Lately a significant internet craze has focused upon a virtual online world called “Second Life“. Second life is created by a company called Linden Lab which I suppose hopes to “monetize” it or some other such ill-defined voudu affectation.
In a nutshell Second Life is a three-dimensional virtual world, termed the “grid”, which is served from the Second Life servers to the Second Life client software in more-or-less real time (we’ll get to that later). You, the user, termed a “resident”, interact with the world via a 3d virtual person called an avatar. Your avatar can be customized to reflect your appearance, or whatever it is that you want people to think you look like (I noted a complete lack of obese persons).
People can “own” (technically lease) property on the grid and buy and sell, interact with other users, “chill”, talk and allegedly even have sex… in a manner of speaking. In short you can act out any thing you could do in real life, or not.
Cyberpunk Ephemera
Therein lies Second Life’s greatest weakness. It is not a game, there is no objective, no goal, no progress. In the end all one does is wander around the grid looking at pretty buildings, or other things. Yes, one can talk to other people but mostly they are not very interesting. Defying physics and dressing up in silly clothes is of course entertaining, for all of five minutes, and one soon runs into the problem that in the virtual economy one needs money to do quite a lot of things, the only way to get any money is to send U.S. funds to Linden Lab and have them converted into Linden Dollars.
Gods in the Economy
It is a well known fact that the worst thing that can happen to an economy is government manipulation. In Second Life the government is the Linden lab company which has not just the power to manipulate the economy but godlike powers of reality warping, if Linden Lab says something should not be done they can reprogram reality to prevent it on an ontological level. If Linden Lab decrees that all streets should be paved with popcorn they have the capacity to re-engineer the grid to cause this to come to pass, as if by magic.
As a result of this, and other factors, the Second Life economy is inherently unstable.
Another problem is inflation. The Linden Dollar is pegged to the U.S. Dollar at a rate of about L270/$1*, during the first part of 2005 the Linden experience severe inflation, loosing about a third of its value. that has since stabilized. However, according to studies released by the Luwdwig von Mises institute, an economic policy think-tank, this currency is not fully backed by Linden Lab’s actual revenues, in other-words Liden Lab is issuing more currency than it has reserves, typical central. The deficit between revenue and issuance is made up by pure fabrication.
This means that long term fate of the Second Life economy is not promising. Either the currency will experience hyperinflation, and become worthless, or there will be a recession as Linden Lab tightens monetary policy. Already the company has had to stop issuing stipends to non-paying accounts.
An exemplary instance of the Act of God-like powers of Linden Lab involves a change in the meta-physics of the grid which benefited the in-world newspaper InfoNet . Previously teleportation was only possible to areas called “telehubs”. However this was changed and now, in principle-barring Second-Life’s perennial technical glitches) users may teleport from and to any set of coordinates, except those which reside in private property not owned by them.
When Linden Lab removed the telehubs they replaced them with InfoHubs, all of which contained an InfoNet access point hosted free of charge on “system” land, InfoNet is not run by Second Life and is operated on a for-profit basis. Since it is normally only possible to enter the grid at an InfoHub or your own private property the vast majority of people see an InfoNet vending machine straight-away upon entering the grid.
Naturally InfoNet greatly benefited, compared to its rivals.
Recently Linden Lab, in its infinite wisdom, decided to ban gambling. The results were comparable to the U.S.G.’s recent decision to ban internet gambling (as it was threatening state monopolies) booming casinos went bankrupt instantly. Loss of jobs ensued.
Linden Lab, out of fear of wildcat-banking, has also banned interest-paying banks, thereby eviscerating the financial services market on the grid. Theft of money is ontologically impossible in a virtual world, thus the only benefit of banks is the interest.
Technical Problems
Another major problem with Second Life is the clumsy interface. Walking in a straight line is almost impossible and one is always getting jammed between objects, only able to escape by the use of teleportation. Interaction with objects is erratic, there seem to be quite a lot of scripting bugs.
