Is there a Third Life?
Thursday 080821~15:49
Dear Reader,
As you and i both know quite well, Second Life is pretty silly.
Grown men and women walking their unlikely-looking avatars around in a laggy simulacrum of a world that feels like a dodgy expansion pack for The Sims, when they could be writing incredibly useful cupcake blogs… well, it’s just silly.
Even sillier is the idea that real world (First Life?) businesses should be setting up shopfronts in Second Life.
Happily, these businesses are failing miserably.
Take that, capitalism!
According to PhD student Kim MacKenzie, the corporate showtowns are more “like ghost towns”, and most of the folk enjoying being naked cat-faced Lindenians walking around these pavilions are company employees.
Tragic.
So, like, whatever. Second Life is collapsing. Big deal.
Much more interesting is the fact that inside the Australian ABC’s Second Life real estate, there’s (or there was) a place called ‘Melbourne Laneways’.
Whackadoo!
Now you can be a naked cat-faced Lindenian hanging out in one of our Capital City’s many lovely laneways, but without any of the actual advantages of being there.
There’s technology making the world a better place for you! Yes, indeed!
Why go and enjoy a cappuccino in a laneway with friends when you can be sitting at home alone in your pyjamas and pretending to be enjoying a cappuccino in a laneway with ppl you don’t know from Adam, most of whom have animal faces?
NO REASON!
The screenshots of Melbourne Laneways are impressive, though. One is clearly Hosier Lane, and i’m sure that the wall on the left is sporting that catgirl graff i Flickrd a time back (or her cousin).
And i’m sure i’ve been in that café in the real world.
Sadly, the Melbourne Laneways are about to be demolished to make way for more empty spaces in Second Life.
And about time, too.
Yours,
Gullybogan
Dear writer,
It always amuses me to read the numerous slant reports of Second Life’s demise, be it on blogs such as yours, or in local media newspapers, news agencies webpages or even on television.
Yet, over the past months of my Second Life experience, I haven’t noticed such doomsday trend you all claim. Sure, many Real Life business open up in Second Life and fail miserable… just as thousands fail per day in the real world. Sure, locations are demolished now and then due to many different reason… such as they do with old abandoned buildings in your own city… but that only reflects lack of vision and commitment to make a venue work or that an good idea in paper doesn’t necessarily means a good one at work… just as with everything else in real life, such it is with second life.
So, honestly, I’m just sad for you really. I bet you’ve been to Second Life and walked amongst its enormity and failed to find one single person to show you around and make you feel welcome to what Second Life is all about. You’ve probably been to different empty places because their names looked good and ended up missing all the good places where stuff is actually happening that would make you think twice before writing this entry…
I could go on and on and tell you about all the success histories that have happen and still happen in Second Life… but there’s really no point, unless you really want to hear them with an open-minded spirit. Sure, I can also tell you many more other stories of projects gone bad as well…
My point is… Second Life is what you make of it. If you want to make it silly (as many people do), then yes, it is silly. But if you make an effort in to making it a worthwhile worldwide positive experience… then that it would be. It is a open space to express yourself, meet other people, learn new things, spend or make money, be creative, admire others creative, listen to musicians you would never listen otherwise, share experiences, experiences things you’d never would in the first life… pfff… the list can go on.
And enough about this.
If you want to give it a second try, drop me a line and we’ll work it out, I’ll be happy to show you around. If not… well… good luck and take care. I hope this entry of mine could at least show you a different perspective.
Cheers,
Petros Miklos
Petros >> Thank you for your comment. I understand that you believe in Second Life, and that it is a rewarding experience for you. Ordinary users like yourself were not the ‘target’ of my ’slant’.
The point of my post was that capitalism probably has enough of a presence in the real world, and that we don’t really need it in our alternative universes as well. Any time that capitalism fails, i believe that we, the ppl, should celebrate.
Thank you for taking the time to leave such a well-considered comment. Good luck in your second life.