SL to be bigger than World of Warcraft within 2 years...

Says Cory...

http://news.com.com/Second+Life+Dont+worry,+we+can+scale/2100-1043_3-6080186.html?tag=nefd.lede

Man, get your businesses going now, cause its gonna be a wild ride.

Well. We're already for porn. So we're mostly there.

In terms of servers, I wouldn't be surprised if SL wasn't already the biggest, or at least nearing there very soon. Certainly, it's the largest in terms of total content.

It's also on Digg now.
http://www.digg.com/gaming/_Second_Life_:_Don_t_worry,_we_can_scale_2

Read some of the comments there. I swear, every time SL is mentioned in the mass media there are always two comments that show up in abundace:

1) Just get a real life!
2) That game sucks!

Somehow, LL and/or the SL community needs to do a better job educating the general public on what exactly Second Life is and why someone would participate in it. These are exactly why a lot of people hate it when SL is called a game. It sets a false expectation.

Indeed, most people expect games to be playable.

Much of WoW's popularity is due to the Blizzard connection worldwide. They created an easily-mastered, attractive game with emphasis on group adventure and hit over 1.5 million subscriptions late last year.

Somehow I don't see Second Life as much of a threat to that, simply because SL just is not a "game" in the true sense of the word. That, and we need a better UI.

That's not much of a challenge. In 2 years, people will be tired of WoW

Yeah, WoW II will be coming out and everyone will be migrating to that. Cory was being kind of tricky.

That being said, the point is a good one. SL updates itself, whereas Blizzard has to re-invent themselves.

I think that the comments like "SL sucks" are good right now. It lets the community grow organically and create a culture that new people will come into. Where if all of a sudden we have 1 million new players in a week period, then there would be massive newbness, strain on existing resources, and disatisfaction from the new players.

In 2 years, you won't be hearing comments like "the graphics look like they're from 1997" which isnt true but characterizes the impression.

Give people time to discover SL, and we'll be ready when they come.

In two years you will need a large IBM mainframe just to log into SL if the current rate of throwing out low end users is any indication to follow.

WoW 2= expansion you mean?

If so,I'm not holding my breath. WOW only needs purposeful outdoor PvP,and sadly all the current patches (before I quit last Sunday,2 days back. Was a 60 rogue.) focused on PvE. The expansion needs a significant intake of outdoor PvP,or else the WOW exodus begins. There's a lot of long-term discontent about the lack of outdoor PvP. And the battleground PvP tournies...what a joke. They trying to fight Guild Wars on that one. How pathetic.

(BATTLEGROUNDS DO NOT COUNT BY ANY MEANS,THEY ARE A STATIC,BORING PVE GRIND AND A SHAM OF PVP!!! Nice as an aside to outdoor PvP,but not as the main.)

It's why I quit. No meaningful outdoor PvP.
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SL and WOW are two different things.
SL is a sandbox. WOW is a PvE-oriented MMO.

At the rate that SL is getting more involved in the real world,one day people will use SL as like the next version of a chatroom. Like a Myspace with the added 3D and creativity bonus. (minus the stupidity factor of Myspace.) It offers more than MMO's ever could.
Of course,at this moment in time people would still continue to play MMO's and SL,for both have pluses and minuses.

Conclusion: SL > WOW comment in 2 years is ambitious,and probably true. By 2 years WOW will be dead. From the continued lack of outdoor PvP. But by then Blizzard will be onto their next project.