I remember when I first made my SL account. I was very surprised I had never heard of this before. I went on Google News and entered "Second Life" in the search field to see how popular it was. I know, that sounds silly, but I was a big fan of Google News back then. I got a few irrelevant results.
Now, nearly six months later, I repeat this and the results are many. Most of these talk about how some big company or somebody with a big name bought a set of regions or made an appearance in SL.
We're no longer limited to buying no-brand stuff. We can brag about owning a virtual version of a car which, in real life, costs many thousands of dollars. With the real brand name and all. But, is it really worth it?
I'd love to drive my real-life '95 Chevrolet Cavalier in SL. However, I wouldn't like to see my friend's SL business, which is about making and selling cars, go downhill because a big corporation is competing with him. Wait a second... isn't this happening already?
Can "corporations and their products" be considered the same as "residents and their products"? For example, can "Adidas and their sim-sized shoe shop" be considered the same as "John Doe and his 1024 sqm. shoe shop"?
Whose shoes do you think people will buy the most? Well now, let's see: Adidas, for one, is a well-known real-life brand; second, Adidas is possibly investing loads of money, probably more than John Doe's monthly SL-income, in paying experienced builders to create something that Johnny will never be able to stand up to. There you go.
For a few residents, this is a great opportunity. You know, working for Nissan (or DELL, Pontiac, or Adidas, etc.) not only gets your name out there in the SL community but is also a well-paid job. But, what about the rest of us? Those of us who work by ourselves many hours a day to create content that will soon be crushed between the hands of the big guys?
We love SL because it's not like real-life, as weird as this might sound.
We can't get beaten up in SL. Maybe we can, but no permanent injuries could ever be made. Some people can't walk in real-life, yet they can do that and even fly in SL!
How about those of us who live in third-world countries? Employment is an issue in our countries, but we can fantasize with our dream job in SL. Hell, we can even turn SL into our one and only job, like some people already have done.
At the end of the day, we love SL because we finally have a chance to stand out in something.
Allow me to clarify. I am not "against corporations", like a bunch of people who even make signs in protest. I was (and still am) pretty excited to be part of SL when I read all these articles I found on Google News. I actually support the idea of having big names in-world. However, shouldn't those big guys keep their stuff as propaganda, rather than providing content that is otherwise made and sold by actual residents?
Let me go back to the car example here. What if Chevrolet came and, instead of giving out free awesome cars and ruining other car merchants, created a "make it yourself" kit that residents could use to create and sell cars compatible with their race-circuits? What a cheesy example. That's the best I could come up with.
I just think I'm missing something here. So far, ever since I joined, pretty much every move from LL has made perfect sense in my head, but this one got me. And it's probably not even a move from LL, but I'm just grasping for straws here.
So, to summarize:
Will the definition of Second Life change to "a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by real-life corporations"?