If LL decided to just quit

if LL decided that it just wasn't profitable/fun whatever to keep SL up and running i wonder if there would be suicides, doctor visits for depression, withdrawl syndromes and lawsuits for LL 'ruining' someone's life.

Being a reformed Magic The Gathering addict I can tell you that mental addiction to a game can be harder to kick than smoking.

It seems that a lot of people take this game very seriously, even bristling at the use of the word 'game', "it's an online lifestyle not a game"! haha!!

what if LL quits and doesn't re-sell the game or pimps it out to the highest bidder who takes the sex out and charges tripple etc, how would yopu feel? be honest!

Wow, what a question.

Even the idea of it brings up a lot of conflicting emotions.

I think personally, it would be very similar to losing access to the internet itself.

Except that because SL is so game-oriented right now, I wouldn't be *that* dissapointed because I have a basic philosophy that entertainment and games are not an appropiate way to spend your time.

I prefer education, collaborative work efforts, that sort of thing. If SL became less game and more serious and then died.. well, that would be pure heart break for me.

yeah, it's not just the gamey child-like fun parts or the cammaraderie, it's the learning and building and sence of accomplishment all within a cohesive framework. I wonder when we see our first SL suicide?

Well I guess the Residents could organise a coup and take over LL to keep SL going .

Only half serious lol

Alexa

I wonder if it's possible to make enough money in the game to buy the company that made it.....

all good things come to an end eventually. i'm an artist irl so SL's just another way to be creative like that. the best part's the people tho and there's a million ways to stay in touch outside SL if you want to.

so it'd be like when my favorite restaurant closes. it sucks but you meet your friends some place else and you don't stop eating forever.

Exactly - we'll do just fine.

I would freak out and have the second nervous breakdown of my life.

And then I would cry. @_@

I was fortunate that when The Sims Online began to wind down and become less interesting, and A Tale in the Desert didn't seem to provide an adequate replacement, there was Second Life and all its possibilites for me personally. But there is always something else more important which is Real Life, even with all its limitations and I'm just assuming that either I will make Real Life better in my own person 1.6 version of Real Life if Second Life shuts down, or someone else will make Another Life and I will tune into that one.

one way or another, we are migrating to the virtual world.

The so called "real life" as a separate entity from online life, will be mostly abandoned, eventually.

If SL is not the vehicle to take us there, something else will be. The people demand escape!

And this is not a bad or lame thing, it is an acknowledgement that the meat world is broken, beyond our ability to fix it right now. Or we would have done so already. The griefers have taken over that space and until we take it back, if we even can at this point, living virtually will be a better option for those who can do it.

I know, some would say that it doesn't help the meat world if we all go here. (in fact, that is one of the hidden motivations behind some of the griefer kin in virtual space, to drive us back into the trap) But I call bullshit on that. Things have been broken for a long time, before we had the internet, and no one stopped it then. It will stop when they run out of power sources. So if anything, we are only helping the less we participate in the game called First Life.
I suppose that goes against all the teachings of western religion and secular philosophy but consider the source.

Anyway, as I said, we will find a place to go if this one is lost. Hopefully, that will not be the case.

I'd be surprised if LL were to bail on Second Life any time soon. The last online game I played kept me going for six years (and is still going strong, last I heard)... and SL is so much better I would think its life expectancy should be at least as good, if not better.

gotta love Agatha's use of "Meat World" for RL - nice!!

yes, I believe we, the people who can think outside the box, and not wear it, will be ok if SL loses it's flava, but the concept on an online environment that encompases many everyday things such as listening to the radio, watching videos, playing, creating and chatting are here to stay regardless of wether LL provides the vehicle.

Obviously we will not stop going out and having RL sex and an online community can be a source of comfort and advice but I keep thinking of this sci-fi story where people lived in little cubicals and dreamed/psyonicly connected for everything without ever seeing another human...hmmm the matrix might have borrowed a little from that 1960's story....

Wouldn't miss it a bit.

yet, you care enough to reply in a forum about it..hmmm *scribbles on clipboard*

Now, ask me what I'd do if we lost the SL forums.

Yeah, then you'd see your first SL related suicide.

I'd have to find another thing to kill time at wurk! frankly, the high point of my day was reading the 'gender bender' thread, and that's probably on every forum on the net!!

I think I'd take a lot of screenshots, and wherever else I ended up there'd be some "That was cool when..." stories. If the whole thing was going down, well, whatcha gonna do about it. Not much.

Sure, there'd be a successor. But I think the cultural transition would be a bit much for me to even try... I'm actually not really big into MMO's, and I'd hate to see the -same- mistakes SL made being made all over again by some new company.

How long will SL last? - I don't want to say 'not very long', but LL *is* a small company. Generally companies as small as LL either get purchased or burn out.

I have a feeling that, with all the gripes that are out there about LL right now, we're more likely to see Linden Lab be purchased by EA or Sony Entertainment, before SL just closing its doors. When that happens, all the gripes about Linden Lab will seem really petty. You think you don't get customer support -now-? (Alby, of course, would be thrilled.)

When I worked for Sonic Foundry, the word was, "Oh, we'll never sell out. We love what we do too much, and so does the CEO"... That was the belief. Very similar environment, company wise, to Linden Lab.

Then along came Sony. I believe the building I worked in is now owned by the "council for the blind".

Now, LL is not a public company, and that makes a difference. Let's -hope- they don't get an idea for an IPO. When that happens, suddenly the focus really, really changes.

This is in their plans. At the town hall meeting with Philip when they announced the last lot of investment money (October last year) he described LL as 'pre-public' and then explained this away as meaning that it was a private company:



What's missing from that transcript is me saying 'what do you mean by pre-public?' which is what's he's answering to in the last line of that quote and is why I remember this specifically as I thought it strange at the time to describe a private company as pre-public rather than just as private, unless...

I don't think Benchmark invests in a lot of companies that don't plan on going IPO.

Interesting statement about the FIC, though, in all seriousness, people will be attracted to the next "SL" because they'll get to be in the FIC themselves. Funny how that works..

Anyways, this thread is getting a bit morbid.

Maybe we should all go buy land or something.

down the road not across the street

I can't hear you! *sticks fingers in ears* LALALALALALALA

FIGHT THE POWAH!

Hey, I just registered Polar Kraken. 8D

OMG i've got a polar kraken... but I don't have any blue decks that use creatures as a main offense... but still 11/11 trample? owtch.

Stupid new players with their new wierd decks... none of my cards are less than three years old. My black deck can beat them all down anyway

Volrath 4 teh win!!!

hehe!!! my roomie has cards we play with ocasionally, I sold all mine on ebay some years back, but love re-animating a big blue creature!!!

I've always hated blue, but I had one, too.. I didn't use it much, but.. HEY, THE NAME WAS TOO GOOD TO PASS UP. XD I HAD TO REGISTER IT.



YES!!! NEW PLAYERS AND THEIR WEIRDO.. PORTAL.. CRAP.. OR WHATEVER!!! >| I just stopped playing around when Tempest came out.. It was just crap after Visions. :\ Ice Age was the best expansion ev4r!!! :DDD

My black/white deck was <333333333333. Best color combination ever.. SCREW RED/BLUE!!! BLEHHHH!!!

:D

*rants*



Yay for Polar Kraken!! :D