General Discussion

Originally posted by paulscott
the only good thing about second life are the .00005% of areas that aren't some one's sex toy, and that some one used to actually make something...

and other meteverses are reletively boring having nothing that makers/creators/artsies can do.

I agree with you there.  If someone could provide SL without all of the pixel-sex...  that might be worth something...  but you would also have to get rid of all of the lag, griefing, etc etc.

In the next human generation I predict we will see the majority of retail consumer space deeply embedded within virtual worlds. I suspect we will also see relatively seamless transitions available to users to move from games to movies to television programs, as well as old standards like hangout spots (clubs, bars, etc...).

Right now, the technology is still nascent. Streaming custom content is cumbersome, manipulation of objects in virtual worlds is clumsy, and movement is crude and blocky. Most average citizens simply don't have the computing power to handle a decent 3D world with a lot of serialized content. At the moment, this is a niche community that is slowly broadening.

But online entertainment is where it's at. Why simply observe when you can participate? There's nothing really stopping someone from conquering a planet, having a beer with some buddies, dancing with a hot date, and then fragging a few hundred enemies before bedding down with a raid against the boss of Cliche Castle. The future holds that all of that will be a seamless transition between content without ever leaving your online avatar...just enter the portal to that content.

Of course, as I said in the beginning...this is somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-25 years away. It's going to take quite some time for virtual worlds to mature to the point that they can reach the masses in a way that is compelling and powerful. But I have absolutely no doubt that it will happen.

Originally posted by ianubisi

Of course, as I said in the beginning...this is somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-25 years away. It's going to take quite some time for virtual worlds to mature to the point that they can reach the masses in a way that is compelling and powerful. But I have absolutely no doubt that it will happen.

Second Life is good for deviant cyber sex, and not much else. The Second Life clones will be the same; no game, plenty of cyber sex. Sex has been around ever since the internet, and isn't going anywhere anytime soon, so the SL clones will do just fine. You can log on and have someone design your new furry avatar with a 10 foot penis, and pay them in rl money. Oh what fun.

Absinthe Lovers

While Second Life has its use and is obviously fun for some,
there are a few problems with it for the regular market:

First of all, it holds no story or substance, it's just a bunch of islands wrapped together.
The market desires a non-abstract relation to the game.
You play for fun and want entertainment given to you, not building it yourself.
Kinda the same way as you buy books, you don't write them, if you want a good story.

Second, money... Second Life is known for the fapstatic ability to make cash from it.
The market has no need for Earning money. It is there to spend. The consumer plays games to get AWAY from their job.
One could argue that you don't have to care for money and all that, but the fact is, it's there. And will constantly remind you of reality.

And, third; Sexual content. While most who play the game seem to like sextoys or ripping off other game ideas, the regular consumer doesn't want this. Again the market wants to be wrapped up in a story, taken away to far away lands and be dazzled by the might and magic of the heroes in the lands. (Guess why Fantasy is the #1 concept used.....)

Second Life just can't cater for the regular consumer. Nor can any type of Metaverse.
Too much crap in the cake so to speak.

Originally posted by Sramota

Second Life just can't cater for the regular consumer. Nor can any type of Metaverse.
Too much crap in the cake so to speak.

Well put... well put indeed.

Crap in the cake... *snicker*

Originally posted by Sandcastle
I was reading through Raph Koster's blog when I saw two related entries: The Second Life competitors materialize? and Korea gets into metaverses.

The whole online virtual world idea has been around for a long time, and surely everyone on the forums know about how Second Life is generating comments from different places. Do you think with SL on the rise, the next few years we will be looking at many more virtual worlds like it? Clones are destined to happen at one point.

Now there's already There, Habbo Hotel and Club Penguin. In the blog entries there are new names not widely heard of yet: the Chinese HiPiHi, the cartoonish Planet Cazmo, the MySpace-ish Kaneva and my personal favourite so far, the Korean Azitro. In long term, do you think one of them will likely start