I should have known when I put up a quick little and (I thought) fun post last week about top Second Life car brands, the subsequent comment thread would largely devolve into accusations and counter-accusations of this or that brand using ripped content. (Which has been locked down for that very reason.) No doubt there's a fair amount of ripping going on in Second Life's automotive market, but as with the SL fashion industry (where similar allegations run rampant), these particular claims are made without any evidence. (And even if they had, persuasive evidence is often difficult to come by.) The equation runs ever thus:
Real money + virtual marketplace x pseudonyms = Drama!
At least one of the accusers came along and discovered something great about SL car culture -- and something not so great:
Upon [reading] this blog posting, i decided to actually visit the sim Tokagoya D2 Highlands. I expected to see the usual sorry state of an isolated racing/Vehicle sim, oh how I was so wrong. I guided my avatar to where people were bunching up in small groups. The common acts of loud gestures and annoyances were present, but in the corners of this sim I saw something magical.. something I have not seen for awhile. People were building and customizing their own vehicles and even helping one another. I asked what people felt about the sim and I got the common words of, “growing”, “learning” and “fun”. Now as for 'unoriginal content', while I was looking through out the sim, I did see stores filled with similar vehicle content, I could really pick-out what was original content and what was “taken from the internet”. It is a ethical debate for some and for my point of view it is a little tasteless, but this is not new knowledge, most residents know that unoriginal or ripped content is everywhere on the grid, from clothing, weapons, to even bikes and cars I have collected.
Then again, that last paragraph basically applies to every single Internet platform with user-generated content, of course.
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So true.
Posted by: zz bottom | Wednesday, April 22, 2015 at 11:30 AM
Seems that it may be only a matter of time before Fiat informs LL to pull the image of that user-made Jeep Wrangler from its front page. That's the content (ab)usage that should have designers shaking in their virtual boots.
Posted by: Iggy | Wednesday, April 22, 2015 at 04:57 PM
No matter how "magical" it is, using ripped content gives bad name to the platform. And yeah, Hamlet, what kind of "persuasive evidence" you're looking for? I just ask it, because those rips are pretty obvious for everyone involved with SL vehicles market.
Feel free to delete my comment and keep on supporting piracy. But remember, in case of SL you don't steal from "evil faceless corporations making billions of USDs every year", you steal from same men and women as you are.
Posted by: Ugh | Wednesday, April 22, 2015 at 06:35 PM
I really don't understand the SL car community - such a joke. Vehicle physics suck, and it's just too laggy to race properly anyway. If you really love cars, there are much better games like Forza and Project Cars for those interested in joining a racing community with more realistic vehicles.
Posted by: Smile | Wednesday, April 22, 2015 at 09:45 PM
Your equation is off a bit there. 😉
money + marketplace = drama
I know, I know, you can't resist flogging your poor old horse of "pseudonyms = extra drama".
But seriously, every small business community I've ever seen is full of the same infighting, claims of inauthenticity, etc. That this is a virtual marketplace or that pseudonyms are involved is really a side show.
Posted by: ReBeccaOrg | Thursday, April 23, 2015 at 12:08 AM
Smile, you are so badly wrong, cars are just some we can do while on Sl as so many other things.
And if you want to see how close to reality Sl car racing can be, just go to R.I.R. and watch a race and then point me to any other simulator as realistic that also allows to do all we want besides car racing?
Posted by: zz bottom | Thursday, April 23, 2015 at 07:11 AM