Yes … Second Life … The NextBigThing. Everyone’s been writing about it frantically. Except for me. Because I’m not a believer. I have seen hypes come and go, I have seen companies rise to fame and disappear into oblivion. And I am not convinced by SL. Sure, it has the majority of they hype now, but there are others out there, working diligently to take its place, biding their time.
People tend to forget that online communities have been around in one form or another over the years. BBS, IRC chat, ASL pages, online communities … SL is just another 3D virtual world that builds on the desire of humans to form communities and interact with one another. And there are others out there. Some have even been along longer, like ActiveWorlds. Look also at There, whose engine is being used by MTV to create their own virtual world. Even the owners of gaming consoles will now get their own virtual world, with Sony’s Home coming to the PlayStation.
As for me, I simply don’t go into SL because I can’t even get all the things done in my First Life, including the online part of it like IM, games, keeping up with all the mails, RSS feeds, blogging and more. No reason for me to spend even more time in my Second Life. Personally, if I had some time I’d play World Of Warcraft because I’m more into adventures than just building myself another “second” life.
For those interested in more, have a read at Björn Joos‘ vision here (sorry, it’s in Dutch only).
And if you do want to hang out in virtual worlds, take your pick from the list on Virtual World Review.
All this made me think of The Matrix again, the biggest virtual world of them all… a red pill, anyone?
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