is definitely working overtime.

      Besides, as the OP commented: SL is dull, boring old crap. They are definitely plugging SL here.

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      This sig is intentionally left blank
    4. Re:Linden Lab advertising? by argent · · Score: 1

      I think Ice Weasel is a much better name for a browser than Firefox.

    5. Re:Linden Lab advertising? by mmkkbb · · Score: 1

      Is it just me or do you guys think Linden Lab is sponsering all these stories?

      Sure they are; that's what PR firms DO.

      The podcast scene supports SL heavily. I've no idea why.

      --
      -mkb
  14. Second Life is a Vanity Press by spun · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Wow, how very conceited. Virtual crap is still crap, and people want entertainment, not crap. If making crap is entertaining to you, well and good. Just don't expect us all to look in your toilet and applaud. The difference between "content creators" like you, and the people at, say, Blizzard is that the people at Blizzard are getting paid while you are paying for the privilege of creating crap. Making crap on 2nd life no more makes you creative than paying to have a book published by a vanity press makes you a good writer.

    If you were any good, people would be paying you, not the other way around. Second Life is for people who have no first life, not for "creative" people. Real creative people get paid for their creativity in this world, where it actually matters.

    --
    - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
    1. Re:Second Life is a Vanity Press by node+3 · · Score: 1
      You're right about this:
      Wow, how very conceited.
      But I disagree with just about everything else you've said. Creativity and money are not as strongly linked as you seem to think. Second Life allows far more creativity than WoW does. On the other hand, WoW is far more broadly appealing.

      Money better measures broad appeal than it measures creativity. In fact, often times creativity is detrimental to income. I really don't know if the person you were replying to is creative or not. He's definitely arrogant, but that doesn't negate his point.
    2. Re:Second Life is a Vanity Press by spun · · Score: 1

      Ah, I was just being an ass. You are, of course, right. As witnessed by all the folks that history remembers as great and creative who were paupers in their day.

      That was just my knee-jerk, "You call that being an asshole? No, THIS is being an asshole!" response.

      --
      - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
  15. Try citypixel.com or faketown.com by pixel_arteez · · Score: 1

    Try citypixel.com or faketown.com. They both don't try and be something there not and don't try and meet every need.... Pretty cool concepts, both done in HTML, no flash or anything to download.

    1. Re:Try citypixel.com or faketown.com by VJ42 · · Score: 1

      Thanks for those; great concepts that I'll be trying out soon, no doubt. back on topic, I agree 100% with the GP about Secon Life. It just dosn't feel immersive, and a cursory glance at the links the parent provided (they allow guests to view what's going on) makes them look alot better and much more intresting than SL ever did (for me, atleast).

      --
      If I have nothing to hide, you have no reason to search me
  16. Been done (but not in SL) by smellsofbikes · · Score: 2, Informative

    Your idea is great.
    I started my serious online addiction playing LambdaMOO in about 1993. To sum up, it's a textual VR set in the then-house of Pavel Curtis, who created Lambda (and ncurses and other big unixy things) and you wandered around and played with things. One of the things was a computer, and if you could get it to boot (find the power switch, plug in the monitor, find the boot disc -- this was '93, after all) you could play games on the computer. As I recall, Adventure was on there, and I think there was a mini-version of Lambda, establishing recursion.

    --
    Nostalgia's not what it used to be.
  17. Anarchy in the SL by Nananine · · Score: 1

    Considering how many companies are pushing into SL, I wonder if or when players will start getting arrested or sued.

    I'm asking this because there've been many "problems" with players in the past, some legitimate (like players creating a recursive, dissapearing object script that crashes entire nodes) some non-legitimate (like getting banned for objects or scenery "in bad taste"). In the case of the node crashing, some people actually lost "income" since there are players making money off of.

    What would happen if people targeted specific companies or political candidates--such as Mark Warner, whose PAC has an office in-game--for griefing? What we do about copycat products, since early on many SL players used to grab textures from real world clothing (and cmon, American Apparel sells blank colored t-shirts)? And how would a company like Nike or Adidas respond if someone built something like, I don't know, a gigantic comedy sweatshop full of children working on an animated assembly right next to the big companies shoe promotion stores?

