What makes SL so great?

I was drinking with my buddy tonight and in a rare instance of admittig what a geek i really am i tried to sell him on SL. he said he tried it and it's pointless. so we argued about what is more pointless - Wow or SL. he didn't win, but i think i lost. i couldn't make any compelling arguement about why my hobby was more meanignful than his. i really thought it was obvious.

isn't it obvious?

It is isn't it. Or is it. I don't know. I can't explain it

Do you want a serious answer?

Right on, Nyx. That's exactly it. You never know.

Live and unpredictable.

actually.. YEAH!

It isn't obvious; at least not to me, because it has a lot to do with beliefs. I believe that Second Life - and similar systems yet to show up - really is a kind of next step in the evolution of the internet.

This belief probably was the main reason for Philip and Cory to start with SL - which does not make it "true" Many others share this belief. Look at Mark Wallace's new blog 3pointD.com or the whole idea behind a company like Electric Sheep. This does not make my belief true, either; but thats probably what seperates beliefs from scientific theories - you can't prove them.

But it gives SL a kind of grand scope, which other online games are lacking - very subjectively, personally, unproveable to me.

Games like WoW and others never were intended as a platform. They are limited in intent and scope.

And this is not only a matter of intent only. Those other games lack many of the features that give SL at least a chance to contend for this platform idea. One might lament that SL, too, lacks many essential components for becoming the web 3.0. But on the other hand it IS flexible enough to allow for creations and usage forms never envisioned by its creators. Thats a very promising sign to me. Because this is one of the main differences between a platform and an application (or a game).

Does this make "living" part of your life in SL more meaningful than spending the same time in WoW or SWG? I am not sure of that. I guess it all depends on if you have the feeling (you can never be sure) that you contribute something to the development of this platform. If you do, it sure is meaningful. You can never prove it, though.

And to someone who laughs at the idea of a 3D game being the harbinger of the next step in the evolution of the internet even that "personal meaningfulnes" of SL certainly is not obvious.

Ok then:

SL is great because: It has caused me to learn tools and tricks that I didn't even know existed. (photoshop) I am just learning shit, and as those of you that know, every little step or thing that you can do and build is fun and satisfying.

I made jewelry because it didn't have any rules, and I made some ok stuff, I figured out how to bring text in world, I made a bed and I felt very proud, I mastered the targa and I was tickled, I got better at textures as time went on. I figured out a plant in SL is not so hard to do, I made a pool, I started to try clothes, people actually bought my shit...I was amazed!

SL is great because: I have met some really kewl people in world as well as in the forums, I may not be face to face w/ some of you in the forums, but I get a sense of you.

That's pretty much it for me, the creating and the socializing. But I am VERY pumped right now about 'making' stuff...I'm hungry for knowledge, and every new thing I can make just is more fun

SL is great because you can have this:



and this:



and this:



and a million other things you'd never think of but its guaranteed someone else will.

SL is great because I can both write the play and be the actor.

Going back to another MMORPG (RoseNA in this case), I had trouble playing more than an hour at a time, because it seemed so pointless to waste time on a predefined, repetitive experience that offered little aesthetic pleasure and no intellectual challenge.

I like this. Storytelling at the spa makes my lil heart happy. Where else can goblins, mechanical boys, vamps and gothbois get together to tell one single story? I love SL.

Aw I was gonna show you but can't post attachments. ah well. come see for yourself some wednesday night at 9pm.

Pointless, yes, but at least it's our pointlessness, not some game studio's

SL - Player content

Not static boring , keep any online game the same for awhile, people will leave, without changes anything will die.

SL got me used to low framerates, which is a skill I now utilize for playing Oblivion
(I'm only half-joking)

SL is great because it's the first 3d computer game that's a genuine role playing environment. It's like the MUDs and MUSHes and MUCKs... but with graphics and physics.

SL is great because you don't have to be an architect to make this:





Or a cartoonist to make this:



[left] [/left]
[left] [/left]
[left]Or a model to look like this:[/left]
[left] [/left]



[left] [/left]
[left] [/left]
[left]Now back to work GEEK. [/left]

Lets not beat around the bush:

Boob/package sliders.

Its the only graphical physics-enabled glorified chatroom that I know of where you can rez a plywood cube and script it to do something evil to passerbies in under less then 5 minutes. <3

SL is different.

The bright side: There are things we can do in SL that we can't do in other published games. Well, not unless you want to buy your own game engine, start building from scratch and invite all your friends. SL provides us with much cheaper path to that goal. As a side note, I would love to see the code and development/content tools for building the outdoor environments in AC2 snuck into SL. I think I spent all my time in that game running (and swimming) around and looking at the outdoor scenes, they were simply breathtaking (with graphics maxed out (for 2002? 2003?)).

The not-bright side: SL suffers accutely from Sturgeon's Law. For every one person in Bedazzle, you have 99 people that their big, black, cube club is their finest creation. But you can't restrict building to just to people of Bedazzle's caliber without destroying what SL is.

Hmmm... as a role playing game it might be a bit too open. It's hard to pretend that your group is a collection of 1st century Romans when a couple of members insist on dressing up like Star Trek redshirts. Other games are a little better at providing a more cohesive environment.

As the next evolutionary step for the internet, SL still has quite a ways to go. Will the metaverse get here before everyone has flying cars and AI computers is anyone's guess. All of those were ideas inspired by fiction that were written by authors with at best a layman's understanding of the technology and social changes that would be required to create and support them.

The question is not "Why do you bother with SL", but "Why aren't you working harder to bring SL into meatspace".

You build beautifull places that people visit and enjoy(larson, the new german wa). Your friend did what? Get a sword of ÜberKilling™ and ganked some Noobs?

To me, one thing that makes SL great is that it put me a step closer to my own creations: I can use the creative powers of the computer and use my avatar (me) to interact with my creations. I can experiment without cost, create or re-create (my rl artwork) in a short time, show my creations to others and see what others have made.

Immanentize the Eschaton?

That would require me to believe in an Eschaton that could be immanentized. Short of entropic heat-death or the eventual isolation of all particles through the expansion of the universe (the emo-ization of the universe, you might say), I have formed no opinion.

However, forming plywood cubes with the POWER OF MY MIND could only be classified as a good thing.

I hope I'm not philosophizing too much here, but Jauani had me really thinking about this one before I decided to respond. (I usually respond and then think.)

What makes SL superior to other online spaces? What makes SL better than WoW, or DDO, or EQ, or TSO.. etc?

The short answer... Nothing.
If leveling up, completing tasks, completing quests, gaining experience, and defeating foes is what gets you, then nothing in SL will compete with that. You'll socialize, create, buy, sell, and interact, but nothing will tell you when you've gone up a level.

However, if what you want to do is have an impact on the world around you, then none of the other games/platforms/toys available will compare with SL. We don't need a point system to tell us when we've leveled up, we have a social system for that. (And yes, I do think we 'level up' in SL, but only to a certain point, and levels can be lost as well as gained.)

Which one is more meaningful? Neither. They're both, for the time being, pass-times. When I log off of SL, the rest of my world is no more affected than when I log off of DDO. My bank account is a bit fatter, but I don't believe that makes it any more meaningful, just a better investment.

I think it all depends on what your needs are. No one system is any more meaningful than the next, unless it offers the validation and entertainment you're seeking.

First life is rather pointless unless you determine your own meaning. Since second life is part of your first life the entire question is pointless.

If second life is part of some non-reality based existence please let me know so I can rush to my therapist!