Is the Hype Over? at i live in science land

I just caught up on Ener’s latest postings :)

I hope the Greenies visit again, maybe on some OpenSim worlds. SL will not be the same without their awesome sim (thank you, Aurora Janus, for showing me the Greenie’s house… somehow I had never heard of it before then). I don’t know the exact reasons for the Greenies’ departure, but I expect to see further exodus of talent from SL.

The LL/SL hype is over, in my opinion. They may eventually reinvent themselves, but the near future is not looking too exciting for them. I’m sure the 30% of the LL staff that was fired is not celebrating, either. SL, at least for the moment, doesn’t seem like the smartest place to invest tons of time and money and heart. It will remain a place for me to hang out, visit friends, make stuff, and play in the sandboxes… but I’m there with a very wary eye on the little guy behind the curtain, running the show.

Like Ener says, OpenSim and other virtual worlds (Blue Mars, for example) seem to be where it’s “at” right now. And some of us are even (trying) to spend more time in an ancient build called “Real Life.” (*giggles* , it’s not all bad, and the pizza there is tastier). At least we have alternatives, althought scripting in-world for me (in Reaction Grid or SL) is still tons of fun, and mentally relaxing (cuz it’s nothing like my boring RL job).

Will SL become the “AOL” of virtual worlds? If you are over 30, you may remember when America OnLine was awesome and “everyone” had an account (or with their competitors, Prodigy and Compuserve).

Then the “real” Internet got easier to use/navigate (thank you, Netscape Navigator!) and people were no longer prisoner to AOL’s limited content, adult policies, whims, and customer service snafus. (Hmmm, starting to sound familiar?)

At least LL doesn’t hold you “prisoner” (didya ever actually try to cancel your AOL account? OMG, Epic Fail. ) But, SL does kinda hold your content/creations captive (though exporting some stuff to OpenSim worlds is possible).

And where’s my screen-popping 3D virtual worlds and real-time photorealistic graphics? Or smellevison, or wrist videophones, or robotic maid/gardener/lover, or flying car? Or a no-cal sugar substitute that doesn’t taste like wallpaper glue?

See, there is still stuff to be discovered and perfected! And you can build/script the prototypes in Open Sim worlds. Well, maybe not the Smellevision. Yet.

By the way, AOL is still around, as a kind of home page destination (http://www.aol.com/) And to be fair, it doesn’t entirely suck. At least not compared to the MSN home page ;p

–DW

written by DreamWalker

June 19th, 2010 at 2:10 am

posted in second life

(And AOL pays me)

Tateru Nino

19 Jun 10 at 3:06 am

“The LL/SL hype is over, in my opinion. They may eventually reinvent themselves, but the near future is not looking too exciting for them”

To some degree, a reinvention has already happened. We just didn’t notice, as it occurred just as Second Life became mainstream back in 2003. Just prior to this their exists(or at least existed, past tense) videos of early development work. Second Life was supposed to be a MMO battle game. It had destructible prims and on-the-fly terraformable terrain. As perspective, Battlefield Bad Company 2, released this year has those 2 features. I have seen a video on you tube(can no longer find it) of a developer excitedly blowing up a building.

Then Second Life came out as we know it. I can only imagine the hurt the the original creators felt. It would not be of surprise if there was some sideways shifts in staff too.

At that point in 2003, Second Life passed from the creators, artists, and programmers to CEOs/Board Members. And today we are seeing the near end of life of that wholly business driven concept.

Breen Whitman

19 Jun 10 at 4:46 am

Maybe AOL can buy SL

/me smirks

Jura Shepherd

19 Jun 10 at 6:33 am

The Greenies are not lost, DW. They’re relocating in Rezzable.

Versatilably yours, Nikki

Nickola Martynov

19 Jun 10 at 8:22 am

Yay on Greenies in Rezzable. I didn’t read far enough to realize Rezzable is an OpenSim world (I thought they were just event organizers in SL). More info on them here: http://rezzable.com/pga

Thanks for the history lesson, Breen! I had forgotten about early Linden World, though Ener has posted the old video clip before. Here’s some more info on the early days:

http://secondlife.wikia.com/wiki/Linden_World

http://www.3pointd.com/20060822/the-rock-eating-birds-of-linden-world/

PS: Log into SL now. Surely “you’ve got mail.” Or at least a bunch of IMs and group notices :)