  18. Nice to see all the negatives... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    With all the griefers already in SL... if the flames here keep the slashdotters from checking it out that can only be for the good.

  19. Snow Crash. by LordJezo · · Score: 1

    Have you guys read Snow Crash? If not go get it right now. It's exactly this. A novel well before it's time, hell, it was the book that started using the word Avatar as meaning your online self. "Games" like Second Life are all trying to emulate the Metaverse the way it was put in print in this book. This is just another example the road the online world is taking, and if you read Snow Crash you'll pretty much know where and what the end of that road is.

    1. Re:Snow Crash. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A novel well before it's time, hell, it was the book that started using the word Avatar as meaning your online self.

      Snow Crash did use it but Lucasfilm's Habitat useage predates it. "The Lessons of Lucasfilm's Habitat" is a classic paper, well worth a quick read, even if the tech is dated.

    2. Re:Snow Crash. by AlexDaGreat · · Score: 1

      I have been thinking about that for a few weeks now in the flurry of all this SL activity. The few things that will make the SL even closer will be when you can go to a store and buy real world items and when game companies like Blizzard, Sony, Valve, Id, etc. will have a presence and allow you to enter their games from SL. Personally I thought Intel's recent SL event was fairly cool. Someone in NYC building a NYC block having folks in NY and SL watching the progress. Cool in concept but most everyone in NYC didn't notice, I'm sure it got more attention in SL. BTW I loved Snow Crash when I read it years back, great book and I agree this is the closest thing like it in concept if not implementation.

  20. OK so can I play... by billsoxs · · Score: 3, Interesting
    N. Korea?

    I don't play the game - never have and never will - but the idea of companies setting up locations inside a game intrigued me. While I was RTFA - which was shortly after reading about N. Korea, all I could imagine was having someone 'building a bomb' and removing the stores. How do the 'stores' recover? Is it terrorism? Is there a 'state' that can sponsor terrorism? Do they have 'gangs' running the streets in the game? How about robbing banks? Are there pickpockets? I can imagine a bored 12 year old wiping out large swaths of land. (Don't look at me to do any of it. I am way too old!)

    OK I am a little warped. ;-)

    --
    This message was brought to you by "Lack of Sleep."
  21. True Names, not Snow Crash. by argent · · Score: 1

    Second Life is modelled on Snow Crash, but in practice it's MUCH more like the "Other Plane" of True Names, than the "Metaverse" of Snow Crash, especially since they abandoned the Snow-Crash style "100% connected" world for one where individuals and companies can set up private estates (to bring things back on topic).

  22. N. Korea? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's it! We just need to set N. Korea "no build" and "no script"!

  23. And what about you? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You're complaining about being banned for harassing people.

    Aren't you taking your harassing too seriously?

    1. Re:And what about you? by Knara · · Score: 1

      Come on now, at least be *slightly* perceptive and notice that I wasn't the OP.

  24. Oh, man ... by some+guy+I+know · · Score: 1

    That sounds so very, very pathetic.
    How can people waste so much of their time playing a pointless game?
    Now, if you'll excuse me, Battle for Wesnoth is waiting.

    --
    Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana
  25. The whole problem here by Jalestra · · Score: 1

    Is it's apparently too much work for the average hack and slash player to find something to do in SL. As a very happily married woman, I have tons to do there that doesn't involve sex, gambling, and camping. And it wasn't that hard finding places that don't do those things. I explore a level or creativity I didn't even know I had, and as soon as I figure out how to build things in RL that compare to the beauty I produce in world (and without paying a dime!), I've discovered I have an artistic vision people will actually PAY for...now to learn carpentry and get some start up capital....why bother, I can do it in SL for free. I started off the same as you guys, and you know, it took me less than 2 days to meet the "right" people and figure out where I wanted to take this. Now, I have a huge amount of friends, I acclompish real things, that make me REAL money (something WoW never did), and am a contributor to an 8 sim land (which has NO sex, gambling, etc. Just some really cool people). All in about 6 months...I've played MMORPG's, and you know what I have to show for it? The geeks think I'm cool, that doesn't even buy me a cup of coffee. Stay at home mom with a paycheck? WHOOOT!

    --
    I'll be enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it