Second Life Prepping for a Second Boom

The founder of the popular online world says technology will drive a jump in the number of regular visitors

Second Life: Linden Labs

The knock on popular virtual world Second Life has been that it's a little slow, and not entirely easy to use. Sure, it has roughly 13 million registered citizens, but only a few hundred thousand are actual devotees who spend a fair amount of time in the alternate universe.

Part of the reason Second Life hasn't gotten to that level yet, says Philip Rosedale, Linden Lab founder and former chief executive, can be attributed to the popularity of laptops, most of which don't have the kind of 3-D graphics chops to properly render his virtual universe. But Rosedale believes that improvements in computers and connection speeds in the next decade should produce a boom in the game's popularity. If Rosedale is correct and Second Life is merely ahead of its time, it's unclear whether the promise of future improvement will be enough to keep the virtual world afloat in the present.

Via Reuters

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6 Comments

Maybe people would rather spend time in the real universe...

I agree with dontbother, I meen sure it can be fun, but why spend your whole life there? Why not spend time finding someone in real life? How do the people even know whose on the other side? It could be a serial killer for all we know.

It good be fun, I don't know I never played,but don't put your whole life. Something bad could happen.

I played that game game and really enjoyed it. If you are
all -about-socializing type, i recomend that game to you.

It's a glorified chatroom. If you're into that - great! Personally, I stopped visiting those when I turned 12.

It's a glorified chatroom. If you're into that - great! Personally, I stopped visiting those when I turned 12.

there was something about this place when i first read about it in popsci magazine. Since then I've been online! Personally, I don't like socializing its a GREAT place for self expression, art, and MONEY lol

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