This will be my last reply to this topic.
First impressions do count, but unfortunately Second Life's first impression is terrible. Everyone in the starting area is wearing the default clothing (more or less), using the default animations and looking (usually) like a default human. Once you move out of the starting area and out into the Second Life world, you'll see real works of art.
Once I upgraded the graphics card of my computer, I was sitting on this:
3.2GHZ P4 1GB DDR Ram (don't remember the speed anymore) AGP nVidia 7800 256MB no sound card piece of crap motherboard 180GB 7200 RPM hard drive 256kbps connection upload & download.
I was able to play Second Life with full graphics at around 25 FPS after sitting in a zone for a little bit (I.E. 2 minutes) If the zone was one I'd visited a lot (namely the plot of lands that my friends and I purchased) then everything would be pre-cached and loaded nearly instantly.
Until you've tried Second Life, and by tried I mean played it for more than a month, I don't think you should be being so sarcastic about the ability to change your form.
Of course I'm not a bunny in real life, but it can be amusing to spontaneously change for comic effect in game.
10 bucks for having a good time shouldn't be taken lightly either, I was having fun writing that script, talking to my friend at the same time. Getting payed better than minimum wage for simple work as a side effect of having a good time shouldn't be laughed at either.
Wow, sorry about the brick-like nature of that post, for some reason formatting decided not to work.
Actual text:
At one point, anyone who signed up for Second Life recieved a stipend of 50 $L a week (about 20 cents) and people who payed for a premium account recieved 500 $L a week (aprx. $1.86)
This all changed once people started flooding the game with new avatars to collect the stipend and cash it out. After this happened, the stipends for premium users were reduced to 300/week and basic users got nothing.
Linden Labs has no problem getting people to shell out real money to buy fake things. I have never done it myself, being a content creator who manages to earn plenty of lindens just selling my own stuff, obviously the people who are buying my things have to get their lindens somewhere.
It is not hard to earn lindens in-game if you have any measure of talent, be you an artist, a musician or a programmer, there is someone in Second Life who will buy your stuff. My point is that the game isn't about spending your money or hookups (mostly;-)), it is predominately about people creating interesting things, people buying them, and the creators in turn buying other people's interesting things.
At one point, anyone who signed up for Second Life recieved a stipend of 50 $L a week (about 20 cents) and people who payed for a premium account recieved 500 $L a week (aprx. $1.86)
This all changed once people started flooding the game with new avatars to collect the stipend and cash it out. After this happened, the stipends for premium users were reduced to 300/week and basic users got nothing.
Linden Labs has no problem getting people to shell out real money to buy fake things. I have never done it myself, being a content creator who manages to earn plenty of lindens just selling my own stuff, obviously the people who are buying my things have to get their lindens somewhere.
It is not hard to earn lindens in-game if you have any measure of talent, be you an artist, a musician or a programmer, there is someone in Second Life who will buy your stuff.
My point is that the game isn't about spending your money or hookups (mostly;-)), it is predominately about people creating interesting things, people buying them, and the creators in turn buying other people's interesting things.
Also being underage recently, and not afraid of committing fraud, I borrowed my fathers credit card to join Second Life's main grid. (yes, I have had a brief experience with the teen grid *shudder*)
The first thing I did in world was stutter around at aprx. 4FPS. Even though the world was lagging like crazy, and everyone I saw was wearing the uniform purple/blue shirt, I was intrigued by the possibilities. I finished the tutorial and started messing around with LSL.
After a few minutes, I had a hello world program up and working. A few hours later, I made 10 bucks by writing a blackjack program for my first in-world friend, the owner of a small casino. I hung out with him for awhile, and invented a few new gambling devices, and then I decided to become a premium member.
At this point I was earning enough money to pay for the subscription cost, and I also purchased my first plot of land.. a 512. I built a small house on my land and started modding it... for instance I could change the alpha value of the windows, lock doors and such.
I became a scripting teacher at TUI, a school for the basics/advanced parts of Second Life.
I still have many friends in Second Life that I would never have met otherwise, and came out of Second Life much better at writing finished scripts and the confidence of having run a small scripting business.
Once you get past the sometimes ugly graphics of Second Life (not as ugly once your upgrade your graphics card), you can understand why 40,000 people spend hours and hours a day in their Second Lives. It is a welcome escape from the monotonous first life. Where else can you decide to be a bunny one moment, and a 10 foot robot the next?
