A safer 'Second Life'

So how much is the tram ride to Neo-Tokyo to find the 'drink your own urine' bar?

Pika, oh Pika , Pika CHU!

I like this thread.

I choose you! *ducks and runs giggling*

I can't say that the journalist, knows what's they're talking about... because they don't.... they obviouly have an outsiders view of japanese culture....

my (limited) understanding of japanese culture from a (hopefully enlightened) western perspective, is that sex is just sex in japan, without any of the puritanical notes of western culture, it can recreational, procreational, whatever.... it's just not as big a deal over there...

that said, there is a major gap in actually MEETING and getting together, dating is a lot more "new" to the japanese culture, hence the runaway success of various web phone services that connect people (especially in the cities). I think part of this is due to the degradation of the "traditional" method of meeting were families introduced (and married off) their children to other families. there seems to be a large degree of social isolation that is still being overcome.... the service could take off, but not for the reasons the writer stated.

Anyone find the site I found and lost yesterday that had walk-though demos in vrml and x3d format of Meet-Me?

In accordance with Rule #34, six months after Meet-Me goes online, it gets a knockoff porn related service called "Meat-Me".

how many REAL alternatives are there to sl?
there? that new chinese one and what. and dont say wow. to much like tardy ol d&d

hey I used to play that (D&D)! (it's my brothers influence I SWEAR!)... don't like WoW... hate subcription fees and unwanted PvP... guild wars is fun though =) still no competiton for SL in my book

Perhaps this should be renamed 'Simon Says...'

An alternative to SL.... <tries not to look bored> I see this an alternative, but not a good one.. smells of Sims On Line, with sushi. I have no issues with any culture, but when it says over the door... 'This is a Japaneese platform, Americans etc are welcome visitors'.. I won't pay the entrance fee. It's not in the spirit of the Internet, more of an Intranet with VPN's. When they are ready to join the rest of the world, go to this link http://www.secondlife.com we will be waiting for you.

Japans Largest social networking site is flooding money and supporting HiPiHi, it is a major shareholder and has been for quiet a while, HiPiHi china's answer to Second Life and has been in development since 2005. (and up for beta already, many SL residents have already migrated.) Pretty much a duplication of Second Life.

So Japan looks like it will have competition when it comes to choice, of what Virtual World to goto.

Not to forget that Sony is opening one on the PS3 console,

HiPiHi has reached beta and with the push from the biggest social networking site in japan... I see it getting a huge amount of users... though I see Meet-Me getting more corporate interest, so one maybe smaller but making more money... hmm will be interesting!

Though with the largest social networking site there with millions of users... and more freedom... I see that one taken more of a jump on the Japanese community than this one.

As for other Virtual Worlds-
goto this link

http://www.virtualworlds2007.com/30/index.html

Theres a list of companies showing up and nearly all of them have a virtual world in the making or on the market.

There are people who find the Net scary, just like there are people who found IRC scary - but who love MSN messenger to bits. Infantilised environments are Ok by them.

Thing is, infantilised environemnts with safety guarantees are prime sleazeball territory.

I like this quote about SL:

One person's evil is another fur's good. MUAHAHAHA!

This seems to be a popular name for a 3d platform according to the list on the link 'To Be Announced'.

I don't know much about this HipHipHooray, or whatever that Chinese thingy is, but do you really think when it goes main stream, it will be immune from many of thsame ills plaguing SL?

There is one called "Redlight" or something like that.

"It's very American. Almost everything is OK, including evil.''

I stopped reading right here. Geesh - biased much?

I'll take complete freedom, user created content and the ability to make decisions about what I do and don't want to see, thank you. Besides, a little evil is fun every now and then.

The author is basically saying that Japanese people are so unable to think for themselves that they get a great deal of relief from having some random software developer telling them what is right and wrong and controlling the content they can access. Despite being called evil, this article is actually much more insulting to the Japanese than it is to Americans. I'll take evil any day of the week over incompetent to make my own decisions.

You go, Trout!
Let's get in your biplane and go looking for a little good, clean, evil fun.

That reminds me...I never did get around to sending you my Certification Photos. Did I miss the Free Offer Window of Opportunity?

Someone said "When faced with a choice between two evils, I always chose one that I haven't tried yet."

Try to read further, Oh Lesser Rednecked Trout... what people are saying is that the very last thing the Japanese are, is conformant. Or lacking in freedoms: they certainly have fewer cops per thousand head of population than the US!

Being perfectly free is a wonderful thing: using that freedom to belittle other countries and act like a jackass is, however, not the finest proof of concept the world has ever seen.

First, I'm American.

Second, I do indeed agree with the above quote.

Third, Just for the record, I'd like to bring it to everyone's attention that the COUNTRY is not like that. The GOVERNMENT is.

Forth, I'd also like to point out that every Government is like that. They'll ALL lie/cheat/steal as much as the size of their brass balls (or the absence of viable IQ) will allow them.

Sort of like the "juornalist" linked in the OP.

~Jessy

I was quoting the person who made the comment in the article, not anyone here, or even the article itself all that much. I think everyone here pretty much agrees that the quoted comment, and the comments about the Japanese are ridiculous to the point of borderline insanity. I don't need to read further because the insulting comments about the Japanese culture came before the insulting comments about Americans, so I saw both. The sentence I quoted was just the breaking point, since the person quoted had already lost all credibility with his comments about Japan.

I also would never make a comment like this about the Japanese people. My personal experience with their culture has been quite the opposite, in fact. If you took from my comments that I was belittling another country, then I must have phrased my post in a way that left it open to misinterpretation, and for that, I apologize.

My basic contention is that to call the American culture evil is insulting, but to infer that the people of Japan lack the ability to make their own choices about what they want to do and participate in is a much greater insult. I'll take being called evil over that any day of the week, and twice on Sunday. I believe both contentions to be completely innapropriate, but they seem to reflect the beliefs of the developer mentioned in the article.

BTW - I'm less of a redneck than you might think, but I suppose I can live with being called one. You might be surprised what you find if you look a little deeper instead of immediately categorizing me.

Free window of opportunity is wide open! In light of the responses I've received, I'm thinking of extending it through the month of October and kicking in a free biplane ride for anyone who submits photos for evaluation. For the record, I mean an actual biplane ride, not something sinister - little red airplane, two sets of wings, machine gun, etc. I'm still looking for two people to see if I can get one on each side and completely defy the laws of physics by flying around like that. I might even try to add a third to the fuselage.

i heard of that one too. wikied it but they seem to have some sort of ingame mods so passed! and sex seems to be the ONLY draw! I aint just in sl for the sex...just ..er...mostly!

I've been waiting long time for second ride

I visited a long time ago - great outstanding avatars . . . and walking around in skimpy clothing trying to figure out what to do . . . apparently look at ads for adult websites and links to videos on adult-websites . . .so left quickly.

Had a very neat "drunk"/"Drugged" animation; the basic walk was a lot better than SL, but have no idea what the "sex" is like there. There are some "robots" that look like normal avatars, but I couldn't figure out how to get them to do anything.

Yes, I left quickly.