If you are a Second Life resident, you probably know about everything I’m going to rant about below. You can keep reading and maybe be amused, or offended, at my take on things. If you are not familiar with Second Life, then you might find something useful below. First thing you might learn, I’ll often refer to Second Life as SL. .Most residents do that.I have been reading up on Second Life again, and well, to put it frankly, I'm more than a bit annoyed. I became aware of second life around 2006. I work in the tech field and began to see articles about this strange new game that seemed to center around buying and selling land. Having never had the urge to be a realtor, I certainly felt no desire to play a game where I pretended to deal in real estate. And that was the extent of my understanding of SL thanks to our fine journalistic tradition of free and often incomplete and/or inaccurate information.
You see as a whole, I mostly don't like computer games. I find them too limiting. I can only solve a problem the way a programmer wanted me to do so. I see no point in pretending to kill things over and over. I have no problem with "pretend" violence in video games or movies. Most of my favorite movies have a significant body count. But the idea of killing and killing, only so that I can get better stuff to kill still more things so I can get better stuff to kill more things. Well, to me it gets boring very quickly.
Now you are thinking, well "you just don't like games." There you are wrong. I have been playing, on and off, table top RPGs and war games since I was in high school. Now you say, but that's the same! To me it is not. In a small group of friends playing an RPG there are specific personal reasons for your character to do things. At least in a good one. Things would not be the same if you suddenly replaced Zorka the Tasmanian Berserker with Shippley the sneaky thief with a heart of gold. For the most part, they would be, in a computer game.
So why am I annoyed? Because I have yet to see a single posting or article by anyone who is not a regular visitor to Second Life, who “got it.” Due to that, I didn’t try Second Life until after I saw it featured on a rerun of CSI: New York. This also happened to be a time in my life when I was laid up with an injury so I was finding it difficult to enjoy my “1st life” in all the ways I might normally do so. After seeing that episode of what is not anywhere near my favorite show, I hit Google and found sites that had postings by Second Life residents. The idea I could build my own content intrigued me, and I finally down loaded the client and tried it.
I was quickly blown away. I loved it. I was hooked my first visit. It wasn’t a game. It wasn’t a chat client. It’s not a social networking site. It’s not anything. It’s everything. It’s a virtual world. It’s a tool kit to make your own virtual “life” whatever you want it to be.
Notice I said “make.” Not be lead around by the nose till you are umtieth level and can kill anything you want with a flick of your very own epic uber super electro vorpal sword of vengeance. In fact, if I felt like having a epic uber super electro vorpal sword of vengeance in SL, in the time it takes you to hunt down and kill the necessary 100,000 critters in a multiplayer game I can learn the skills to make my own. Then use those same skills to make all sorts of things. I can keep them to myself, or give them away, or even see if anyone will buy them. Then I can do this neat thing where I exchange my time and skills for products made by other people with different skills. Very shortly I have all the epic stuff I never wanted. And maybe some nice shoes. If you like running around pretending to kill things, then go on! Do it! Have fun, but it is not my thing.
Many reviewers say that they get into Second life and:
- I couldn’t find anyone as I aimlessly explored.
- I had trouble finding anything interesting to do. (Other than weird sex stuff.)
- I find the interface clunky. Especially when you are trying to kill things.
- I don’t have the time to learn the skills to make things. After all, there are already a world full of things already made, why make more?
#1 I couldn’t find anyone as I aimlessly explored:
This is often accompanied with comments on how lost they felt and how lonely it was. They can’t imagine why anyone would enjoy this. Or, if they do stumble upon a gathering, they seem offended, as though there is some secret Second Life Masonic Lodge and since they were not members they weren’t getting invited to the fun.
