Fiddling with Second Life
I downloaded Second Life yesterday and played with it some. I was impressed with how good it looked given the relatively small size of the installer. It must be doing some significant texture transfer in the background to flesh out the world, depending upon where you go to.
The application was easy to install and start running. Controls were fairly intuitive for someone familiar with FPS games, and even if you're not there was a great deal of easily accessible help. There were a few sample games near the starting point, including a 3D version of space invaders.
After familiarizing myself with the controls and environment, I teleported to the closest major server, apparently in Korea. I wandered around for a few minutes but didn't find much to do. I opened up the search screen and was able to move to a Washington-based server, which had a much fuller environment. I even found a few stores peddling virtual wares. I browsed the goods, and then asked myself the critical question: what now?
What now indeed. Second Life is a well executed environment modeled around the properties of our physical world, yet with liberties in personal appearance and navigation that make it much more convenient. Having said this, it still doesn't necessarily have a lot to offer me. I play computer games, watch TV, and travel for entertainment. Most of these activities are goal-based. Unfortunately Second-life doesn't appear to have a way of satisfying goals like these. It's like a MOO, an interactive mutable environment where you can add your own content and chat with friends. A virtual mall to hang out in, without the easily accessible fast food.
Second Life has gotten a lot of press lately, which would make you think there's millions of people wandering around in this virtual world, making tens of thousands of dollars if they choose to sell their handiwork. When I signed in, the welcome screen indicated a unique population of a few million accounts, 800,000 of which had logged in over the previous month. Not bad. On the other hand, I checked out their subscriber numbers from http://www.mmogchart.com/ based on data from July '06. It shows that about 125,000 users were willing to pay a bit of money each month to continue using the system, an important metric IMO. For the same period, World of Warcraft was showing 6.5 MILLION subscribers. Second Life isn't a game, and that probably contributes to the significantly lower user base.
Will Second Life sink or swim? For what it is, I think the developers and people participating have done a great job. BUT, it doesn't provide an experience I personally find compelling. I'm too goal-oriented, far better suited to an experience-based game-centered virtual world like World of Warcraft. Nowhere near the same freedom, but a fine platform for competition and entertainment, while still providing a way to get together with my buddies and chat.
If you've used Second Life or other virtual environments, I'd be very interested to hear what you think. Am I missing the point? And if you haven't tried it, it might be worth a peek. It only takes a few minutes to download, and it doesn't cost a cent to explore.
