Okay, so it seems that the /.horde is once again missing the point. And don’t get me wrong, for some of you out there I’m sure 2nd Life is just as fun as Myspace or LiveJournal.
But it sucks. I’ve been there, testing out the Linux beta/alpha/thingie, and I can verify that it blows. It’s like a big old virtual 3-D shopping mall. I mean, it’s not even cutting edge realism compared to other current offerings, which I also think are somewhat lacking. But at least Half Life 2 can suspend my disbelief while I’m playing it.
Not to say that it’s perfect, but it’s good. I can get into the game and interact in it’s limited structure to have a fun time playing a story or game against others.
Second Life offered no such diversion. Basically, it amounted to “The Sims” only with a wider playing group. Which to me is way too much like “work” to be enjoyable. And as far as being able to walk down virtual isles in Amazon.com… no thanks. I’ve got a more efficient way of buying stuff from them called a “Web Browser”.
There is an allure to walking down isles and pawing stuff. But that’s mostly in the physical aspect of walking down isles and … well … pawing through stuff.
So it’s almost like the worst of both worlds, for me. I don’t get the physical aspect of “checking things out” or hanging out with people and I also have to put up with a sub par interface. Woo!
Bit I digress. On the subject of this little publicity stunt where “real people” intermingle with “virtual avatars” I smell a steaming pile. There’s no tactile feedback in the client, nevermind any kind of actual physical feedback. How much “ineraction” could there possibly be? I suspect they were reffering to ambient noise as interaction. Which, in my humblest of opinions, is about as marvelous as a trans-atlantic cable running telegraph messages from the USA to Europe. In 2006.
Slashdot Mixes Metaphores
