Productization of Second Life

I'm not against Second Life being commercial. I'm not against IGE or GOM. I'm not against bill boards. I'm not against land barons. I'm not against Rivers Run Red, at least what they stand for anyway.

But the productization of Second Life is getting on my nerves. It's slowly slipping away from being my idealized "communal imagination," and is becoming a crappy version of Las Vegas. Casinos here, apartments there, strip club a few sims over, and a raffle below it. People setup art galleries, not to create an artistic community, but so they can sell images they grab off the web. Everywhere I go, all I see is junk: kitchen sets, sofa units, Humvees.

We can fly people, why do you want to drive?!

Maybe I'm wrong, maybe this is what people want. If that's the case, then go for it Linden Lab! Cater to them. Make money. I wish you the very best of luck. It just seems like a waste of a good idea to design the world to cater toward such a short-sighted goal.

I'm not against the world as it is, just continually disappointed with it as a technology. You can do anything in SL, be anyone, and yet all people seem to want to be are dotcom-ish marketeers trading on hollow money -- and it is hollow, because as we saw with There, as soon as a technologically superior platform becomes dominate, the "dollar" will tank.

I wish that LL would lisence their server/client software so that I could run my own sim at home. That way I could build whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, and would not have to deal with the creativity squeezing hand that seems to have gripped SL. (I'm not buying a sim from LL because I refuse to trust someone else to maintain my workshop.)

Maybe There, Inc. will come back soon with their branded server, and I can buy it. Until then, I guess I'm stuck playing on the fringes of SL.

*sigh*

Yeah, it does get a pretty tiresome when every sim has at least one casino, club, and/or shopping mall. The last thing SL needs is more casinos. But are these things really taking over SL or are they just more visible than other activities?

My hope, although I admit it's based on nothing more than my own slanted view of the world, is that this will change gradually but eventually. Folks will start to realize that the market for all this stuff is saturated, and that to make a real mark on SL (or to make real money, if that's the goal) isn't to throw up yet another mall/casino/strip joint but to create something unique and compelling.

The best of the mall/casino/strip club genres will stay with us - but they should. Some of them are just amazing. Both Eros and the White Star Casino are pretty darn breathtaking, and I'd consider it a loss if either were to disappear!

But I think we'll start to see more varied offerings as the newness wares off and folks begin to try to innovate, rather than simply trying to fit into the existing order.

Or, that's my hope...

Players now want to make a quick buck, and what's the quickest way to make a buck? Sex, gambling, and drug references. So obviously you're going to get alot of strip clubs, casinos, and other "seedy" establishments.

I could care less, honestly. I log in to create things, large sweeping architectural jobs, that hopefully lessens the blight of yet-another "flashy cube-as-club" that pops up next door.

This will continue indefinitely, and it won't go away. People WANT to gamble, have sex, and do drugs, at least online. Let them. Eventually, hopefully, bands of like-minded people will get together, snag a corner of the world, and wall it off from the semi-violent chaos that is humanity, and make something pretty and engaging to look at, without reaching for your wallet or your crotch.

LF

Speaking of quick buck. Rampant piracy in SL (That of taking a free item given to the public and turned around to be sold by shady individuals).

Tonight I found sim in particular that had a lot of that going on.. *sigh* bastard people.

but i hear all of it. there are some impressive casinos out there.. and some raffles are just as much for socializing as they are for the raffle. it's a great way for newbs to meet some of us as well..

and clubs.. well, i can't say much against these, there are some impressive clubs out there (not to mention that my DreammGirl is building one as well). clubs come in many flavors and i must say.. they provide a great place for people to 'mingle'. plus, it seems lots of people enjoy them.

actually, i was pondering all of this recently and came to a general conclusion. SL seems like it is moving in a bi-lateral direction. the fun seekers and the intellectuals. not to say the fun-seekers aren't smart.. just saying that some prefer to hang out, some prefer to script/build/etc..

like DreammGirl and i, perfect example. she likes to go to parties and dance, she's building a club.. then there's me, i don't really socialize much, but am friendly and helpful. right next door to her club, i'm building the 'headquarters' for my group Erga Obinex. quite a juxtaposition, but like i said.. a perfect example.

live and let live.. all will be right in the (Second) world.

me too jarod. but frankly, i believe that ll is never going to license their server software. this second life grid is all we get.

the standard analogy is microsoft's monopolistic success of pc operating systems and servers. the fact that microsoft licenses their software is apparently beside the point.

i wonder how successful ms would've been if they'd required their customers to run every windows, sql and exchange server on company machines hosted by a centralized networking firm.

it's okay for now because second life is unique and will, for a while, be the best virtual world package available. it'll even be okay when we start hosting comparable servers grided across the internet. i'm sure we'll all be loyal enough to pay whatever it costs to keep sl going.

I have to...to my shame admit that the malls are probably an aftereffect of the Maroon Mall.

I do see the same as Jarod though....a lot of stuff for sale...and always the same stuff...and it doesn't make things any better if one designer has a shop in every sim. If I didn't buy stuff there the first time...I am not gonna buy there cause its everywhere...its simply cuz I don't like the stuff. The things I do buy...well a lot of times I will actually buy things from people who do NOT have 268(fictitious number) shops in SL..but one or two... simply because I get tired of having the stuff shoved into my face.

Also...I have seen some really horrendous new builds...or water that just had a platform over it so people could build....a while a go I attempted to help people with stuff like texturing and so on....after having gotten some pretty negative responses....I will just wear the shades....

Humvees are NOT junk! LOL