Virtual Exits: Second Life Residents Turn Their Back
Second Life, the virtual world that millions call “home” and millions of others enjoy having a good laugh at. An experiment, the future, completely useless? Those statements are probably all both correct and incorrect at the same time.
People like myself gravitate to a platform like Second Life for many reasons. Constructing anything in 3D can be a powerful experience and until recently out of the reach to most. Second Life lowers the entry level (perhaps too low?) and offers a platform that has yet to be matched in terms of a complete solution. Introduce the concept of an economy and naturally you’ll get your wantrepreneurs, scammers, greifers, and general weirdos that make things interesting. Following the local news and gossip here and you’ll find its very much some bizarre society seen commonly in Twilight Zone episodes.
On the infrastructure side there have always been problems. Talented residents work around the issues while Linden Labs (creator of Second Life) appears to apply “scotch tape” based solutions or simply ignore the issue all together. A major rework of the infrastructure/client is in order but how? That would be similar to asking the cable company rebuild their entire “grid”. They are too entrenched in what can only be SQL database hell and VPN purgatory.
So looking back to the residents, like any society you have generations or loosely connected groups of people who build, change and contribute. Second Life isn’t very old so it’s initial residents only date back a few years, for example some of the oldest residents are sometimes referred to as “The Class of 2003″. While there is no shortage of talented residents funneling into Second Life many are starting to turn their back. I can’t help but wonder what this says about the service when some of the most dedicated users are looking for the teleport out. Let’s take a look at a few:
Prokofy Neva (Catherine Fitzpatrick):
The infamous antagonist just today announced a strike, or vacation, or who knows. In any case she’ll return but is she ever going to turn her back for good? This is a resident who has probably spent more time in-world than many of the Lindens themselves. Her blog posts tend to be absurdly long (that last one was 2000 plus words) and she has observed/complained about/poked just about every corner of the virtual world of Second Life. While many would gladdy take a Second Life without Prokofy (at times I’m one of them) her role is still significant here.
Spin Martin (Eric Rice):
Eric’s departure is a little quieter (which is a bit surprising if you know Eric) then someone like Prokofy. Eric at one point owned 4 simulators (an $800 per month investment) that he used for various types of development. He coined the term “Massive Multiplayer Photoshop” which is probably one of the better Second Life descriptions. I know I’ll see (or at least hear from) Eric in other virtual spaces, however I wonder if we’ll ever get the chance to sit around the fire and shot the shit in Saijo City again.
Sean Voss (Sean Percival, aka Me):
If you are reading this blog or following me you probably already know I wrote the “Second Life Travel Guide“. The book deal came to me by chance almost, literally setup over a dinner in Palo Alto. I had already started to explore Second Life and felt the market could benefit from such a guide. I took the better part of 3 months and spend insane amounts of time traveling, cataloging and preparing the book. Along the way I discovered why so many were drawn to it, the reasons go on and on. I’ve invested somewhere between $3000 into the service over the last year and own two ocean SIM islands. Between the myriad of grid issues and increasingly busy first life, my free time and interest have wained. While I know I’ll return (or at least check in), for the next few months you aren’t likely to find me on this grid. If you are a reader of my book please contact me by email any time (me at seanpercival.com), I love all the feedback I’ve received so far. I’m going to keep Landmark Island online so feel free to drop by there as well. I still plan to go to SLCC in September and hope to return to a better virtual world at this time. 
I still have no doubt virtual worlds have some place in the future. However I can’t help but feel they will be given to us by companies and not the user-generated polar opposite. Perhaps they can meet somewhere in the middle, I for one want to build my shit in Liberty City.
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May 4th, 2008 at 1:21 am
A bunch of SLers have been in GTA IV and have been crying at how beautiful and endless and flawless the world is. We can sit on voice and chat and have fun and race and yeah, not create flying penises, but aesthetics has a price. It’s a shame. But it’s also a huge cue to what might really be important. As much as I adore low barriers and a flat playing field, the reality of 90% of everything is shit is clearly illustrated when the walls come down. The walls are pretty high on a game like GTA but damn the user experience is amazing. A few more tweaks, a few more tools and it’s the place I’d call home.
