Facepunch Versus Second Life

Facepunch Studios is a very large Half-Life 2 modder community forum-- i.e., the cream of the hardcore gamer crop.  Many months ago, one of its members planted his metaverse flag down in a new forum topic, declaring, "I've decided to write this because I've seen more bashing of [Second Life] on Facepunch than it really deserves."  In response, much of the usual gamer mockery ensues, but gradually (the topic is some twenty pages long) a positive shift occurs.  (Even if that includes gamers announcing their intents to become temporary cross-dressing sex workers to earn Linden Dollars.)  Much of the pro Second Life turn has to do with the striking screenshots Residents keep posting there, by turns disgusting, bizarre, beautiful, and often all three.  Worth browsing if only for the imagery, and if you like, yet another intriguing example of community perception of Second Life evolving over time.  Image credit:  An eternally dancing Pickachu named Tayasha.

Comments

[Widget Whiteberry]

That Facepunch thread is quite the focus group, not withstanding the appalling attitudes towards furries, who so far as I know, are not unlike the rest of us.

[Dizzy Banjo]

This is interesting, I'm wading though the thread, but it confirms my experience in the modding community.

Before and during Second Life, I have worked as a dev on a number of mod projects along side commercial games, including Pirates, Vikings and Knights II ( one of the top mods for the Half Life 2 engine ).

My experience is that a large number of mod developers just dont understand that SL is a streaming world. They dont understand the architecture and therefore expect it to perform as well as a clientside install pack architecture - such as mods created on valve's source engine. In this respect, those developers ( and this applies to many professional game developers too ) see SL as a platform that delivers poor user experience and very limited graphical immersion.

However, in my experience, those who do understand its architecture admire Second Life greatly and really get into the idea of "Bebop Reality" as you call it in your book Hamlet. The real time collaboration and improvisation of the environment. I think this thread illustrates more and more people are "getting" that.

[Marianne McCann]

@Widget Whiteberry: too true. Also, I see virtual kids still have a long way to go towards redeem their image. :-/

[Tayasha]

Wow, I was mentioned! ;O I'm Tayasha Tammas and I have been posting pictures to show people who don't play SL because well, I just like to show it to them. I still have that pikachu gif hehe.

[Themage]

I'm from face punch and actually the Half life two mod community is only a small part of us