Man Visits “Dead World” There, Finds There’s More There There in There

"I Spent 30 Days in a Dead Game" at first seemed like a mean snarkfest against There, the virtual world that went defunct in 2010 then relaunched as a subscription-based platform in 2012. Homepage here.

But longtime virtual world denizen Cube Republic convinced me to keep watching:

"I was prepared for another troll video and I thought in the end it was well put together," as Cube puts it. "And the interview with the players were lovely, and them describing losing their friends that had left or died raises a lot of questions about virtual worlds and what they mean as communities and spaces that people live in."

So I kept watching, and Cube is correct! Also notable how expressive There avatars are, despite (because of?) the rudimentary graphics. It does make you appreciate how amazing it is that you can still meet both newbies and oldbies in Second Life:

"[It] makes me feel lucky for SL, a 22 year old world can still engage people," says Mr. Republic. "I see a fair cross section of residents as a content creator with broad appeal and I meet new players in their 20s and 30s."

Also true. One day Second Life might meet There's fate, but even then, as the video attests, that would not necessarily be the worst thing in the virtual world.

Comments

[Raph]

There's avatar expressiveness has always been state of the art. I was one of the top clothing designers in the game back in 2003. :D