![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Second Life
23 April 2008 07:05 pmLast week I decided to upload the Linux client for Second Life and give it a go. I couldn't get it to run on my desktop machine (the video card probably isn't up to specs) but I could get it to start on my laptop.
The first thing I didn't like was in choosing a name. I'm not sure why they chose to do it this way but while your first name is what you want it to be, you must choose your last name from a short list that they provide. I thought part of the point was that this was a fantasy world where you get to remake yourself the way that you want. I wasn't really pleased with any of the choices but picked something Germanic I could live with.
Next was the adjustment of my avatar. Many elements of ones physical appearance can be adjusted by slide bars. Tall-short. Thin-fat. There is even a setting to increase or decrease the bulge in one's pants. (You have to pay extra to actually have something behind that bulge.) I spend most of my avatar adjusting time trying to get the nose right. The basic skin did not have a goatee or any option for facial hair.
That lead me to wander about to a number of free sites. These locations offer up free clothes, object, gestures, poses and the like. Mostly crap, or else they wouldn't be giving it away. I was able to find a photorealistic skin that had a goatee but it was pretty junky, a thin almost stubbly beard rather than something significant like my own facial adornment. If I wanted a decent beard, I would have to buy it.
Which leads in to the observation that just about everything in second Life is geared towards modifying one's appearance and taking you money to do so. Of course, starting the game with a free account you have no money whatsoever so there are two options: get out your credit card or sell your soul to the advertisers.
There are camping sites where you can go and just sit around and they will pay you. Of course, they pay you almost nothing to do that. What they want is for you to click on the links and then go through online surveys and signup for promotions. well, it's easy enough to lie on all the forms, give fake names and email addresses and earn a few hundred dollars. It is, however, time consuming. It will take a lot more of that to earn myself enough to buy a decent beard.
With much of that out of the way, it was time to go looking for interesting people and places. The first on my list were a number Klingon related sites. Empty. Pirate coves. Empty. New Babbage; a steampunk themed community. I found a nice vest for free in a shop but otherwise; empty. Victoria City; another steampunk community. Better lit, but also empty. Of the 50,000 or so people currently logged on to Second Life, it seems that most are camping somewhere trying to build up funds to buy clothes.
It would seem that the social stuff happens at specific times in specific locations. On a New Babbage wall, I saw a poster advertising a party at the Tesla Lounge on Thursday. I went to the lounge to take a look and actually talked to someone. She pretty much confirmed my observations about where and when things happen. The New Babbage group is working on a calendar of holidays to regularly bring people together.
As a social network portal, Second Life is much like any other chat room, only pretty. All in all, I haven't found anything spectacular about it. I'm sure there are interesting people to meet but the world itself can at best only serve as a facilitator. Aside from the party tomorrow, my time on Second Life is going to be camping on Welfare Island trying to build up funds to buy a beard. Otherwise, I'll spend my time doing steampunk stuff in the real world.
The first thing I didn't like was in choosing a name. I'm not sure why they chose to do it this way but while your first name is what you want it to be, you must choose your last name from a short list that they provide. I thought part of the point was that this was a fantasy world where you get to remake yourself the way that you want. I wasn't really pleased with any of the choices but picked something Germanic I could live with.
Next was the adjustment of my avatar. Many elements of ones physical appearance can be adjusted by slide bars. Tall-short. Thin-fat. There is even a setting to increase or decrease the bulge in one's pants. (You have to pay extra to actually have something behind that bulge.) I spend most of my avatar adjusting time trying to get the nose right. The basic skin did not have a goatee or any option for facial hair.
That lead me to wander about to a number of free sites. These locations offer up free clothes, object, gestures, poses and the like. Mostly crap, or else they wouldn't be giving it away. I was able to find a photorealistic skin that had a goatee but it was pretty junky, a thin almost stubbly beard rather than something significant like my own facial adornment. If I wanted a decent beard, I would have to buy it.
Which leads in to the observation that just about everything in second Life is geared towards modifying one's appearance and taking you money to do so. Of course, starting the game with a free account you have no money whatsoever so there are two options: get out your credit card or sell your soul to the advertisers.
There are camping sites where you can go and just sit around and they will pay you. Of course, they pay you almost nothing to do that. What they want is for you to click on the links and then go through online surveys and signup for promotions. well, it's easy enough to lie on all the forms, give fake names and email addresses and earn a few hundred dollars. It is, however, time consuming. It will take a lot more of that to earn myself enough to buy a decent beard.
With much of that out of the way, it was time to go looking for interesting people and places. The first on my list were a number Klingon related sites. Empty. Pirate coves. Empty. New Babbage; a steampunk themed community. I found a nice vest for free in a shop but otherwise; empty. Victoria City; another steampunk community. Better lit, but also empty. Of the 50,000 or so people currently logged on to Second Life, it seems that most are camping somewhere trying to build up funds to buy clothes.It would seem that the social stuff happens at specific times in specific locations. On a New Babbage wall, I saw a poster advertising a party at the Tesla Lounge on Thursday. I went to the lounge to take a look and actually talked to someone. She pretty much confirmed my observations about where and when things happen. The New Babbage group is working on a calendar of holidays to regularly bring people together.
As a social network portal, Second Life is much like any other chat room, only pretty. All in all, I haven't found anything spectacular about it. I'm sure there are interesting people to meet but the world itself can at best only serve as a facilitator. Aside from the party tomorrow, my time on Second Life is going to be camping on Welfare Island trying to build up funds to buy a beard. Otherwise, I'll spend my time doing steampunk stuff in the real world.
