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Old 24th July 2007, 03:00 AM   #1
Wiggles
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Default Second Life

Anybody here "play" second life?

I'm getting mixed reviews.

Whats it like?
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Old 24th July 2007, 01:36 PM   #2
lisa
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Default Re: Second Life

I love Second Life. I use it both for recreation and, increasingly, for business. Cisco and several other companies have been simu-casting their tradeshow seminars, so while I can't afford that much travel in real-life, this lets me attend the lecture and network with other people in the industry, which has been really great.

I've also made a lot of friends, and had some pretty interesting adventures--from being rescued out of the ocean by a giant starship; to finding a mushroom forest through a rabbit hole in a futuristic china town; to fending off a midnight robbery by firing a couch out of a circus cannon. I've made so many crazy things too, like a lawn chair with rockets on it that you take take to space and watch the jellyfish.

Plus, if you're a good artist or coder, you can make a good bit of money at it. It makes my car payment every month, a Scion XB which I have an exact duplicate of in-world--sold by the real Scion on their Second Life island. On top of what I do personally, my company also recently starting doing custom builds. It's certainly not true for everyone--I know *many* people who make almost nothing--but I personally know several people who make a few thousand dollars a month just on item sales. One of my virtual neighbors makes enough he went "full time".

Of course, I'd be lying to say it's all roses: the client is buggy as all get-out, the frame rate\lag is always terrible, and there are a lot of weirdos out there too. There are parts of Second Life that make the internet look like it's never heard of smut, so you have to be careful where you're going. It's a lot like any big city, where there are nice parts of town and shady parts of town. Also, for all the amazing wonders--of which there are many--a great lot of the place is an urban wasteland, since not everyone is a gifted artist. The grid is too big to walk anymore--about eight times the size of Manhattan, according to Reuters--so if you want to find the good stuff, it's helpful if you can hook up with some people who know where they are going.

Basically, you get out of it whatever you want to put into it. If you like making things, exploring, dancing, or talking with people, then you'll probably get a lot out of it. SL really caters to people who like to be creative, which is why I like it so much. If you're looking for a beat-em-up or a pure gaming environment, however, you're probably better off with WoW.

SL is free to make an account. The free accounts aren't limited in any way except that you can't own land, and even then if you want to build you can always go to a public sandbox... why don't you just try it yourself to see if you like it?
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Old 24th July 2007, 01:54 PM   #3
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Default Re: Second Life

I asked because, they seem to try to suck you in with delusions of grandeur.

One bad thing I heard is that, when you join, people will greet you and try to entice you to the bad parts of town, lol. Kind of like a popup ad, only in people form.

Seems like that would drive customers for your business away.
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Old 24th July 2007, 03:55 PM   #4
lisa
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Default Re: Second Life

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wiggles View Post
One bad thing I heard is that, when you join, people will greet you and try to entice you to the bad parts of town, lol. Kind of like a popup ad, only in people form.
Uuugh. For sure. There are people who stalk the welcome areas looking for noobs who don't know any better. The Lindens and guides discourage it, but there's not a lot they can do. Like any big city, tourists and new people are always targets for crime.

The people stalking the welcome areas will also try to entice new players with promises of good camping. There are safe enough places to camp, but a lot of them are scams. Camping is a strange SL phenomena. Basically, you know how Google ranks sites based on their popularity? SL does the same thing, so people figured out that if they paid people a few pennies an hour to sit on their property, it would artificially increase their seach ranking. They've done things since to discourage the practice, but when camping was at it's worst, I actually walked into a casino where one whole wing was walls of oblong body pods filled with hundreds of people lying inside them camping. Most of the people were AFK, so they weren't even talking, they were just renting their body to the casino. It was like something out of The Matrix, very creepy.

Still, if you can make it past the welcome area, there's a whole lot of neat stuff out there. I can post some landmarks (bookmarks) if you like.
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Old 25th July 2007, 12:31 AM   #5
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Default Re: Second Life

That would be good

I have zero creativity. Maybe I can be inspired
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Old 25th July 2007, 05:01 AM   #6
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Default Re: Second Life

I'd love to share! Here's a few of my favorites--which I now sheepishly notice are all sci-fi places --but I have plenty of other bookmarks if you are interested in something in particular.

[I'm breaking this into multiple posts so I can put pictures, which are always much better than words. ]
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Old 25th July 2007, 05:02 AM   #7
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Default Devil's Moon

Devils Moon (193, 156, 250)
This is one of my favorite sims. I've seen everything a bit of everything here, my favorite being souped-up import cars have an "illegal" street race. In a back alley, you can talk to A.L.I.C.E., an artificially intelligent "chatterbot" who answers your questions--very reminiscent of Ask Dr. Know from the movie AI. Outside one of the shops is a stack of cardboard boxes. If you sit on one of them, you'll be teleported below the city where you can find a mysterious gypsy village and other wonders.



Last edited by lisa; 25th July 2007 at 05:10 AM.
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Old 25th July 2007, 05:03 AM   #8
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Default Svarga

Svarga (10, 122, 22)
Svarga is an A-life sim full of interacting plants and animals. You can feed the birds, hunt for owls and watch the bees buzz around pollinating flowers. While you're there, you can also visit the ambipod, a dream-like sound experience, or add your own sounds to the group music experience at the whisper box.
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Old 25th July 2007, 05:04 AM   #9
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Default Nexus Prime

Gibson (192, 232, 106)
The city is nice enough, but the real fun is underneath the city in an endless maze of sewer tunnels, where the only thing more twisted and confusing is the conspiracy within. A maze of notes and journal entries unravels the tale of those who dwell there.
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Old 25th July 2007, 05:05 AM   #10
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Default Independent State of Caledon

Caledon (184, 182, 23)
Caledon is a 19th century victorian steampunk community. This is a large build that spans several sims. Ride the train, visit the museum or read a discussion of Browning Philosophy in the library.
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