Second Life :: Can I resist? February 22, 2007
Posted by kieslinger in : Uncategorized , trackbackNow I cannot resist anymore. I have to post some of my thoughts about Second Life. Everyone else is writing about it. A lot of people whose weblogs I am following are taking up the issue and even the regular print newspaper that I am reading has recently published a big article on it.
Some people from our iCamp consortium from the UPM in Madrid – I think it was Joaquín Salvachua, who told me about it – are even planing to give some lectures in Second Life.
So it seems that you HAVE to be there. However when I once decided to have a look at it and explored for myself I was bored very quickly. I suppose that I spent around 20 minutes or so in registering and creating my own avatar and then I started to walk around a bit and that was it. Maybe I did not stay there long enough to establish some social contacts or maybe it is because I am generally not much attracted by games.
What should not have come as a surprise (but somehow still did make me wonder) is the fact that the biggest business is again sex. It sells. Just like in real life and on the Internet. But why would I want to see avatars when I can have the same offers for the same money on dedicated websites involving real people?
Ok, I will not go into further details here. I just think that for me the same applies when it comes to social networking for other reasons, such as work related topics, sports, etc. For sharing my thoughts and establishing relationships over the Internet I would still prefer to get a real image of the person, read his/her weblog and have the chance for a real f2f meeting one day.
So for the moment I can resist, but I am interested in following this development and I am curious to find out more about the fascination of it.
However, if Second Life is not enough, there are some people already talking about Third Life (not to be confused with Third Age 
). A longer post on it e.g. can be found at Bryan Alexander’s weblog: http://infocult.typepad.com/infocult/2007/02/towards_third_l.html
Comments»
Barbara, Rather than try to make a comment here… I have commented on our blog at VTOReality.com I hope you will find it useful in forming your thoughts about Second Life. I personally believe Second Life is important in social networking in a way that is making the world smaller and will eventually help bring better understanding between cultures and thoughts.
Maybe a shorthand way of describing Third Life is “not so boring as Second can be”?
Heh – I like the Third Age joke.
I think it is an enormous shame that the popular places list, which is manipulated by the people in the sex and gambling industries, leads everyone to believe that this is all there is to Second Life.
Come with me and I will show you a Roman sim where an archaeologist has built a Roman city packed with information, where some avatars live as Patricians or slaves. A dystopian future sim where there are drone police bots which scan you and a whole undergroun to explore. A sim set up to support people who are suffering from physical or mental illness or are supporting someone else who is, which offers help and support and hope to people who may feel otherwise friendless. Whatever your interest in RL, you will find places in Second Life to reflect those interests, and you may find people from all over the world who share that interest. There is a wealth of creation and collaboration, a fund of interesting and challenging people, and so many variations on content that it is difficult to encompass it all in one comment. I find Second Life endlessly interesting and challenging – and I am a literate and intelligent person.
If you’d like someone to show you the other side of SL, I am more than willing to be your tourguide.