Latency is horrendous, both because of of the fact that even the best systems are strained by the realtime three-dimensional rendering that Second Life entails and because even the best internet connections have trouble accommodating the avalanche of data, network congestion is endemic.
Upon teleportation into a new area the first thing one sees is nothing, just a blank sky and a blank ground, Gradually buildings, trees and the like are downloaded, first appearing is blank outlines then with the beginnings of textures and realistic patterns which then become more detailed. Often the Second Life client software locks up completely until this is finished. Sometimes one materializes nude in a busy area until ones clothes finish downloading. This is not just something visible to you, I remember wondering why a woman had teleported into a busy shopping mall in the buff until I realized that her clothes were starting to appear around her. Fortunately second life avatars lack any of the organs needed to have sex, although as I mentioned this seems to take place anyway.
When there are many persons or complex animated objects in an area the world slows down until it looks like a time lapse photo. Sound is also erratic, sometimes sound works, I was standing on a beach front once and the sounds of gulls and waves were audible, in a realistic manner, at other times there is no sound at all or the sound is choppy. For people with microphones it is theoretically possible to speak aloud with your real voice into the second life world via SIP, this did not work for me.
Anti-social Behavior
Worse there is quite a lot of anti-social behavior, I was twice attacked by objects that duplicated themselves endlessly and almost no-where is free of huge rotating cubical advertisements. I was always being given spam advertisements in the form of notecards by automated processes activated by walking past a building, etc.
Quite a large percentage of the Second Life public seems to take the unreality of the world as an excuse to don fetishistic attire, including representatives of the latex, pvc, leather and fur fetish communities. Erotic images (although not photos) are rampant and people are virtually-intimate in public places.
The Bottom Line
Second Life is a clever idea badly executed, the teleological deficiencies are not compensated for by the laissez-faire meta-physical lineaments of the grid. Virtual happenings in virtual life seem insipid, lacking verisimilitude and existential authenticity, not to mention the oppressively indulgent genius loci. The prevalence of anti-social behavior and obnoxious advertisements nullify the otherwise aesthetic impressiveness of some parts of the grid. In the mean-time the everlasting technical glitches detract from the suspension of disbelief.
Second Life can only be compared to children playing dress-up, an expression of infantile fantasies.
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* This figure is derived from the independent exchange SLX. The “official” rate from LindeX is more favorable, it is also probably wrong.
Like other reviewers much of your information is incorrect. You focus on a tenth of one percent of the environment, play up the adult aspect and wrap it all in a multi syllabic word storm. Honestly, if you find the interface to clumsy I have my doubts about your powers of observation. Since everything is laid before the new user in a simple graphic layout and some of the first tutorials you encounter explain the interface, well I don’t know what other MMO’s you have tried but SL is pretty easy by comparison.
Your latency issues were probably on your end. Are you running a system capable of handling SL? They are extremely up front with their tech specs. Also, do not forget that many Cable/DSL services now seem to have several levels of bandwidth use. Do you have a connection and a graphics package that handle the amount of information that SL is sending out?
The most annoying thing about your review is that you have completely left out the chances to listen to live music, lectures and classes. You obviously spent a minimum amount of time on the grid without bothering to get to know anyone or delve into the marketing potential for tech oriented business. Since the grid has been active for a little over four years I really don’t think you can call it a “craze”
Spend more time in SL, you might change your tune.
Paragraph One:
A. It is all factually accurate.
B. I don’t play up the adult aspect, I present it commensurate with the level of adultness present on the grid.
C. Attacking my eloquence is so puerile I’m not even going to comment on it
D. My powers of observation have nothing whatever to do with ability to control the navigation system. The tutorials are not at fault, what is at fault is the design-engineering.
Paragraph 2:
A. No they aren’t I have a top of the line Cable link and I have tried Second Life even in off-peak hours for my cable provider.
B. Yes, I am, once everything is downloaded interaction is smooth between 15 and 20 f.p.s. unless there are too many complex objects nearby.
