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WTF is Second Life?
MightyUnclean
Member EpicPosts: 3,531
in Second Life
Guys, what, exactly, is Second Life? I watched a couple of videos on YouTube and I still can't figure it out. Is it just a big, graphically based chat room? Is it a haven for weirdos and G.I.R.L.'s? (Guys In Real Life?) Who plays this...game? Has anyone created a more modern version of it?
Comments
Second Life is exactly that, a virtual Second Life. Its actually the truest definition of a sandbox. Its basically a social platform that revolves predominantly around fashion, housing, role playing, etc. Really wish dudes would get away from this "G.I.R.L." paranoia when it comes to game. Now days females play games just as much as males. It just depends on the game. And given the type of virtual social platform that Second Life is, I would venture to say that there are more females playing Second Life than males.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Most the hard-griefers are gone from the game these days you can actually build in a sand-box likely because the game isn't talked about much, and most the trolls moved on to other games like PUBG.
Second Life is also popular for games of skill/gambling, and lots of Gacha / Lootbox gambling.
SLMC, is pretty much dead these days because most games out there perform way better thus most SL military sims no longer exist though it used to be very popular but games like PUBG / SOS have taken it's place among many other games.
The next best game to second life is 3DX chat which is a total adult thing but doesn't offer as much content creation / customization as Second Life does.
Second Life also now has 3D Mesh Models.
Secondlife was built as a metaverse - the idea that physical people (and groups) can express themselves in a virtual space. It was released when games, and online games in particular, were starting to get some mainstream attention. People and brands were moving in to explore this idea of virtualising themselves.
You had real world universities with virtual classrooms in SecondLife. Musicians had concerts, activist groups could spread their ideas and brands could market their products. This was the core idea of SecondLife, giving people the ability to own some dedicated virtual space and use it as they see fit. SL was one of the most expensive platforms in terms of buying space, which could cost you hundreds or even thousands of dollars monthly. People were buying these, which shows there was perceived value in the virtual space. It does not make sense to say SL is exclusively about virtual sex, because that would be a heck of an expensive way of doing it.
What happened, is multiple “big players” and big payers moved elsewhere. The companies that were using SL saw its potential and went on to develop their own virtual spaces, either by making their own game (like Coca Cola and MTV) or by closing a strong sponsorship deal with one of the smaller games. The people most invested in the idea of a metaverse often did not like the commercialization of SL, so they too went to make their own versions. And with social media gaining traction, the big advertisers and brands moved their efforts into the bigger pond.
Second Life always had a “weird” subculture, which always represented just one aspect of a complex and ambitious virtual space. With people moving away overtime (especially the established brands and names), the niche community has become the focus of the game.
In a way, Second Life is a place for virtual weirdness the same way Facebook is a platform for posting duck selfies. It’s what most people ended up doing, perhaps because the platforms failed to deliver on the other fronts. It’s a shame to see them as such though - you miss the forest for the trees. Especially with VR, which seems to have similar ideas behind it as the original SecondLife did. It’s more useful to see Second Life as a failed metaverse, one that we can look back at and learn from.