Slashdot Mirror
This will be my last reply to this topic. First impressions do count, but unfortunately Second Life's first impression is terrible. Everyone in the starting area is wearing the default clothing (more or less), using the default animations and looking (usually) like a default human. Once you move out of the starting area and out into the Second Life world, you'll see real works of art.
Once I upgraded the graphics card of my computer, I was sitting on this:
3.2GHZ P4
1GB DDR Ram (don't remember the speed anymore)
AGP nVidia 7800 256MB
no sound card
piece of crap motherboard
180GB 7200 RPM hard drive
256kbps connection upload & download.
I was able to play Second Life with full graphics at around 25 FPS after sitting in a zone for a little bit (I.E. 2 minutes)
If the zone was one I'd visited a lot (namely the plot of lands that my friends and I purchased) then everything would be pre-cached and loaded nearly instantly.
Until you've tried Second Life, and by tried I mean played it for more than a month, I don't think you should be being so sarcastic about the ability to change your form.
Of course I'm not a bunny in real life, but it can be amusing to spontaneously change for comic effect in game.
10 bucks for having a good time shouldn't be taken lightly either, I was having fun writing that script, talking to my friend at the same time. Getting payed better than minimum wage for simple work as a side effect of having a good time shouldn't be laughed at either.
Wow, sorry about the brick-like nature of that post, for some reason formatting decided not to work.
;-)), it is predominately about people creating interesting things, people buying them, and the creators in turn buying other people's interesting things.
Actual text:
At one point, anyone who signed up for Second Life recieved a stipend of 50 $L a week (about 20 cents) and people who payed for a premium account recieved 500 $L a week (aprx. $1.86)
This all changed once people started flooding the game with new avatars to collect the stipend and cash it out. After this happened, the stipends for premium users were reduced to 300/week and basic users got nothing.
Linden Labs has no problem getting people to shell out real money to buy fake things. I have never done it myself, being a content creator who manages to earn plenty of lindens just selling my own stuff, obviously the people who are buying my things have to get their lindens somewhere.
It is not hard to earn lindens in-game if you have any measure of talent, be you an artist, a musician or a programmer, there is someone in Second Life who will buy your stuff. My point is that the game isn't about spending your money or hookups (mostly
At one point, anyone who signed up for Second Life recieved a stipend of 50 $L a week (about 20 cents) and people who payed for a premium account recieved 500 $L a week (aprx. $1.86) This all changed once people started flooding the game with new avatars to collect the stipend and cash it out. After this happened, the stipends for premium users were reduced to 300/week and basic users got nothing. Linden Labs has no problem getting people to shell out real money to buy fake things. I have never done it myself, being a content creator who manages to earn plenty of lindens just selling my own stuff, obviously the people who are buying my things have to get their lindens somewhere. It is not hard to earn lindens in-game if you have any measure of talent, be you an artist, a musician or a programmer, there is someone in Second Life who will buy your stuff. My point is that the game isn't about spending your money or hookups (mostly ;-)), it is predominately about people creating interesting things, people buying them, and the creators in turn buying other people's interesting things.
Also being underage recently, and not afraid of committing fraud, I borrowed my fathers credit card to join Second Life's main grid. (yes, I have had a brief experience with the teen grid *shudder*)
The first thing I did in world was stutter around at aprx. 4FPS. Even though the world was lagging like crazy, and everyone I saw was wearing the uniform purple/blue shirt, I was intrigued by the possibilities. I finished the tutorial and started messing around with LSL.
After a few minutes, I had a hello world program up and working. A few hours later, I made 10 bucks by writing a blackjack program for my first in-world friend, the owner of a small casino. I hung out with him for awhile, and invented a few new gambling devices, and then I decided to become a premium member.
At this point I was earning enough money to pay for the subscription cost, and I also purchased my first plot of land.. a 512. I built a small house on my land and started modding it... for instance I could change the alpha value of the windows, lock doors and such.
I became a scripting teacher at TUI, a school for the basics/advanced parts of Second Life.
I still have many friends in Second Life that I would never have met otherwise, and came out of Second Life much better at writing finished scripts and the confidence of having run a small scripting business.
Once you get past the sometimes ugly graphics of Second Life (not as ugly once your upgrade your graphics card), you can understand why 40,000 people spend hours and hours a day in their Second Lives. It is a welcome escape from the monotonous first life. Where else can you decide to be a bunny one moment, and a 10 foot robot the next?