C. Based on my own considerable technical knowledge I would suggest that the latency issues are related to the fact that there is usually not enough bandwidth on the public internet for n’th generation applications.
Paragraph 3
A. In all the time that I spent on the grid I noticed none of these. Doubtless they exist, but this does not address the fact that these things are not actually real. Live music, Lectures and Classes are pointless unless they are real as the goodness of these things is wrapped up in their intense lucid actuality.
B. I spent about four weeks on the grid.
C. The marketing potential for tech oriented businesses is irrelevant, like all reviews this review is from a perspective, in my case I have tried to represent things from the perspective of an intelligent average person.
D. I think that I did actually address the marketing potential rather indirectly, I mentioned “obnoxious rotating cubical advertisements” and discussed the disaster-in-the-making economy in depth.
E. Yes I can. The Crusades were a massive popular delusion that lasted for years.
[...] Slacker Online Product Review: Second Life Quote from the site - Lately a significant internet craze has focused upon a virtual online world [...]
Slacker:
The game sound juvenile, so it should be a hit. I like the part about the money. It is virtual central banking. It now liberates the central banks from the cost of paper and ink! Can massive inflation be far behind? This may be the only aspect of the game worth watching. It is also a bureaucrat’s dream come true: total wage and price control without the possibility of a black market. Do these characters pay any taxes?
In addition to the crusades, the more recent fads would be the dot com bubble (this internet thing is going to be big! How can we lose? It will never end?) and the on going sub-prime mortgage mess.
At least the crusades had the aegis of the Pope. The sub-prime disaster is only the fault of the politicians coupled with the stupidity of the bankers. The dot com, or as one called it, the dot con, fad was brains of the perfidious coupled with the greed of the stupid.
I think you are being too hard on the game’s tendency to have bodies appear sans clothes. I am not sure it is a bug. It could be the real draw of the game. Perhaps I should add puerile and salacious to juvenile.
Mace, you sound rather threatening, but mostly condescending. if you have something to say, say is respectfully, you are going to get nowhere by putting people down.
Furthermore, if you are such a expert at this, then how come slacker was able to tear into you like that?
Not everyone handles computers like you do, slacker was simply pointing out that some people have problems that you don’t have. That does not automatically mean that the problems were alll on the other parties side.
And you shouldent accuse someone of something you can’t prove, i.e. “focusing on a tenth of one percent” and again” you obviously spent litle time on the grid”, you can’t prove it, so don’t say it!
You are being sarcastic and threatening and not to mention again, condescending.
I had totally forgot about this thread. Martha, I have not even begun to put people down.I had totally forgotten about this thread. Martha, I have not even begun to put people down. Nor was I disrespectful. I didn’t swear, despite my desire to use the words “pretentious jackass”. If my tone was condescending maybe I was simply matching Slacker tone for tone. Before you rise to someone’s defense consider both positions. Or is Slacker a friend of yours and you felt the need to launch a more personal rebuttal to defend your chum? Good on you, just keep in mind you are the one calling names here, not me. Threatening? Really? Because I can send my ninja assassin squad through the interwebs to silence the perfidious fool who wrote a crumby critique of one of my favorite pass times? Give me a break people.
He defended his point but I do not think he tore into me at all. I maintain my original stance. Slacker is a critic and not a reviewer. There is a difference you know. If Slacker did indeed spend four weeks on the grid and was unable to find anything more worthwhile than porn and perverts then I take say he wasn’t looking for anything else. If you look for the negative and expect the negative then all you will ever find is the negative. If you cannot separate the wheat from the chaff then how do you make your way through life? The world is a shallow place if you never delve beyond the obvious then your existence is pretty pale. The point of reviewing something is presenting an unbiased exposition so that people can make up their own minds. If you want to be critical that’s fine too, just call it a critique and not a review.
“Live music, Lectures and Classes are pointless unless they are real as the goodness of these things is wrapped up in their intense lucid actuality.”
