The Second Coming of Virtual Worlds 117
An anonymous reader writes "Things have been a bit quiet on the virtual world front recently, but according to an article in Silicon.com, things are about to change. Apparently it's only now that virtual worlds are really going to become a force to be reckoned with. 'Now experts predict the virtual world phenomenon is entering a second phase in which businesses will become shrewder about their involvement in such environments and look more carefully at the tangible benefits they can realize. Emerging technology specialist at IBM, Robert Smart, is confident virtual worlds will become more important to businesses in the coming years.'"
Effort to switch 'worlds' (Score:2, Informative)
IBM's Smart predicts more web browser-based virtual worlds will appear over time, meaning users won't have to spend time downloading and setting up client applications.
This would be a large step. One of the main issues now is the effort required to do the equivalent of clicking a link. Imagine installing a new program for every link you wanted to click.
Re:Things have... (Score:3, Informative)
Pr0n ... the only thing that infests every new tech breakthough on the net, and let's be honest, the only reason ANYONE spends more than 30 minutes online anyway.
Bulletin Boards = Pr0n Boards
Forums = Pr0n Forums
Social Networks = Pr0n Networks
Web 2.0 = Pr0n without the page refresh
VR = 3D Pr0n
Second Life = 3D Pron that you can sell for an imaginary currency you bought with real currency.
And the list goes on ...
Re:virtual (Score:2, Informative)
So we will be even more busy with real life and virtual life's. Will we also get virtual kreditcrisis?
First page of the article:
"There's no credit crunch in Second Life"
:-)
Re:Things have... (Score:4, Informative)
Bullshit. I made a fairly significant amount of money from SL, and I don't do porn, nor even come anywhere near it.
It's easy, I script for money. What I sell is my programming skill, which is the same thing I do in RL.
Re:An Honest Question.... (Score:2, Informative)
GP was talking about *companies* who got involved with Second Life, not individual entrepreneurs. Catch the fuck up dude ;)
Virtual World: Blowing up 'Mechs since 1990 (Score:1, Informative)
Remember the Virtual World BattleTech Centers? http://www.virtualworld.com/ [virtualworld.com]
These guys have been pushing the non-goggle & non-glove VR for use in entertainment for a long time.
The system uses a mirror & beam splitter combo to create the illusion of 3D.
On top of that, it has 7 monitors and over 90 buttons (they all work)
Its a shame that this kind of 'Virtual Reality' is often ignored in favor of goggle tech, in spite of its success in entertainment and in flight and military simulations.
After 18 years, they are still around. Sort of.
Re:Things have... (Score:4, Informative)
Quality goods always sell better than crap goods. And quality goods, even in virtual environments, aren't easy or quick to make.
Second Life is a good example. Let's focus on 1 item that's pretty prevalent: Skins. (The replacement flesh coloring.) Crappy skins are cheap. Good skins are ridiculously expensive. This is because it's not easy to make them, even if you're an artist.
The real problem for businesses is not the goods... It's making money from the game. In-game objects don't sell for real money, they sell for virtual money. You can attempt to sell virtual money to other players for real money, but there are no guarantees.
Making promotional items is in the same category. Who in their right mind is going to wear a CocaCola shirt in a video game, just because it was free? The amount of time and money they'd have to invest to get people to wear them would be better spent on real-world marketing instead, and they know it.
I agree that this is just an attempt to hype a market, though. Shouting 'Great things are coming!' usually means someone wishes they were, not that they actually are.
Re:SecondLife Resident Backlash (Score:1, Informative)
This only applies to 'Open Spaces' -- areas that were marketed as light use at a lower price for estate owners. Estate owners were renting these areas out -- and their CPU/resources utilization (16 open spaces sims on a server, vs 4 regular sims) was going beyond what was really 'light use'.
This does not effect any other pricing.
So -- greedy estate owners decided instead of using 'Open Spaces' sims as parks or ocean, decided to rent them out to residents instead. Hmmmmmm - I don't think I have much sympathy for these asshats. I am only sorry that educational establishments got caught up in this -- and will lose their discount, not to mention all the residents who were taken in - and suffered (lag city) because of it.
Don't make it out like LLabs is the bad guy here. Estate owners share the blame for misusing the open spaces sims.