Second Life’s land area is tremendous. And despite what Linden Labs claims about user numbers, I rarely see figures much beyond 50,000 concurrent users...Second Life sprawls. Things are big and spread out in some ways, and sometimes strangely compact. I think this stems from the fact that the owner of a shop selling shoes can be paying the same amount per square foot as the owner of a huge empty woodland park. Again, this comes down to “what you make of it.” That land used wasn’t either a shoe store, or a forest. The owner, or someone they hired, had to build what is now there. Building a forest sounds odd doesn’t it? This is counter intuitive to those of us who are newly come from dealing only with non-virtual real estate. In our physical world, development is costly and things that attract people tend to congregate. If you just randomly plonked down on Earth from space, odds are you’d end up a long way from anyone. There are ways to get around that, mostly with your enhanced “super” senses. In Second Life you have a built in GPS and Satellite spy camera. You can find clusters of people from “space.” Then using another super power, you can teleport directly to them. Or if you want, fly, walk, run, sail, crawl, bike, drive, etc.
As to the Masonic group. Well essentially yes, though not secret. Second Life Residents tend to form fluid little communities and interest groups. Centered around activities of common interest. The thing is, the vast majority (like 99%) of these groups welcome all comers. All kindred souls and even fellow travelers are given access to the groups events and notices.
#2 I had trouble finding anything interesting to do. (Other than weird sex stuff.):
I always feel like emailing back, “What did you stand there and wait for the dialog box from the quest giver to pop up and say something like, “The plague of pink toads has devastated your crop of smurt berries. Go to the High Pooba in the Temple of Umpla Lumpla, and seek guidance on how to turn the toads into fertilizer.” Once there of course you would be told to take your butter knife of smiting, the only weapon you own, and go kill all the woogles up the valley because they have a magic toad killing hammer.
Or not…
I’ll take the “Or not.” What if I just want to look around. See the cool builds and neat scenery. Listen to music. Chat with people in clubs while I listen to said music and have my avatar dance its digital ass off. Or go find some gosh darn woogles and mow them down with my Uzi, then go find some pink toads and teach them the meaning of high explosive? Can you say, “C4.”
In short, you have to decide on your own what to do. Then find it. Sometimes it’s easy, sometimes it’s hard. Think of it as a quest from your own internal quest giver.
As to the sex part. Sure. Recently, about the time I got involved, Linden Labs forced all the “Adult” content providers to move to a new continent called Zindra, within the already “Adult” grid. I hate to tell you this, but adults are interested in sex. Maybe even more than shoes or music. I know I am, shoes and music are for the times in between sex.
This doesn’t mean I spend all my time on Zindra doing the wild thing. It just means when I’m in Zindra, or on a privately owned Adult island, I let it all hang out and have that kind of fun. When I am in a more staid and stogy setting, I do that. When in Rome as they say. The way I look at it, more reasons to have different kinds of nice clothes.
Does this make SL sleazy? Not in my opinion. It makes it open, honest and tolerant. People can be and do things here, in company with other like minded adults, that they might be shunned for in their “1st Life.” Or that might cause serious negative repercussions to their health, family, social standing or career.. They can do things that they fantasize about but can’t or won’t do in their 1st life. Some will argue that’s unhealthy and dangerous. If that’s true, then we better put a stop to all those other video games that promote shooting, killing, stabbing, smiting and other such activities.
There are lots of things to do by yourself, or with others. And the search engine provided by Linden Labs does suck, so use the web to find event calendars. More on that later.
#3 I find the interface clunky. (Especially when you are trying to kill things):
The interface is clunky. But you get used to it, and you can tweak it considerably. There are 3rd party viewers, HUDs and other add-ons that change things. Most of them free. Most game controls seem kind of artificial and clunky to me, but then I don’t play video games much. I would make the assumption that if you spend lots of time in driving games, or shooters, or whatever, that certain conventions have become common. Well, SL can be any of those, but is not made specifically for it, so you get a compromise interface. If you really want to change it, do so. It’s all open source.
I am not saying it could not be improved. I tend to use 3rd party viewers, HUDs and other add-ons to help ease doing the things I do the most often. Which I would guess is why it is a bit clunky to start with. Since the interface must be capable of being used in nearly any conceivable fashion, any sort of change to improve any one part, may very well negatively impact another part. All things to all people solutions are never prefect. But at least in this case, you can seriously individualize things as you learn how.
