Businesses Seek a New Lease on Second Life

really the virtual world hasn't taken off like the news media has wanted it to for the past century because really they promised us a second world where we could do everything and more that we do here and it would actually look good.

i've seen better graphics and character control on the sega dreamcast than i have in every screen shot of second life, even when csi new york did an entire episode around it. it felt like if i started playing second life then i would be playing a glorified runescape.

so yes i believe that there is a chance for the virtual world to overtake the real world, it just needs to have better graphics than polygons...

Second life is kinda clunky. it may have hope if there is a major overhaul. I guess I would encourage people to click off the virtual world and move out of mom's basement.

Adam
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Allow me to tickle your brain!
www.ThisHoldsMyAttention.com
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I'm afraid I must disagree with most of the article. "One of the Internet's biggest disappointments?" Let me ask you this: out of Second Life, Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter, which is the only one that is profitable? Yep, Second Life. I'm a virtual worlds enthusiast, but the Second Life deathwatch is purely a creation of the media - and you're hopping on the bandwagon. Please do better research in the future. You can see some facts here:

http://www.peregrinesalon.com/2009/03/22/whats-with-the-second-life-death-watch/

The corporations you mention wanted a press release and hype, which they got. They blamed the failure on the platform, when typically, the failure was their ego. For example, Armani and American Apparel (one brand I love, one not so much): both thought they were so cool they could just re-create virtual versions of the flagship stores and people would flock to it.

That's pretty boring fare for a virtual world. You need to do something more innovative, exciting, and most importantly, INVOLVE THE COMMUNITY instead of assuming you're so cool, they'll flock to you. "If you build it, they will come" does NOT apply in virtual worlds!

Another terrible article about the death or 'failure' of Second Life.

The virtual world part of the internet is at a similar stage to the dotcoms after the bubble burst. Everybody lamenting the failure of the hype to deliver what they were expecting.
But if you had bothered to do even a cursory amount of research you would find SL is thriving by any measure you care to choose. Not only is it a very profitable business in itself, but the number of users continues to grow, and the number of projects inside SL that are under development is beyond categorizing here.
The Armanis and the Coca colas left because they utterly failed to understand what SL is and is not, and allowed themselves to be duped into creating worthless SL installations that nobody was interested in.
Gamer kids are not interested because it is not a game.
Gamblers had to leave at the kind request of the US government.

SL is not of any interest to many people, and yet 600,000 people, and over 50,000 at any given moment ( you can leave out the ironic ' ) are using it.

What are they doing there?
There is only one way to find out. Go there and TALK to them.
It is hopeless to just cruise about like a lost muppet. SL is all about groups and communities. If you do not seek out these groups, you are like some foolish tourist standing in the middle of the road in some downtown City saying 'where's the party??? '

SL is the only truly interactive virtual world. You can build and script and do business ( in US dollars ) as you see fit. There is no other. It's potential is only beginning to be realized.

This article will look dumber and dumber as time goes on.

Second life has more choices of what to do than any other virtual realit out there. Plus, do you know of any other virtual reality with sports leagues such as GOHA (Global Online Hocky Association) or even have a television network that it suplys the shows for?