A day in Second Life

Filed in archive Technology on September 30, 2006

So I used the cold (19 degrees Celsius only in Nothern California's fall only!) day to spend half a day in Second Life inspired by the recent Wired guide to the 'other world'.

First a positive surprise - Secondlife supports Linux - so I was immediately ready to go. The installation was (especially for Linux) superb and simple. You install it and 5 minutes later you'll find yourself flying through the Cyberworld.

I'm really amazed how much online games changes since I last checked - pretty realistic (once it has enough minutes to render all the environments). Also the sheer amount of options that you'll enjoy is mindboggling. Hundreds of customization options for your Avatar, things you can build and pay for and the diversity of the island terrain is amazing.

Seemingly Secondlife is zooming in on being a real live alternative of the real life with its economics and rules of behavior. Quite amazing what the company (and more importantly the players) have done there.

Here are the downsides for me:

- The graphics engine can take minutes to properly render your environment until that you only see grey material that stops you from going around
- There is only so much you can do besides chatting with strangers (or soon to be friends), sure you can open a business or buy a home but in the end it's a lot of teleporting and flying around
- It takes soooo much time - be prepared to invest many afternoons

However I was amazed by the rich 'texture' of this world - there are cool virtual worlds less than a decade from now if these games get a little more spin...