#4 I don’t have the time to learn the skills to make things. After all there are already a world full of things already made, why make more?:
I am not going to sugar coat my reaction to this, but I don’t mean to be disrespectful. If you feel that way about SL, go play WoW, EQ or one of the many online games. Or find another virtual world, there are several, perhaps one will better suit you.
To me Second Life is a celebration of creativity and learning. I like to learn things. And by being in SL I am learning things that are useful in many ways in SL, and in some cases, beyond SL. For comparison, once you master the interface of most games, how much do you, as a person actually learn? Your character in Wow, EQ, etc. will learn new skills and abilities. But you don’t really do that. I have learned a tremendous amount about how 3D objects are rendered on a 2D screen. I’ve learned to make effective 2D textures for 3D surfaces. I have learned how to make virtual 3D objects. I’ve learned the basics of CGI animation. I’ve learned to build things inside SL. I’ve learned about art, history, other cultures, fashion and even some new sex things I never imagined! And yes, I’ve learned about a lot of new music from the DJs at various parties and clubs.
And I guess the last thing about making more, is sharing. In SL you can share your creatively with the other residents, helping them to explore and enrich their lives. Hopefully, both of them.
To sum up:
- SL is not a quest filled RP game. It can be, but it won’t be as slick as the purpose made ones.
- SL is not a chat client. But it can be, and one that lets you combine other media pretty seamlessly into a 3D virtual space at the same time.
- SL is not a social networking site. But SL is a place where like minded individuals can literally build a community that suits them, and pursue their specific interests in ways superior to Facebook. But it will never be as good a social networking site as Facebook, because again, it is not purpose made for that.
- SL is not a cyber sex site, though you can do that.
- SL is a not a music streaming system, but you can do that.
- SL is not a <insert word here>, but you can do that.
The camel’s nose of a new large user created virtual realm is in the tent, as soon as I can figure out how, I am intending to get outside and kick his butt in here with us. Hope you’ll join me in that effort. I will not be sad when Linden Lab’s Second Life grid is just one of many virtual worlds that I can visit. But I will always give them a nod for opening that door, however partially and imperfectly, for me.
For final satirical and hopefully humorous effect, below is my review of an unnamed massive multi-player online game. I spent about an hour messing about in it one night, so like many other folks, I now consider myself fully qualified to render a complete report.
Wow Was Not My Reaction
Their advertisements say 10 million people can’t be wrong. Ever hear of a place called Nazi Germany? I think that history proves any number of people can be wrong. I downloaded the client and fired it up. All pretty simple to do. You have to set up an account, and if you intend to play for more than a few days you have to give them a credit card or something because there is a significant monthly fee. It’s around $20 USD. For that I could upgrade to the deluxe cable and watch ESPN or HBO whenever I wanted. Seems a lot to ask for yet another game where you waste hours and hours running around killing things. Just so you can run around in that game killing things better. And if you switch games, you have to start all over!
Once the client is running you have to setup a character. You pick a race, pretty much the same old ones. Though there is an interesting new race that looks kind of like a satyr or demon that is included. I picked a purple elf. You only have about half a dozen looks really, and no real choices about starting equipment. I chose a female look, it was rather racily clad in a ragged form fitting clothes. You couldn’t chose something more austere, or make your character really ugly.
Once you have your character setup you rez into a forest. You can’t attack the other elves, I wanted to, they all looked like me. And I hate showing up someplace having the same look as someone else! After wandering about a bit, one of them told me I needed to go kill a bunch of boars for some bogus reason. I wandered around killing boars that seemed to endlessly wonder the same repeating path for a while. I found it very boring. So I logged out.
I really don’t see what all the fuss is about. The graphics are OK, but nothing spectacular. There is no freedom in the game. You have to follow set courses of action to accomplish anything. And the fashions, horrible! So, I’m thinking, maybe those ten million people are just tired of cable and not very imaginative.
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