I'm About to try There

I spent two hours on There last night, my first try at it. And I have to say that I find Second Life to be a MUCH nicer experience.

A few observations about There and how it compares to SL:

There's world is HUGE. I wandered around for most of my two hours, at first on foot, but then I found an abandoned dune buggy and later a hoverboard. I also tried a jetpack for a bit, but lost it when I fell through a building. (Yeah: bug.) The problem is... It's TOO big. It was 15 minutes before I wandered across another person (who had that green visor thing on, which meant he wasn't paying attention). Most of the time I was in barren wilderness of one type or another. Empty hills or random-scattered trees. It would be impossible to find other people WITHOUT using There's immersion-breaking tools. (More on those in a bit.) And the land textures! What a joke! The terrain looks like someone drizzled paint from 20,000 feet. Heck, even the water is painted-on. Go ahead, take your dune buggy for a spin on the ocean. You might fish-tail a bit... Traction on the water isn't very good. Believable, no? (No!)

Second Life handles its size much better. More land is added ONLY as it is needed. So you don't have vast distances between people. And even THEN, with flying you can get around so much faster than any car or board. You also get a better concept of the lay of the land from an altitude. And the textures are so much more believable in SL. (I'm talking about the arrangement and blending, not quality of the textures here. I know There is supposed to be "cell shaded". Ug. So overdone.) And the water in SL isn't painted on. (I still can't believe that about There...)

And what's with this psudo web page crap in There? Click for more information about something and your game screen is covered by a fake web browser! What?!? They need to simulate the WEB too? Talk about your immersion-breaking... After the first few of these pop-ups, I avoided clicking any choice that seemed likely to rip me from the game like that.

And There's chat system... MAN, was that annoying. Text balloons over avatar's heads bob upwards as they type new messages. If you are just walking past a group of avatars talking, their balloons are transparent, so it's hard (but NOT impossible at all) to read what they are saying. I can understand doing this when the group is far away, but NOT if you are standing right next to them! Those see-through balloons make it seem people are whispering so you can't hear... But you can. Gives it an insulting taint.

Oh, and everyone I saw in There was doing one of two things: chatting in tight little bunches (why not just use IRC, people?), or driving aimlessly around the empty terrain. Mmmm... Fun!

They can have There. I'll stay Here.

I tried There awhile back and lasted abt 30 mins. I reapplied since I got rid of it and have no memory of my prior name or pw. We should plan an invasion.. sounds great! I'm just waiting for my email. Hope it doesnt take 2 months hehe I dont want to miss the fun!

I'll come; who should I look for?

one of us may have to get you in...

hehehe.....tried getting on There just now........lookie!!!


We limit Public Beta hours so we can incorporate user suggestions and fix bugs. Thanks for helping us make There even better!


Normal operating hours for There Beta:

There World and Registration: 5 p.m. - 11 p.m. PST Wed-Suns
There Forums: 24 hours ( go to Forums now )


Please come back and visit us then!! In the meantime, check out our screenshot gallery at www.There.com!

Questions? Contact: [email]help@there.com[/email]


Go now!

well.....i went......27 clicks later in the "Buzz" forum...i still couldnt get outta Feburary's Posts.....Darwin...thier Forum set up would drive you to Pull out all your nose hairs................dont GO THERE!!!!

Too late. AND I POSTED AND GODDAMMIT I CANT FIND MY FARKING POST!!!

Ok I feel better now.

Anywho, if you go in there look for Nick5 (<Butters impression>That's me!</Butters impression>.

Post your There names here, and we'll all go in to raid and convert at 5:30 PM PST. We'll pick a spot, teleport there, and try to play missionary LOL

And don't worry about There-heads ( ) coming in here to convert... they're too stupid.

David-

I was lucky/early enough to score the name "Justice" in There.

See you...um...There!

Anyone else coming?

-J

I'm reminded of a Sesame Street sketch where Bert wanted to be 'there', but as soon as he got there, he found he was 'here'... no matter how many times he tried.

Recruiting aside, I think we are all much better of 'here'

I'm not even going to bother taking a look at it! Good luck with the recruiting chaps!

Hey look, they have forums.

http://forums.prod.there.com/

Ohhh man am I feeling evil...

-J

Haha ok this time we're going to do my team bit except with There names!


TEAM:
Nick5
Justice
David_Cartier

Anyone else?

REMEMEBER: 5:30 PM PST

Darwin,

Where'd you get the 5:30pm stuff?

I don't know if I'll be able to make that. I had originally suggested tomorrow morning at 9am PDT. David suggested he could make that. Will you be able to?

-J

I'm not awake at 9AM.

Are you east-coasters?

I'm David_Cartier there, too. Will look for you, lol. last night I was on the periphery of a chat where they were discussing "Luring in new members"; I almost suggested they try to convert in SL, figuring we'd end up hooking them!

Heh, well There opens at 5PM... 5:30 is a cool number

Is later good? Or early mornings? I like 9PM PST, that would be uber-cool.

5:30 is good for me; can't play much later than 10PST if I don't want to look any more like a zombie at work, tomorrow!

LOL alright then. 5:30 it is.

Ugh, now I'm the odd man out!

I'll see if I can make the 5:30pm tonight, but if I do it won't be for more than 30-60 mins.

If anyone can make the 9am tomorrow, though, that would be swell, too.

-J

Sounds cool

I will be there at 900 PST tomorrow as well, lol. I want some of this crazy bonus referral money!

I'll get there whenever I get the go ahead note from em. I already got one.. just waiting for the final.

Well, I think we nailed some interested parties in my 45 minute voyage. Thanks, Darwin and David for roughing it out with me in There. I think we scored at least one convert...

Who is coming in with me tomorrow besides David? It was a heck of a lot of fun...and you may get some money out of the deal.

-Shawn

ugggh i missed you guys....was there at 8:45 grrrrrrr

I think we did good. if nothing else from there.com, which it mostly sucks (my head is still spinning from the nastly convo bubbles) SL is going to HAVE to give us running. i don't care about hugging other AVs - I'd just as soon not - but the running was awesome. the expressions on the faces was ok, too, I guess. I will meet you at 9AM, PST, then. I fel we ought to be wearing battle dress during our incursions into THAT hostile environment!

I found Darwin and teleported to one of the endless tiki hutty Clubs that is like a sick cross between an Abercrombie & Fitch store and a Polynesian restaurant in Nebraska. If in the morning you can join us, just look under the PEOPLE menu to find either Nick5, Justice or David_Cartier for our subtle deviltry. if not, then we can tag team any time!

And those conversation cameras STUNK!

But yeah, we need some more fluid motion here guys!

And I'm DEFINETLY coming tommorrow! Who else is coming? Maidenflight, same time?