January 5, 2010 by jmcdonou
Barry Collins at PC Pro has an article up discussing a follow up visit to Second Life three years after his initial foray. He finds most of the islands rather empty, with the notable exception of Zindra, Second Life’s red light district. Apparently the activity there, however, is enough to generate ever increasing numbers of user hours. I can’t say I’m horribly surprised by this. I watched the first generation of virtual worlds go through the exact same initial buzz/boom/collapse of interest cycle in the 1990’s. Linden has managed to escape the fate of many of the first generation of 3D world providers by providing a space for sex in their ecosystem. Whether there’s enough business there to sustain them in the long-term, and whether it’s really the business they want to be in, are interesting questions.
I thought Collins’ article was painfully narrow. Really, it does take a little time in-world to be able to navigate your way to those places that interest you, and are likewise full of people. Roleplaying sims, though I don’t take part in them, are often full of people. The concept of a free-form, three-dimensional novel being written by dozens of people is a fascinating one that’s being explored each and every day in SL in roleplay form–everything from steampunk to sci-fi to vampire, to post-apocalyptic survivalism stories are going on every day. Though it might be easy to understand that sex is a major draw for people, I have yet to attend a poetry reading in Second Life that isn’t full of people. Book discussions are often full.
The fact that Collins ends up in sex sims to “find the people” is not only a noob mistake, but it says more about what he’s looking for than anything else.
If it was his first time in world, I’d say you have a point. But his discussion was focusing on changes from when he last was heavily involved, and I think that’s valid. If this was a serious ethnography I’d expect to see some documentation on exactly how much time was spent in world and where, but my experience of wandering Second Life is that I’m in ghost towns far more often than not.
Вполне, все может быть…
Apparently the activity there, however, is enough to generate ever increasing numbers of […….
уматово…
Barry Collins at PC Pro has an article up discussing a follow up visit to Second Life three years after his initial foray…..