Time to drop "Second Life" as the name for this place?

""wouldnt we do better as individuals to face up to our problems engaging with each other than just trying to come up with alternatives? and the people having problems with "real life"..""

The internet allows us to interact with thousands of people many, many thousands of miles away, and meet new people we would never meet by just bumping into people on the street.

There is no "right" way to meet and interact with people.

And immersing yourself into a fantasy means you have problems with real life? Well, I guess we'd better do away with literature then.

Musuko.

I think Second Life is just the first example of what one can do with Linden Lab's software platform. Much like Nova Albion was one of the first examples of a city in Second Life. It's an example that helps us see the possibilities and we can use it as a guide to eventually create our own grid. I think there will be many different/separate grids someday and Second Life will be just one of them. The first one. And there will be options to link to or travel between them, if desired.

Second Life will continue to grow as long as there is a desire for folks to be in this particular grid. I don't mind their name for this place. This world had another name before the Lindens got here and, perhaps, will be known by another name at some point in future.

The Sandbox

Lets use cryptic runes instead of a name, and refer to it as "The platform (formerly known as SL)"

Linden Lab will not rename Second Life.

The name is fine...and it's already "out there"....
rebranding takes time....money...wastes the press already garnered, and is not needed.

I'm not discounting role players. There are lots of roleplayers and there are lots of non-roleplayers. And all kinds of other players. The name should reflect more.

Really?

Rebranding is a risky venture.

Maybe if/when LL takes SL to a new level and completes what is essentially a huge R&D project, they'll rename it?

That's another rant.

To address the negative comments from those who are turned off by the name... sadly, it won't matter what name you give something, someone is going to insult it because they don't understand it. Countless MMORPGs are out there, all with different names, and you will always be able to find someone who will stick their nose in the air and scoff, claiming that anyone who plays it more than an hour a day should totally like, get a life. Sure, the name will be a first line of defense to combat these kinds of people.. but.

People have been living second lives for centuries. To sugar something up for the acception of the masses, because it's "online", is to deny what makes us human. That's kind of a melodramatic way of putting it. It's just that social discrimination has been fashionable for a while now.

The name is fine.

I think SL 2.0 should just be named "Secondlifetaverse"

Hmm, maybe to minimize on branding keep the SL acronym.

How bout' Sans Life, Se Li, Source Linden, Special Lava, Spectacular Lamp, Sweet Lovin'?

But what?[/QUOTE]

ZOMGWTFBBQ

Question: What is SL being called in foreign markets like Korea and Germany?

Of course you do.

While I understand your reaction to the kinds of comments being made, I would not be too quick to try changing the name just to head off the inevitable admonition to "get a life" (shouted with the same thick-knecked enthusiasm that self-styled rustic wits once enthusiastically bellowed "Get a horse!".

How often are many of us told to "Get a life?"

It seems to be a standard comment that the narrow-minded demographic among the population loves to vomit forth with remakable regularity. Far too many are inclined to do so every time they encounter someone who enjoys putting a substantial investment of time and attention into some activity or interest that is different from what appeals to them.

The guy who plays basketball at the neighborhood court all weekend, the gamer who fatihfully serves his guild until 3 AM every night, the woman who volunteers at the soup kitchen every chance she gets, the politcal blogger who posts comments on every rumor and event as it transpires, the old gent who whittles duck decoys, the amateur mechanic who spends all her leisure time restoring vintage motorbikes, the Civil War enthusiast who shoulders his musket and puts on an itchy wool uniform every weekend to go reenact battles and sleep under a leaky shelter half, the runner who is up every morning before dawn training for her next race...

...every one of these folks is told at some point--often ad nauseum:

"Dude, you have got to get a life."

Or perhaps, "Holy#$@*ingdog%&*^ondrywhitetoast! you SO need to get laid!"

And of course all of these people are individuals who actually have lives...rich and interesting lives that they enjoy, and who by their very nature add to the vitality and complexity of our society (and yes, many of them actually are getting laid with shocking consistency).

The same is equally true for people who invest their creativity and time and enthusiasm in an activity like SL--a thing that is relatively new, and admittedly at times somewhat obtuse, particualry to people who are used to living out their lives within a more conventional intellectual context.

