San Jose Mercury News Review 6/12

Once a service is open, the press can be brutal...

Virtual world of `Second Life' isn't bustling (San Jose Mecury)

It is always interesting to see how reviewers don't have the time to dive deep into a service, and how that effects their perceptions. Unfortunately for SL, this is the same kind of snap-evaluation that 'trial' users are likely to make.

Comments?

Oracle Omega

Well what can we expect when the media so stupid that their own stupidity causes them problems and they blame it on the product...

"I can say that ``Second Life'' isn't ready for prime time. I played on a 3-gigahertz Dell Dimension XPS machine with an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro graphics chip. At first, the game kept crashing. ``Second Life'' tech support told me to download a new driver for the ATI chip, since ATI quickly issued a new driver shortly after the chip launched this year."

"Then I began playing and was unimpressed with the graphics. The first time I logged in, I couldn't see a thing because it was nighttime in the game's world."

Turn up your brightness dip S@#$

I could go on. This guy's a putz.

Hopefuly Murcury World News is not the hot spot for many people to base opinions on computing products, cause frankly their journalists suck.

This guy IS a putz. "Bombastic Pat"? ROFLPMP! That's Bombastic Fats to Lifers.



HUH?

[email]letters@mercurynews.com[/email]

Thats where you can write a letter to the editor!

Aside from the idiot-isms I thought it was a pretty positive review:
"Compared with me, an online coach potato with limited creativity, Ogrydziak is like Michelangelo. If you're more like him than me, you'll like the game."

"If it has a niche, it's a nirvana for artists, architects and 3-D modelers who aren't satisfied with what they can create in the real world."

" The ability to create a unique character is far more satisfying than in ``The Sims Online.''"

These are all positive things for the type of person I think SL is trying to attract.

Also, consider these two statements:
"It's only as good as its community members, "
" I haven't played enough to pass judgment on the game's social aspects, "
These are the kind of things that are big red warning flags for me when I read reviews.

"...so far the world resembles a lonely moonscape instead of a vibrant city."
"You can visit tourist attractions in the world, such as a virtual Venice, Shangri-La, Dark Wood and a cyberpunk community called Nexus Prime for ``Blade Runner'' fans."

Apparantly, he DID pass judgement a tad early. He never even left the Welcome Area. ...idiot

Actually, that is part of the problem sometimes -- some people don't see anything beyond the four themed sims near the welcome area, and aren't willing/don't know how to go past Rizal and look at the rest of the world.

I've found a couple new people near the Welcome Area desperately searching for land to buy or trying to build houses in the middle of Linden-owned land before.

Yea, if a user isn't able to find their way out of the Linden area and into the real world, they will simply give up.

Btw, the person that wrote this review is an idiot

But the question wasn't really about the review, it was:



And yes, I agree, the three day trial might not be enough time for people to get addicted.

I don't know how much time the Lindens spend talking to brand new users, but I know they spend a lot of time talking to we who are already hooked, and maybe this is skewing their perspective? Such that they don't hear what they need to hear to make the game more accessible to a new comer, only stuff that seasoned pro's want?

Maybe.

Well I just wrote a long letter to them and I hope they publish it. I think I pretty well blasted the writer by blowing each of his points out of the water.

JV

Everyone is entitled to their opinions even newspaper reviewers. SL is for the creative soul. This reviewer asserts he is not that creative. So it makes sense to me that it is not going to appeal to him. He focuses on the Technical issues which are going to vary vastlty from person to person. We all have different rigs with different connections. I think he did paint a negative technical picture which may be unfair. SL does point out its requirements and they are somewhat strong. They also have a five day day trial. If your system works -good- proceed, if not stop - go play solitaire.
I don't consider my rig "powerful" -P4 1.8 512 ram GF2 pro but (knock on silicon) I have a very good cable connection. I normally get 30 -32 FPS. It is more than acceptable to me. He indicated pictures where blurry - perhaps he was in such a hurry to rush to conclusions that he didn't give the extra second or two it may take to load the texure fully.....SL has many amazing features that far outweigh any technical issues which we will probably see improvements in. For the creative person it is like going to heaven....he saw barren land - I saw places to build.

Good show!

dont worry folks theres always 1 person out to cause trouble.
they are in their own world known as "no life"

im not creative....except with smart arsed comments.
but somehow....I LUV YOU MAN!