Is Second Life the Net's next great epochal shift, or is it, as eminent analyst Clay Shirky thinks, yet another over-hyped online world destined for failure? I attempt to cut through both the hype and the anti-hype in an extended post for GigaGamez, a new GigaOM spinoff I'm helping launch. In it, Philip Linden offers some concrete user retention figures (low), Clay describes his first-hand experience with Second Life (not much), and NWN contributor Tateru Nino provides a projection chart of active users for the next year (invaluable beyond measure.)
Go here to read it all. I hope it starts an ongoing conversation that continues through 2007.
