Maybe Jessica is right and virtual worlds will evolve, but I think she did a disservice to M59 in comparingit to SL. If I was Psychochild, I would demand an apology

I’m so damn weary of people who want to check e-mail by getting up from a virtual chair, walking to the virtual front door, opening it, stepping outside, closing that virtual front door, walking down the virtual path to the curb of the virtual street and opening up the virtual mail box, reaching inside, getting the virtual envelopes, closing the virtual mail box, walking back up the virtual path, opening the virtual front door again, stepping back inside the virtual house, closing the virtual front door, walking back to the virtual chair, sitting down, and opening each envelope in turn, taking care not to get a virtual paper cut and have to get the virtual antiseptic.

I like clicking “Check Mail” instead.

I guess Web 2.X isn’t for me. But hey, apparently there’s real money in making cumbersome, lag-infested, buggy virtual worlds to replace our streamlined World Wide Web. It’s dot-bomb all over again!

While I enjoy some user created/generated content, why all the buzz as though it’s the last next best thing? I agree, entertainment is what people really crave, and while the opportunity to contribute in a tangible way to some of these games(vw’s, whatever) is certainly worthwhile, in the end we enjoy being spoon-fed … we always have, and we always will.

In the end, SL’s real impact on the industry may be the legal standards/precedents set for offering and managing a virtual world, created as a result of being sued by users or pursued by politicians horny for a safe campaign issue.

Bottom line, SL is not, and will never be about respectable business environments. People in SL have no interest in that shit whatsoever, and anyone who’d spent 5 minutes there knows it. SL is the tentative next step in the porn industry. Linden Labs needs to accept who their users are and adjust accordingly. The most “moral” mainstream thing going on in SL is casino gambling – too bad that’s illegal in the States. A Vegas sim run by actual Vegas entities would bring in money insulated goldhats.

This sounds a lot like “the internet will never be more than a tool for porn.” I do agree that adult content is a major focus. But there’s potential in SL to be more than just a porn delivery device.

The problem is that there’s no vision behind SL. They have name recognition and the attention of the media. And for some inexplicable reason, the majority of that media attention has been positive. They’re sitting on a gold mine. Unfortunately Linden seems to be content with generating bullshit instead of pushing the state of the art.

Bottom line, SL is not, and will never be about respectable business environments. People in SL have no interest in that shit whatsoever, and anyone who’d spent 5 minutes there knows it. SL is the tentative next step in the porn industry. Linden Labs needs to accept who their users are and adjust accordingly. The most “moral” mainstream thing going on in SL is casino gambling – too bad that’s illegal in the States. A Vegas sim run by actual Vegas entities would bring in money insulated goldhats.

Also fell the need to admit that I own several slaves in SL. Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it. Though they need to put some serious work into the client for combat. It’s a fucking travesty for any sort of action-type stuff.

Am I the only person who see’s real life Commerical’s in VW’s leading to real life objects being sold in VW’s? Which in turn can lead to legalized RMT abuse if not implemented correctly? We kinda already do a form of this in EQ with the /pizza command.

Eventually you’ll be able to buy your own Barbie Elf in a Barbie Elf virtual world.
(and then exchange it for a 100 gold on eBay)

Exactly. Like it or not most VW participants spend the vast majority of their time making their deck of cards better and while they are doing that they want to show their deck of cards to everyone around them.