The Globe & Mail Asks Me What the Deal Is With Second Life So I Tell Them

Had a lovely chat yesterday with Cliff Lee, reporter with Canada's top paper, and he just posted the interview here. Many SLers I've written about and am lucky to know are featured or alluded to, such as Strawberry Singh, and Alicia Chenaux, and of course, everyone's favorite, Ms. Fran Serenade (currently 90 years young). My favorite quote here:

Do you recognize the Second Life of today from the one you saw as an embedded journalist in 2003?

Oh, no. I helped them launch it and the whole idea was that this was going to be like the metaverse, from Neal Stephenson’s books, where there are millions of people on the next generation of the Internet. Instead of going to this 2-D Web browser, you’d find all your content in a 3-D world, and that’s what contributed to the hype. I definitely thought it had a good chance to become that.

And now?

When my book [The Making of Second Life: Notes from the New World] came out in 2008, I wrote that even if growth did slow and it became a niche, it’s still a really fascinating niche because you can learn about the real world and society through this microcosm.

We talked about how Second Life is also now a case study/cautionary tale for new wave of social VR but alas that didn't make the cut.

Entertainingly Cliff worried if his questions were too controversial, and I said "Dude it's always funny when a Canadian worries about that."

Comments

[Ernie Farstrider]

Since the tip end of 2009 I have been trying to figure out the business plan details of Linden Labs. I can see how easily and fast proto-capitalist, comprador, real estate mini-moguls would screw things up quickly. The Cautionary Tale is that left to their own devices ... which what happened in SL ... the bad guys rise to the surface. SL brings out the bad neighbor in more than 10% of its residents. If my last name were Linden I would not up with it put.

First ukaz is this: the tier for any parcel doubles if ban lines are erected. I think that would tell everyone that privacy is not physical but moral. The first codicil for this ukaz is that spite fences and walls are will be removed at the first complaint from anyone.

Griefers are bullies, they are terrorists. I would do in SL what we intend to do in RL. Remove them from the planet.

Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions work generally in RL. There should be economic benefits for residents who have region-wide CC&Rs. Multi-regional CC&R should be promoted.

Vast tracts of SL land are effectively ruined by moronic and inconsiderate residents. Complete laissez fair by any grid owner does not work and creates an ambiance that drives people away to smaller, less interesting, but easier to be proud of grids.

[David Cartier]

I think that Philip Rosedale was rather shocked to discover that after closed Alpha, none of us really wanted to use SL in quite the ways that he'd envisioned; we wanted land, rather than harmonic collaboration, and we were willing to lie cheat, steal and game the system in order to have it. Linden should have maybe gone with what people wanted and established some simple zoning. They should, for one thing, have priced commercial and adult sims higher than others. It would have prevented a lot of the regrettable shit. "My Dream, my imagination" falls apart, when someone drops a strip club or shopping mall right next to your picturesque Greek village. The very freedoms and laissez fair philosophies of SL are what brought out the asshole in so many of us. Even now, I still think the Mainland can be redeemed by returning everything, attractive re-terraforming and a few ground rules.

[Descargar Pinterest]

Hello all, there are some pinterest group about Second life? I'm new and want to share some ideas.

[TheWatcher watches in his Underpants]

Like Alice, I like to believe five things before breakfast.

Half a million? Having a hard time believing that BS. Most daily counts only show 48K. And a good chunk of those are ALTs and BOTs.

Every time I've logged in, the damned place seems like a flipping ghost town.
Sure, you obviously have a book to shill, so some PR double-talk and hyperbole is needed. But, seriously? Half a million? You're giving LL and SL far more credit than is believable.

[Wagner J Au]

48K is a typical *concurrency*, i.e. all the users logged on at the same time. Total daily concurrency is in the low six figures, 600K is the best estimate of total unique log-ins in a month (not counting new users trying it for the first time).