Wow, media finally got SL's desciption right!

Grats Mark Wallace on being the first major media to accurately describe SL in terms common non-geeks can understand:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/21/arts/21wall.html

"Visiting Second Life is not unlike entering a multiplayer game like World of Warcraft or the Sims Online. Colorful creations of all shapes and sizes fill a 25-square-mile landscape, and thousands of other players can be found to talk to and interact with. But instead of competing, as folks do in most online games, the residents of Second Life spend their time socializing, sightseeing or even constructing the virtual airplanes, mansions, museums, sailboats, boutiques and more that fill the landscape."

Here's a version of that link that should circumvent the dreaded registration requirement:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/21/arts/21wall.html?ex=1282276800&en=4cecb07d743c8365&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

I'm wrapping up some code for the event which should allow people visiting the cancer.org web site and chat with folks in world at the event site. Its working pretty smoothly and we'll put it through a full test today.

Of course, no guarantees on it functioning when the sim gets down to 2 sim fps.

Regards,

-Flip

Thanks... the link works one minute ... then they archive it and BAM! No link.

The article says people in SL don't compete?

And you think that somebody finally got it right?

coco

I think he was just comparing it to games like WoW, where competition is the only reason why people log on

I guess so, lol. I'm apparently a formidably competitive person myself, and for SURE this game is full of competition! Just look at all our signatures!

coco

P.S. I haven't played WOW. But TSO is less competitive than SL, by far and away.

You mean the references to store locations? I think that's mostly advertising. Perhaps it's a competition game for some but I think there are many many content creators who create just because they want and need to; not necessarily because they want to compete with others. It's certainly not my motivation.

Nice article and fantastic effort by Second Life relay, I fully applaud the organizers for this.

The only thing I disagree with the article is its last sentence:

" The only things they won't find there, fittingly, are serious diseases - or virtual oncologists. "

I wouldn't be so sure hehe

It's not my motivation either. One of the things I've always loved about SL is how it's so non-competitive. One need only look at the new products forum to see people who should be "competitors" cheering each other on.

Before we get too far down this road, and I get accused of burning babies at the stake, let me clarify that I understand the purpose of the article was to highlight the charity event, because that's neat.

What I take issue with is this part:

"Visiting Second Life is not unlike entering a multiplayer game like World of Warcraft or the Sims Online. . . But instead of competing, as folks do in most online games, the residents of Second Life spend their time socializing, sightseeing or even constructing the virtual airplanes, mansions . . ."

That doesn't get it at ALL right. If anything the competition is keener here due to the real-life money at stake.

You can have several motivations for creating content:

. creating because you must create (because it's there, and possible, like a mountain to climb)

. creating to bring pleasure and/or knowledge to others

. creating to bring pleasure and/or knowledge to oneself

. creating in order to provide a service to others

. creating to compete with others on the market

. creating for personal recognition and kudos

. and creating to earn real life money.

These motivations are not mutually exclusive. In real life, I can and do create for all those reasons simultaneously.

In SL, I can and do create for all but the last reason simultaneously.

In any case, competition - including the advertising portion of it - is a huge and obvious component to this game.

And that is the point which I believe the writer of the article has wrong.

coco

P.S. Chip - cheering one another on doesn't mean there is an absense of competition. That sort of attitude would imply there isn't room for anyone else. In real life, as in the game, I not only cheer others on, I help them along, and I enjoy their creations. Doesn't mean I'm not competitive, though.

While SL has an air of competition in some aspects, it pales in comparasin to that of EQ, WoW or L2 for example.

In EQ, racing guilds to named spawns, flags through 3 elemental planes, numerous gates and epic quests.......makes SL competition look benign.

I guess so, if you're talking about teaming up, like a sports competition. I haven't played any of those. I've played Anarchy Online, but didn't team up on it (due to the fact that I couldn't even see things, having my settings wrong, until somewhere around about level 42). And then TSO. I'm thinking more about individual competition - including competing with oneself.

coco

You got all the way to level 42 without being able to see?

*shrug*

It's really a personal thing. We all sort of mold SL into what we want it to be for ourselves. I tend to think the writer was pretty accurate from where I'm standing. But then, i'm not here to "win" SL.

Yeah! It was ridiculous! Well, I could see, but only six feet in front of me. People kept saying, "Do you know how to move? You seem to have difficulty moving."

No, I'd say - I move just fine. Later, of course, I realized they were referring to how often I'd bump into stuff.

Then one day I got a new computer, and discovered that you could see things, and also that there were settings that could be changed to enable seeing things better. I went to my old computer, changed the settings, and sure enough, I could see.

This is one reason I'm so big on them making clear how to set the settings on SL - cause I would have plain QUIT here, since with the wrong settings, here I really couldn't move. Or better, what that guy suggested, about changing the default settings to lowest.

Well by the time I got to where I could see in AO, I was amazed at all the stuff there, and how EASY it apparently was for everybody else! I had spent my first few months earning my way up to maps so I could navigate by them - ROFL.

Ok, so there I am at level 42 or whatever, and super pissed off. I had never done any team work, because I couldn't see how anybody COULD, lol. Now here I was at level 42, and no experience at teaming.

Now I could see the landmarks others referred to as if I should know them. Etc. etc. etc. I guess it was a good experience in what blind or visually-challenged people must go through in the real world, I don't know.

I managed to continue on through level 60-something, but the joy in it was gone. Things were too easy now, and it was kinda too late to start teaming with anyone of similar level. Plus the feeling of being super pissed-off about it never really went away. So I quit.

coco

Lol, Ingrid! I guess I AM here to win SL! But I always mean to win everything. I think that's what I mean when I describe myself as a competitive person.

It took years to realize it, in fact. I don't FEEL competitive; never did. But I finally grasped that not everybody goes about things with the determination to get to the top of whatever it is, whether it's running a Welcome Lot in TSO or learning all you can about, say, diabetes, and writing the penultimate article on it. I finally figured out that that translates as "competitive."

Then again, competition isn't a bad word, or a bad thing.

But I do think it is an individual thing. Lots of competitions within anything - say within SL - I have no desire to win, or even compete. They just aren't my bag. When I take part in any of them, it's strictly for fun. But the things I am interested in, whatever it may be at the time, I do want to "win."

And what I am trying to win is something more along the lines of what I am trying to accomplish for my own pleasure, rather than any connotation of trying to beat out anybody else. There's room for all.

But part of that, too, is competitive. Because it's different building a house on Sims 2, where no other human being is around to see it, and building something in an online game with a lot of other people around, and you can even sell it. Sims 2 has no competitive element. On the other hand, the competitive element in SL actually helps SL be all that it can be.

coco

Hey, Hiro! I didn't see this thread until just now. Thanks for the kind word. And great to meet you this weekend.

Cheers!

Likewise!

And that's your que to not want them in SL... I'm not a bigot about it, but if they are that deep in the ditch of needing to have entertainment handed to them, then...

Let's say no-one would be happy when that kind get's bored.