And people ‘get’ it. To the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Having a virtual home isn’t weird, really. Time will tell.
May 4th, 2008 at 1:28 am
I feel that people are being a bit pre-mature in turning their backs in Second Life. Name something that compares to it? Name a competitor right now? Every single “Second Life Breaker” has really not turned out to be such as that, even the open-source Second Life project isn’t something that will over-take SL either.
There’s a reason why Liberty City looks soo good, it’s all pre-generated and tweaked to work on that system, that doesn’t happen in the PC market on a system where all of the content variables are so very dynamic.
May 4th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
I dunno, five digits spend in the period of three years doesn’t feel like ‘premature’. And comparing to SL might be tough since SL might be TOO much of everything. I don’t really need all that SL offers to have a ‘virtual’ meeting, otherwise, we wouldn’t clamour into Skype voice chats if the grid goes down. And for people who are DJs, I’d think that it would be irrelevant what other worlds do or do not offer in comparison to SL. Exposure is a big thing.
Even Pastrami Linden admitted in a blog post that games are designed with guidelines and rules that aren’t necessarily followed in SL. User-generated stuff is a blessing and a curse at the same time.
I still firmly believe that the SL-killers won’t come from the ‘world’ space but the game space.
Also, one more point about being pre-mature. It’s not like the people Sean mentions here are those ZOMG FIX LAG fools that appear in blog comments. I’d say that regardless of personal opinions aside, these are some very patient folks.
May 5th, 2008 at 5:13 am
Second Life News for May 5, 2008…
From: Botgirl Lives The ongoing quest for SLurpose Quote from the site – Just like a personal hook-up, a hot crush on Second Life itself has a shelf life of just weeks or months. Unless one can find some kind of deeper purpose or new position, boredom …
May 5th, 2008 at 7:14 am
Being a McGyver fan, I guess SL works for me–duct tape is better than scotch tape.
-RODION
May 5th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
It’s my opinion that as the hype that had been built up around Second Life recedes the reality of what it has become is emerging. Though the platform itself initially had promise, the low barrier to admission has made it the 3D equivalent of ‘personal web pages’ from the dawn of the internet.
Tasteless design, unoriginal content, and a complete lack of optimization define the majority of what has been created within SL. Though those creating in Second Life may find satisfaction from their efforts, the end result almost appears amateurish in comparison to commercial products that have the advantages of professional artists and clear content guidelines.
Additionally, technical problems hobble the use of SL as a general purpose gaming platform. Vehicles don’t work, client side and serverside lag make combat themed experiences a joke, and problems with region handoffs make movement for extended distances unreliable. The high system requirements for reasonable performance make a quality experience unachievable for all but those using purpose built desktop gaming hardware.
Though the saga of Second Life and Linden Lab will continue to be entertaining, the spotlight of ‘the next big thing’ is slowly moving away towards the next star. What or who that may be is still unclear but user generated content will certainly play a smaller role.
May 6th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
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May 8th, 2008 at 7:49 am
Brilliant page., man
May 8th, 2008 at 7:53 am
Some great comments here, thanks guys. For the record, not giving up on SL by any means. I really do hope it finds keeps growing and turns into something even better. For now, I’m just too damn busy with that pesky first life.
Also last commenter Shontessekeene is employing a bizarre form of seo, instead of linking direct to his site he links to search results (that include his site) for a site with high pankrank (askmen.com). Good example of what user generated can do
July 1st, 2008 at 1:28 am
Late to the party, but hey – I got here due to a google search gone awry
You may want to try OpenSim – I’ve recently written a tutorial, and I plan to expand that as soon as some of my RL obligations are taken care of.
Anyway, its been pretty well received, and it basically allows you to have your own simulator up and running pretty quickly.
Check it out, may be just the thing to tide you over. Price is right, hard to pass up a free sim that can (theoretically) support 45,000 objects.
Linkage – http://opensimuser.wordpress.com/2008/06/15/opensim-install-and-configuration-tutorial/