Waste of Potential?

Ive been in SL for almost a year. In this time I have seen that in Second Life almost anything can be made. The Lindens make well on their claim that the only limit is your imagination. Second Life therefore has limitless potential.

So why in the heck is Second Life comprised almost entirely of clubs (aka "Shiny boxes with lights), stores, and the occasional casino. Sure there are a few rare exceptions but overall Second Life needs Originality and at least some culture, very very badly.

What I guess im trying to say is; you can do anything in Second Life, so why dont we see more originality? Is that so hard?

Please visit a Gorean sim and submit.

Perhaps when that issue has been solved for the filmmaking, publishing and music industries, which also boast limitless potential, we can sort it out for Second Life.

Until that time... welcome to human banality.

Yes I am actually a citizen of Port Cos and I can testify to how refreshing roleplay can be in Second Life.

Ok guys lets brain storm here...what original things would you like to see in Second Life?

Or

What things would you like to see more of in Second Life?

Well have you found a good man yet? One that's not gay or bi cause obviously they can't be good! RIGHT! lol

Unfortunately, for a lot of people, "imagination" translates as "profit".

Clubs and casinos make money. Stores make money. Builds just for the sake of it - which are enjoyable to visit - rarely make any money. Due to the 'commercial' way that SL is advertised, many people don't think it's possible to do anything better.

There are some interesting places even amongst the mundane - I visited a store last night (forgot to take a landmark) which has a big pond out front, and built underneath in mirror form (its about 200m above the ground so theres plenty of space) so it looks like a reflection. I was impressed - it was unusual.

In a month or two I plan to develop something myself that is just a big open space for people to go and do things, that combines a few features rarely seen around the landscape. Will I make any money? Unlikely. Will I cover my monthly costs? I doubt it. Will people come and enjoy it? Hopefully. Will I enjoy building it? You betcha!

Sometimes thinking of original things is hard. Do you have any suggestions that people might be able to take and run with, to create something others can enjoy?

Lewis

Lindens. Everyone should have his/her/its own personal Linden

Yeah actually I did. I found me I a nice straight, handsome man who can top any other guy in Second Life. But lets not get into that again shall we.

Anyway ive often thought it might be interesting to make movies in Second Life using users as actors and crew. These movies could then be shown in the many movie theaters, such as Disturbed, which are appearing all over Second Life.

Just a thought.

You can already make machinima using tools like Fraps with SL. There are already many great fan based movies similar to this. The limitiation here being, SL is very stressful on systems and thus, this usually (at least for me), cause very non-fluid movies in Fraps. I even spool the movie to another harddisk, but even then, the game doesn't give me a fluid movie. Other games are much better in this regard.

Similarly, you could create some sort of an online or in-game comic that's based on SL characters, maybe the cartoon bubble chat boxes could be used for this.

Examples: http://www.machinima.com/films.php?engine=10

Visit the place in my sig below. What have YOU done that's worth visiting?

Also, exploring SL has become way harder since you can't get an alphabetical listing of the sims, which would allow using the list to explore all sims in a systematic manner. Right now, you have to use the map, which is a joke. An updated list of point of "real" interest would be nice, but the overwhelming number of casinos/tringo/mall/clubs makes "this world, our imagination" proof that the majority is here only for quick profits with minimum investment.

The key is that you have to ask yourself: what does SL actually enable you to do compared to other platforms or programs or games? It lets you "create" but regular art packages and 3D modellers and programming languages do that too. SL can't have ideas for you, nothing can. SL doesn't let you create things without the same skills or talents you would have needed anyway - although it does include things that can help you learn those skills.

The key to what SL provides is the social aspect. SL provides a massively improved abiity to connect with people - whether it's to help you produce something or to act as an audience for what you do produce.

But.. there's another side to that too. SL provides the ability to connect your creative work with people but of course it cannot force anyone to pay attention to your work. And thus the amount of social effect you'll get - effectively the amount of value you'll get from having your work in SL as opposed to Blender or GIMP or whatever other package - is going to be determined by how much you, and/or what you build, appeals to other people. You can go ahead and say "forget what anyone else thinks!", press on and build whatever you want, of course, and just because you did not care about what people think does not mean that no-one else will think anything positive - but if it so happens that indeed no-one else does think much of it, you'll be paying tier or rental to host that big build just so that you yourself can sit alone and look at it - which you could do just the same if it was on your local disk.

So why so many clubs and casinos? Because they're usually popular and they're the most obvious way of making a social build. Houses, sculptures, etc. can all be very wonderful and I have a lot of respect for people who build them but to get the greatest possible bang for your tier buck you have to build something that gets other people involved, and thinking of original ways to do that is quite difficult, so people take the most obvious options - clubs, casinos, and shops.

