"Second Life's vision of the Metaverse has endured..." Listen to the latest and final episode in the Wall Street Journal's episode on the rise and fall (and rise) of Second Life:
- Stream on Spotify here
- Get it on Apple Podcasts here
- Stream on the web and read the transcript here
- Links to Part 3 here
Telling the story of Linden Lab's disastrous attempt to turn Second Life into a space for corporate meetings and my post-mortem for that, the episode (and series) somewhat ends on a rather abbreviated and ambiguous note, with Philip Rosedale acknowledging the real world as being more irreplaceable than he originally suggested, and host Annie Minoff finding value in its power for people to explore their identity and alternate lives. That last point is true (and moving), but I do think it misses the many other applications of the metaverse beyond "having a second life". (Again, the name Second Life itself continues to frame things that can be more limiting than enlightening.)
Many of the episode's highlights were featured in New World Notes stories over years; here's some resources for more reading:
- Here's the Second Life graveyard of laid-off Lindens from 2010.
- Here's my reaction to "Second Life is for meetings!" campaign at the time: The Dwight Scrhute Echo Chamber.
- Ishtar Angel, featured in episode 4, was featured in Cajsa's 2019 story here, For The Trans Community Of Second Life, The Virtual World Is A Chance To Discover Their Real Life Selves
- Lead development of Horizon Workspaces, by the way, is actually Linden veteran Jim "Babbage" Purbrick.
And don't let my ambivalent response bias you -- would love commentary below on your own take!
Comments