Article: "A Second Chance for a 3-D Virtual Reality?"

The SL economy got started with a USD backing.

Hmm.. nevermind.

Darn, I was hoping for a tongue-in-cheek reply that was as tongue-in-cheek as the original post.

-Flip

I think what this pretty much means is, that the "true" metaverse should be created by free developers setting free standards, before any corporation gets too high of a stronghold on the whole concept.

Virtual Reality was spared from corporate control back in the 90's simply because the technology and concepts at the time sucked. The overall low-profit disappointment have made them wash their hands from the thing, leaving it in the dust.

This has opened us a window of oppertunity for creating a new, free system - in the same conditions as the net's early evolution - before the corps take another go at this, and this time, with the current available technology and possibly the right concepts... we will not have another chance to get away from their hold.

Imagine: How would the net be today if it was developed by IBM , Xeros, or alternatively any major Telco rather then DARPA and a bunch of bored univ geeks?

iirc VR did succumb to corporate control in the 90's. The VRML consortium included some heavy hitters, all wanting things their way and grinding developmental progress to a halt from the things I'd read. I'm not sure that wasn't intentional tbh (I think it might benefit MS, for example).

Agree that corporate influence should be somehow mitigated. If they all suddenly flood the grid (and that might be a real possibility in the future), many independents will likely be overrun. I'd hate to see that happen. So like a shot in the arm, SL could stand to develop some resistance perhaps. A slow introduction of real world brands might help the world get stronger. It's one major reason why I'm so in favor of people developing their own brands and nurturing them now while they can, and so against people ripping off trademarks and mindlessly extending RW brands into SL. People should use RW brand advertising dollars to fund their own brand-building; to strengthen themselves for the competition to come. Short-term gratification in just using those trademarks for no other reason than leeching off their reputation, will waste time while that window of opportunity closes imo.

... well actually I was talking about virtual-reality related technologies and virtual-world protocol/system standard design, but I guess that works too - if you prefer to focus only on the inner SL reality anyway. o.O

This is true - Also it was Alexander Hamilton who lobbied sucessfully to establish our Economy in exactly the same way - Honoring our previous debts.

The US economy wasnt created from a Vacum it was of course tied to the world (Europe's) economy on the outset - the actual origin is blurier and older.

I beleive the Soviet choose the alternate route and declared their debts void - and it led to pretty disasterous results.

If the Second Life Economy were to truley be a seperate economy Linden Labs would have to guarantee the currency's value.

Which - Philip's "I'm not making a game, I'm building a country" rhetoric aside - is a bit difficult, since Linden Labs is a company based in the US, and needs real US Dollars to pay the bills. There is a slight "declaration of value" insofar as L$ can be used for so many uploads, so many group fees, so many find fees, and so on... but LL to this day doesn't just refused to set a value, they actively declare the Linden dollar to be valueless.

additionally i think its a good thing the Linden has no official value - Id hate for the situation to someday arrise whereby we have to pay taxes on any income we make in Second Life.

Since most make very small amounts and that money never leaves Second Life.

Technically, I'm not sure this is always the case. The ToS declares the Linden has no intrinsic value (e.g. like most works of art), but LL commented in at least one Hotline response that the market can set a value on its own (e.g. like a Picasso worth millions $). I'm unsure if they've always made that distinction, but it does appear to be the current official position.