You’re joking right? Let me guess you also don’t believe the sun has risen simply because it is daytime? So all the people earning their degree via an online educational institutions are what, just wasting their time? Whatever worth is taken from any lecture, class, concert or demonstration is what you gain from it. If you are determined to believe that you gain nothing from online instruction or from a virtual class room environment then you will never prosper from the growing trend of distance learning. If I learn how to make a paper airplane from a lecture and demo in Second Life that does not invalidate the data I received. That paper air plane still flies. If I attend a history lecture on the Crusades the knowledge I take away is no less than if I sat in a classroom listening to a professor speak from 20ft away. I admit that I would not want to take a massage class or a dance class in SL, but you may not disregard virtual education tools without painting yourself to be completely closed minded.
http://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Institutions_and_Organizations_in_SL#UNIVERSITIES.2C_COLLEGES_.26_SCHOOLS
Those rotating boxes are the lowest common denominator of guerilla sales. No wonder they are all that was noted or noticed. You did research right? I mean you opened up google and did a search on companies actually using Second Life or maintaining a presence in Second Life right? As for the economy well I am not going to point out that the Second Life housing market is in much better shape than the current issues caused by sub prime lending.
I really didn’t intend to get drawn into an argument about this. I even made a resolution to not give a rusty rat’s ass about what critics of SL think or print. If they do not spend any more time in SL that is great because that means there is one less judgmental ass I have to deal with on the grid. But Martha’s comment sort of pissed me off. Aggressive I may have been but none of the other.
I will continue to enjoy Second Life so it is moot. I will continue listening to live performers in Dublin, Ireland (I am on the west coast of the U.S.). I will continue to support programs like Relay for Life in SL. I will also continue to make friends enjoy their company and yeah be a total perv now and then.
There are none so blind as those who will not see.
Sorry for the typos in there, I was rushed.
Firstly,Pretentious jackass is not swearing, but If you had the urge to say that, how can you say you are not condescending? Secondly,slacker (in his article)was not being condescending, although he may have allowed his distaste to seep into the argument.
Thirdly,no actually, I am not a friend of slackers as such,however it is not relevant who I am.
Fourthly, since it is a favorite pastime of yours, could you not be biased, perhaps? And again you are assuming that I did not look at both sides equally, which I did. I could care less for the game myself, so therefore,I most likely can’t be biased.
Very well, I rescind my stmt. that he tore into you, but however, He was still a reviewer not a critic. But I couldent grasp from your post wether you thought critics a bad thing.
Oh, and are you saying that slacker is a liar? That since all he found was porn and other such distastful things, that that was all he was looking for?You are assuming again.
“Let me guess you also don’t believe the sun has risen simply because it is daytime?”
Now tell anyone that was not condescening. Really!
I’m not even going to get started on the rest
Mace:
“I even made a resolution to not give a rusty rat’s ass about what critics of SL think or print.”
Somewhat disingenuous of you to accuse me of bias no? In fact I would categorize such a statement as belonging to the category of a religious doctrine. You seem to have decided to categorically reject opposing viewpoints rather than defend your own.
As for that rubbish about the sun rising and setting: I’m not sure I follow your point, but I should point out that there is a difference between mere facts, such as electronic learning; and the arts, who wouldn’t prefer a live concert to a cd? “Live” music is not live on Second Life, its like listening to the radio.
Oh, and what, pray is the difference between a reviewer and a critic? Its irrelevant as you called me a reviewer, not a critic, in your first comment but I’d be interested in hearing the difference. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language defines them as materially the same thing.
That is the kernel of the whole dispute, it is not a dispute about Second Life per se but rather a dispute about ontology, the nature of being.
It is my contention that the “being-ness” of Second Life is deficient because it is not real, or tangible or actual. It is ephemera. Nothing in Second Life exists whatsoever. It is all fiction. All fiction is nothing more than reality seen through a scanner darkly and not real.
As for your assertion about porn? Well, let me just say that if you want to hurl insults at me rather than take apart my argument, fine; but let me remind everyone that empty vessels make the most noise.