And please don't misunderstand me--there is nothing wrong with living one's life within that conventional context and deriving enjoyment from the more commonly accepted pastimes that apparently predominate in the mass culture. But those pastimes simply are not for everyone, and engaging in them or caring about them--even if you care about them passionately--does not give one the privelege of denigrating the people who spend their time fixing old motorcyles, carving decoys, or participating in SL.

In fact, I suspect it is that category of newer and more obtuse activities like SL that can be a catalyst for the evolution of society and potentially change people's lives in subtle and interesting ways.

But I digress...

...given that no one really has a right to tell anyone else to "get a life" or that their way of enjoying their precious spare time is less valid or valuable, let's put that discussion aside for now. Let's consider if changing the name of Second Life might have any positive impact on growth of the platform.

I'm not sure that it would. SL isn't for everyone. Yes there are lots of different ways to enjoy and interact with the platform and its people--and certainly new ways are continually being discovered or invented all the time. But some people simply do not have the curiosity or the cultural/intellectual context to enter an experiment like this and appreicate it. Even with a different name, would SL be any more attractive to such folks? Or are they happier sticking with other pasttimes? That's fine if they do, becasue arguably, they simply just aren't going to get it.

Of course, many of these same folks then feel compelled to post in the comment section of some online article, or message board or whatever, saying that people who do not spend all their spare time watching pro football or rigging elections for fun and profit should have their heads examined and their bowels purged. It's inevitable--one simply has to let such commentary roll off one's back.

Anyway, I suspect a name change probably would not lure these folks in to give the wheel of SL life a spin, or to see how they can do at prim-fiddling. For that to happen, it would seem that the change that has to take place is a change inside the heads and hearts of the people who usually reject new ideas and experiences out of hand, rather than in the name of the platform. And that kind of change does not happen easily.

An entirely different issue is whether or not changing SL's name might have some positive impact on the internal evolution of the platform, rather than in its numerical growth from outside sources. This might especially be true if the residents were directly invovled in developing and approving a new name--it could be an interesting exercise to get them to think of how the platform has changed since its inception and where it could be going. Could the thought processes that might go into such an exercise encourage some residents to think about what to experiment with next, or how they might interact differently with their fellow residents?

I remember some dubbing "SL" as "Esselle". What's more, other names don't sound so silly because people have gotten used to them. Internet. Wha? Why the heck do I have to be inside a net? World Wide Web? Huh?? Are spiders taking over the planet?

As long as a name, no matter how silly it is, is used with a great deal of confidence and persistence, it has great probability for success if it's memorable. Multiple proof: anime and numerous video game titles. No, Final Fantasy doesn't make sense because it's neither 1) pornographic (fanart aside) and 2) it's not the last of them. They're going up to, what, XIII soon?!

The "get a life" thing is a RRL = Really Redundant Loop. More cliched than a cliche. "Yeah, get a life? I have two of 'em!"

I know some people are satisfied with one life, but not me. I'm so awesome that one life just isn't enough!

I like the name Second Life. It's snappy. People are going to pick on us no matter what the product is called, so bring it on beyotches.

Ingrid, those coffin nails you're smoking are going to kill you (and thus return you to your home location).

ElvaLand!!! plants her flag and claims it

That's an extremely healthy way of looking at it, Pol. In fact, I imagine for many of the folks here, SL probably counts as at least their third or fourth life. Just one more oddly colored string in the rich and complex tapestry of your existence, so to speak.

In honor of World of Warcraft, we could always call it World of Primcraft.

Other possibilities are numerous:

Poseballworld
Ansheland
EverLife
Primworld
FICfortress
SLexworld


German: Zweites Leben
Korean: "Waaaa why can't we farm gold?"

An earlier thread on the same subject.

Looking back, I'm kinda partial to "Frame Rate Follies."

For the amount of time and effort it would take to change EVERYTHING that they have "Second Life" on and for the additional money they'd have to spend on marketing a new name. It's just not profitable for them to even consider changing the name of SL to something else.

Besides.. who cares what others think about those of us who play SL. My entire family and most my friends think I'm nuts and can't grasp the concept of living a "second life" online and having ACTUAL friends in a game.

I know who I am in RL and I know what I have with SL... if someone things bad about me for it.. they can bite my bum.

I don't really but I do wonder about how many people write it off before even trying it based on the name. A cool name can do wonders for a product. "Second Life" just isn't very cool at all.

I don't really but I do wonder about how many people write it off before even trying it based on the name. A cool name can do wonders for a product. "Second Life" just isn't very cool at all.