[JuZ]

Anyone tried it? Any impressions (other than the obvious it's-a-waste-of-time, which it surely is!)?

I waded through the tutorials etc. and was teleported into the "world" proper... and the frame rate etc. was obscenely slow. It was a nightmare even with everything running on the lowest settings possible. I don't have a huge amount of free time to spend on it but was curious to know if anyone has managed to get anything out of it or not.

I've been trying to check it out, but whatever way I try to run it on my Linux machines, it won't work.

Compiling the source myself fails, running the Windows client in Wine fails installation, and the precompiled Linux binary is horribly slow


Anyway, SecondLife seems to be extremely popular these days, it's in the news almost weekly and big companies even entered that virtual world.

I've heard you can make good money with that game, if you play it properly.


EDIT: I noticed there's a new version out, I'll give that a try in a minute.

It's working now. Only just, framerate and response time are low, graphics rendering pretty bad.

I'll see if I can work with it.

I can't grasp the forces behind the huge popularity of this concept. As I can't with big brother.
Far Beyond WTF.

S'wrong with everyone's first life? Surely it can't be all that bad.. I hate all those virtual universe thingies. They made some online virtual Dublin thing for us Irish people. Thought it was going to be a massive success altogether. It never got off the ground, to the best of my knowledge.

[JuZ]

I can understand the whole who-needs-a-second-life thing. I'm not interested in spending huge amounts of time in there. Not when I've got a beautiful wife to spend it with!

But I'm curious to see if they can really create a sustainable world with all the subtleties that go with it. Particularly the negative aspects. Political upheavals, economic fluctuations, crime... all that stuff... and see how people respond to it as opposed to how they do in the real world. Some people are pretty heavily invested, financially and emotionally, so they're sure to get fired up if something happens that affects them in a negative way etc. I'm not suggesting anyone deliberately introduce those factors... they'll happen themselves, I'm sure.

as our desires are first simulated then stimulated, consentrated fed and intensified in the virtual world so as will our suffering. There will be no end to the manipulation of such a reality at one point. One will even be able to interchange sensery imput.(see music, hear colours etc.)I love reality, being a very phyisical person but this stuff is in it's infancy and the future is freaky..

To call upon the power of massive generalizations, Second Life is just another place for furries to congregate. Horrifying.

[EphelDuath666]

I'd need a first life first before having a second one!

I'd need a first life first before having a second one!

Sadly, the theory of Second Life holds first life irrelevant, it should be as non-existent as possible, while even more sadly the theory of first life is obviously being rewritten to give Second Life its proper space and weight. It's the result of the confusion of the world. With all the options opening with all the scientific discoveries and aplications, people literally don't know where to ground things anymore. I'll gladly stay a reactionary force for the time being.

To call upon the power of massive generalizations, Second Life is just another place for furries to congregate. Horrifying.

Just like those whatchamacallem 'rock concerts' are just places for those horrible law-breaking 'metal-heads' or whatever they call themselves to gather and plan their next school shooting. Horrifying.
...

Bah... any world where everyone has gotten so serious about it that no one laughs at flying penises is a world I don't want to be part of.

[JuZ]

Haha. I'm not nearly as reactionary, but I do think it's a buyer beware situation, for sure.

I think these things have the potential to negatively impact on people's lives. But then, so do many things. Some people, by their nature, consume everything in sight. Fast food makes some people morbidly obese. Alcohol turns some people into wife-beating drunks and this sort of virtual world can addict people in a similar manner, to the detriment of their real lives.

Perspective and balance: I find them to be key aspects to managing most things in life.

Incidentally, one thing I find really unusual is the use of real world money via an exchange system. People are becoming full-time professionals in this thing. I find THAT bizarre. And, as we all know, wherever there is money, there's crime. Oooooh....

I've heard a theory that states that in Second Life, you can be everything you'd want to be in First Life, but that you couldn't be for various reasons.

Far Beyond WTF.

"Far Beyond WTF" sounds pretty good.

But yep', I concure with most things said here. And the "game" is damn ugly, and I wonder how they'll keep it "decent" with the technology advance. It'll look more and more contrasted between uber-ugly parts and some using some news types of shaders...

One thing I find "interesting" is the possibility to make money in the game, and turn it into "real" money (well not in China as they have forbidden making money online to avoid any speculation or whatever blablablah economic stuff blablablah $$$ blablablah *falls asleep*)
It's just like the "real" thing (that's still virtual in itself), but in a virtual world, that becomes "real".