I've had a big land area for a while but a lot of it is still empty because I can't think of anything that I would really want to put there, that would at the same time be interesting enough to other people to make it worth taking the time and effort to build it in SL as opposed to just making it locally or just closing my eyes and imagining.

Wait...is this what you mean by "straight?"

Great Gorean Auction!

Sorry, had to be done... lafs

That's a good way of putting it Yumi...last night a few of us wound up at my pub in Caledon Tamrannoch with armfuls of the wonderful scripted sheet music that Sue Stonebender produces, which led to an impromtu concert on the pub piano with Charlene Trudeau running through a program of Irish folk music and then show tunes, and early rock and roll, demonstrating for us the variety of what her friend Sue offers--so there was that "audience" factor. But Char's "concert" also somehow led Exrex Somme and me into a rather convoluted discussion of WWI and WWII era camp and marching songs--particularly the ribald ones, of course--so there was that social, chatty exchange of ideas and sharing interests as well.

The key thing here is that this impromptu, completely unplanned interaction was more than just an "animated chatroom'' as the discussion was triggered and moved along by the demonstration of Sue's work. There is a dynamic in SL, that when it works, it's rather unique, as Yumi pointed out. Fun too. Perhaps what is lacking at this point are effective mechanisms to faciltiate congenial, like-minded people finding each other in-world so they can have these sorts of "aha" moments. But after all, social interaction is about exploration and discovery--not terribly efficient and at times a tad sloppy, but that's what makes it an adventure, eh?

How about building an entire SIM based on "The Wizard of OZ" or "Peter Pan"?

Ever since seeing a pic of a 'Cat in the Hat' type house I've wanted to make an entire region of that same style of whimsical build.

I think a lot of this is simply that SL is still too expensive, so most creative projects don't survive for very long without some sort of revenue stream backing them up. I've had a number of projects in mind for a while, but they involve large amounts of space and/or privacy. I usually get about as far as looking at the monthly tier price for a couple of sims and turn back.

I see that Mr. Stern has already mentioned it, but I'd suggest visiting Caledon for a change of pace. His public house, the Falling Anvil, is a good place. Beyond that, strict covenants and a very high degree of creativity* make for an experience quite different from the mainland.

-CA Dimsim/LynneWu

*Yes. I live there. And I *still* like it. Thanks, Mr. Shang.

Thank you Miss Dimsum, you are too kind.

And speaking of projects in Caledon that are a bit different, aren't you working on a branch of the SL Library that is a recreation/interpretation of a classic beaux arts-style Carnegie library?

Thank you Miss Dimsum, you are too kind.

And speaking of projects in Caledon that are a bit different, aren't you working on a branch of the SL Library that is a recreation/interpretation of a classic beaux arts-style Carnegie library?

Thank you Miss Dimsum, you are too kind.

And speaking of projects in Caledon that are a bit different, aren't you working on a branch of the SL Library that is a recreation/interpretation of a classic beaux arts-style Carnegie library?

There are some amazing things out there in Second Life.

When I first came here, I bought that flying car. Me and my friends would hop in that and traverse the map in a real tourist style fashion, spending hours slowly going from random point to random point just to see what we could see. There are some absolutely beautiful builds and landscapes with gorgeous artwork or scenery out there that are not listed on the map or in the classifieds/events, and you'd never find them unless you take the time to "walk" or fly through Second Life's land. The true treasures of the land are not marked with a 'X'.

I am! And although it's not quite proper, I suspect we're going to see some hot all-nude-under-their-clothes librarians in sizzling book-pamphlet action. Although I could be wrong.

I can relate to this in a big way whereas you view is truly what makes SL NOT a 'Game'.

Normally in a game you have a set of rules and a set path even to its physical 3 Demensional aspects asto how far to the edge you can go and in most cases where exactly you can go.

In SL it's left up to the user to explore.

Another online world touting they aren't a game would be Project Entropia for example, but all I've seen there is mindless limits set by the users of it in form or a huge market/trading bananza, but PE has beautiful terrain and landscapes and yet people probably only would take notice it if and when their avatar where to die and actually dipict gore or bleeding. PE none the less is a game like many others.

In SL you create your own philosophical and physical bounds, thus your own game, and that is what makes it Second Life and not Linden Life or Linden World. Lindens themselves are simply the custodians of this platform , as I see it any ways.

No one says you HAVE to follow the herd.

Game or platform (pick your view, it meets boths definitions, and respect others opinions), SL is a world thatis shaped bythose who think proactively, not reactively.