Thing 1.4 Avatars (the good the bad and the ugly) 6-19-08

After spending many hours running around Second Life, I am actually quite disappointed given the hype.

I have played a number of on-line simulations that use avatars. although second life is akin to a wiki in that content is generated by the users. Generally the content is either:
1. cars and airplanes (note picture)
2. sex
3. violence
4. or world creation

Now, I will return to the "Good" but for now I must rant for a moment.

Because second life has this really really cool feature called fly. there is really no reason to have any other mode of transportation. There are no barriers to where you can go. So the fact that region after region people are designing cars and airplanes and jet skis is a bit crazy. The other reason why it is crazy is for the same reason I am angry about Sex and Violence.

The issue around sex region creation is an individuals right. The problem I have it that you often don't know that is what your getting into until you have "teleported" to that region. Additionally and quite frankly, if your going to have animated characters have sex you might as well have animated characters that are far more lifelike.

The next section is about violence. Now I have have dabbled in WoW but I have played some other Avatar rendered games quite extensively(The Witcher, Titan Quest, Never Winter Nights, Elderscrolls III & IV, Imperia, Fallen Sword etc). Why someone would make a world that allows tons of creativity and imagination and try emulate games of such extreme development in both how "combat" works as well as superior animation is just plane stupid. Not to mention some of those games (like NWN) give you a the capability of generating your own "adventures" not quite as open as Second Life but similar.

Where Second life shines, but it never really embraces is its ability to "transport" people to new cultures and places. I went to a virtual D.C. that was terrible. It had almost nothing to do with the real D.C. If I had the time I am beyond confident that I could make a better D.C.

However, because of the HUGE and open licensing surrounding Second life there is a ton of potential. Either those that are using it are just hard for newbies to find and/or have not really emerged into this new environment.

The best Secondlife region was the NPR second life site. they rocked! The meet every friday and discuss the issues and there are learning stations around the region. If more regions could have this focus and they could work better on the interface socond life could really become a frightening alternative to life. Gulp!

But for me... as much as I love playing with the many Avitars I have had in the past and... um... well present. I will always enjoy a good beer and discussion that I can actually taste, hear and touch the person in question.