Second Life

Jason · Posted: Dec 26, 2005 8:32pm Post subject: Second Life

I've found myself spending a lot of time in a virtual world called Second Life .... Anyone else play it?

I knew about Second Life from many months ago, but never tried it. The problem was it was a pay-to-play system, and I wasn't going to bother giving my credit card info to a company for a game I wasn't sure if I wanted to play.

They recently changed to a free system (you just lack the ability to own land when you use the free account), so there's no more reason not to try it out.

I can see why this system will succeed where most others have not (There, The Palace, etc). The content isn't driven by the developers of the game - It's driven by the users themselves. So rather than limit the content in game to what a group of a half dozen people can come up with and test, the game's content is generated by tens of thousands of people. Content isn't static - you create anything you want, and can upload graphics, textures, even Poser bvh files. Every user's game client can generate game content using the in game tools. You actually create cubes, spheres, etc out of thin air, bend, strech it, skin it, link objects together... and can script in animations, sounds, actions. That's why there are in game lightsabers, virtual cars with real working doors, engine sounds - and are actually drivable.

There's a real economy - in game money can be converted to US dollars. At the time of this writing, the exchange rate is $270 SL to $1 USD. If you wanted to upgrade your account from free to pay account, the cost is $10 USD a month. But you get $2000 SL dollars a month (which you could convert to ~$7 real money). You also get the ability to own land with a pay account.

Here's a quick list of some highlights off the top of my head:

- Content is player made. There's so much land mass, you can't see it all, and everything is constantly changing.

- You get a weekly allowance. That money can buy other items in game, or be converted to real $USD.

- You can sell items. Either person to person, or sell from a storefront you make, rental properties (like a mall that someone else has developed). Items you can sell ranges from clothing, jewlery, cars, weapons, boats, homes, even animations - such as dancing or flying birds.

- There's a built in permission for objects you create. You can decide if others can copy, modify or transfer your work. You can thus limit how others can use what you've created and ensure that there aren't going to be 10,000 copies of your work without being paid for it.

- If you want to develop land, you get bonuses based on traffic to your property. The more user traffic, the more popular your land is. The more popular your land is, the more money the game gives you. This means making a theme park, zoo, etc is feasable. Additionally, the top 2% of the property owners also split a check (In Sept the check was for $11,000 or so).

- Real economy. Since virtual money can translate into real world money, this is serious business. The virtual economy is fluid and based on the same principles as the stock market. It's all based on who's got money to sell, and who's buying. We know for a fact that some of the land barons make over $15,000 a month profit on the land they own, while maintaining 80% of the land they own on a month to month basis.

- Because there is so much wheeling and dealing, they've made sure that even the newbie user can own land by setting up a "first land" program. Any user can buy a plot of 512m land for almost nothing.

Money isn't the only thing this game has going for it, but I focus on it since money talks :)

To sum it up - I'm really impressed with how they've developed a game system that has it's own userbase develop content and have incentive to do a good job at it.

The real shame is that I spent so many hours playing Asheron's Call and got nothing in return.

Be warned - the biggest problem I had is hardware related. My video card sucks. So sometime this week I'll get my 6600 GT in the mail.

Informational URLs:
http://www.business2.com/b2/web/articles/0,17863,1127659,00.html
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=173601081
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=1278578

My referal link:
http://secondlife.com/ss/?u=543731070dc09e5183a82912b5178a9a&personalized=true

Jason · Posted: Dec 26, 2005 11:03pm Post subject:

Before I forget, my IGN is Pantheon Lightworker. There are no "worlds", so everyone exists in the same game. So give me an IM if you sign up.

PingBad · Guru Joined: 05 Feb 2005 Posts: 2064 Location: New Zealand

hey, that sounds kinda kewl (I've never heard of it until now)... any idea what the bandwidth usage is like (with the kind of flexibility you have detailed here, I'd say it is well beyond the realms of Dial-Up users, but correct me if I'm wrong)....
kinda sounds matrixy (in a way)

dotslasher · Newbie Joined: 03 Apr 2004 Posts: 81 Location: Belgium

damnit my sms central isn't supported Sad

Jason · Posted: Dec 27, 2005 6:57am Post subject:

The bandwidth varies - depending on the area you enter, and how far your client is set to render.

I've got my client settings set to the max allowed bandwidth and have seen 600k download speeds when entering new areas. The client caches data, so you don't have to constantly redownload.

I haven't tried it with dialup, so not sure how well it would work.

Jason · Posted: Dec 27, 2005 1:40pm Post subject:

Just found this article (not work safe)

It's worth reading for this quote alone:

trystan · Eleet Joined: 15 Jun 2005 Posts: 756 Location: SLC Utah

*** makes note opening the first link Jason posted at work very bad ***

Jason · Posted: Dec 27, 2005 2:10pm Post subject:

ah crap. Sorry about that. Let me edit that post.

FBI · Posted: Dec 27, 2005 4:47pm Post subject:

lol.....I used to play this game called RO over here http://iro.ragnarokonline.com/

Theres many different versions for many countries but I stopped cause I been spening more then 100$ on there point cards but heh I got like 10 billion zenies....and the best equipment 1 billion zenies is like 5$....

Razz