Companies Continue to Get a Second Life 81
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.'"
Third Life (Score:5, Funny)
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).
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* this post brought to you by a pathetic loser who stares at a screen all day instead of actually doing something.
Been done (but not in SL) (Score:3, Informative)
I started my serious online addiction playing LambdaMOO [wikipedia.org] 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 thin
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Um.. (Score:1)
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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 ;-).
... you are saying that I sign up, and have notin
So, assuming I decide I want to try it
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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 man
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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 a
Oh, man ... (Score:1)
How can people waste so much of their time playing a pointless game?
Now, if you'll excuse me, Battle for Wesnoth [wesnoth.org] is waiting.
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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...
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Of course, Linden Labs is well aware that a large amount of their income is
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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.
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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
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If you want.. (Score:3, Interesting)
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.)
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Wake me up when they put a virtual world online that more like something from the movie "Tron"
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No thanks, I look horrible in spandex.
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The graphics of 1996/1997 looked like this [videogamecritic.net] and this [stanford.edu]. The graphics of 2003-present look like this [haslo.ch] and this [com.com].
Which does Second life (this [amazonaws.com] and this [dragonscoveherald.com]) look more like to you?
How is it that Linden Labs, raking in millions per year, can be outdone by open-source MMORPGs
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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.
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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.
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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 bumpma
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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.
Second Life is a Vanity Press (Score:3, Insightful)
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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
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That was just my knee-jerk, "You call that being an asshole? No, THIS is being an asshole!" response.
Some People... (Score:1, Troll)
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Tried this out...several times...not worth it. (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
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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. Y
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Try citypixel.com or faketown.com (Score:1)
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Wow, I guess now we know who to blame for spreading all the email viruses now, don't we?
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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.
Playing games for a living. (Score:2)
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...
Get a Second Life? (Score:4, 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?
Re:Get a Second Life? (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Is online gambling still legal in Second Life? (Score:3, Interesting)
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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
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I get your point, but didn't Nolan Bushnell do exactly what you say can't be done? [wikipedia.org]
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!
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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 un
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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/ [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 oth
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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?
Linden Lab advertising? (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
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Besides, as the OP commented: SL is dull, boring old crap. They are definitely plugging SL here.
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Sure they are; that's what PR firms DO.
The podcast scene supports SL heavily. I've no idea why.
Anarchy in the SL (Score:1)
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 woul
Snow Crash. (Score:2)
True Names, not Snow Crash. (Score:2)
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OK so can I play... (Score:4, Interesting)
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. ;-)
The whole problem here (Score:1)