Second Life

I gave Second Life a spin this afternoon.
I had given it a half-hearted try a couple years ago, but I didn't have the computer
hardware available to do it justice. I've been following the project from a distance
for a while, and I've kept pretty high hopes. I think every self-respecting geek wants
to see a real-life version of Neal Stephenson's multiverse, myself included. A
Google
TechTalk about Second Life recently reminded me of the project, and coincided
nicely with an email from Linden Labs announcing that they no longer require
a credit card or monthly subscription to play. All I needed was a spare weekend,
which finally arrived. Most of the wedding/party planning stress has passed,
and Kirsten is spending this weekend at a comic convention in San Diego.

Second Life lets you exchange dollars for in-game currency, and vice-versa. On the
surface, this is great! This economic basis for a game allows and encourages an
amazing amount and variety of in-game commerce, rewards user-developers for producing
content, and pays for game servers and
programmer salaries via rent and upkeep on in-game land and structures. Unfortunately,
the economic structure of the game also has a strong impact on the type of content
that is produced. The overwhelming majority of the most
popular in-game areas are casinos and malls. The casinos allow their owners to skirt
around gambling laws by collecting game currency from users and later converting it
to real dollars. The malls sell a variety of in-game models, textures, animations,
vehicles, weapons, and toys. At least half of this content is adult in nature, however,
and the malls themselves have the feeling of a seedy redlight district. Exploring the
in-game menus of popular areas exposes the user to explicit language, and reminds
me of advertisements for porn sites. There are a few nightclubs, but those have a
very strong vein of adult material as well, including "escort" services. The users
of the game seem to be primarily interested in gambling, simulated sex, and simulated
furry sex. I felt like Chapelle in his
Internet Sketch (warning:
ads on this page are not work-safe).

I did manage to find a couple neat areas that weren't totally porn-strewn, and
didn't feature anthropomorphic foxes having sex on picnic tables. I took a few
screen shots that were moderately pretty.

• Pic 1


• Pic 2


• Pic 3

In short, I wasn't terribly impressed, and I'm feeling a bit let-down.
I have fairly high hopes for the idea of consumer-created media, in the long term,
but recent
examples haven't exactly been inspiring. Ze
Frank has a particularly great
episode on
the subject, that I highly recommend.