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Virtual Fashion Thrives in Second Life 164

Posted by timothy from the only-thing-weirder-than-real-life-fashion dept.
Carl Bialik from WSJ writes "The game Second Life — a simulated world with more than 700,000 'residents,' or players, who sometimes refer to their offline existence as their 'first life' — is breeding a virtual world of fashion design, with the same complications as the real world of fashion, the Wall Street Journal reports: 'A continuing headache for many designers is the ease with which others can copy their creations, and several have discovered boutiques that sell knockoffs of their clothes. A well-known Second Life designer was recently accused of stealing skin textures and withdrew from Second Life after receiving harassing messages. Linden says it investigates accusations of design theft, and repeat offenders can have their online accounts closed. Some designers, like DE Designs' Mr. Hester, have taken steps to copyright their work.'"
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Virtual Fashion Thrives in Second Life More

Virtual Fashion Thrives in Second Life

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  • If you're worried this much about your online clothes, there is this thing called the OUTSIDE!!!

  • btfa (Score:4, Funny)

    by s388 ( 910768 ) on Monday September 25, 2006 @01:41PM (#16188649)
    bypass TFA

    "We found out pretty quickly that people loved owning things," Ms. Smith says.

    there you have it folks.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by brunascle ( 994197 )
      "We found out pretty quickly that people loved owning things," Ms. Smith says.
      i can vouche for that. except, i like to have things that exist in the tangible universe.
    • If they publish a paper on their findings in a peer-reviewed magazine they'll be sure to win the Nobel Prize!
  • some designers, like DE Designs' Mr. Hester, have taken steps to copyright their work.

    Like what? Creating it. Because that's all it takes. Once you create a new work, it's copyrighted. Period. You can register the copyright which helps with enforcing it, but there are basicaly no steps to copyright a work.
    • Because registering the copyright can be an important step in being able to defend a copyright claim in court because registering is a strong governmental acknowledgement of the work.
    • You can register the copyright which helps with enforcing it...

      This is almost certainly a bad choice of words on the part of the author. The only real reason I can come up with for anyone to "take steps" to copyright their work (really, as you've said, to register the copyright) is to enforce it. Why would anyone bother to register their copyright unless they suspected they may need to prove that it was theirs? The author certainly intended to say that the designers have taken steps to prepare to enforc
      • Some else might duplicate it and sue YOU ?

  • Copyright? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by gr8_phk ( 621180 ) on Monday September 25, 2006 @01:42PM (#16188663)
    So real world copyright law will apply in the virtual world. Will real-world designers start to steal from the virtual one? Is that a copyright violation? Hmmm.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by kfg ( 145172 ) *
      So real world copyright law will apply in the virtual world.

      It always has. So has trademark law and a design my be protected as a mark as well as by copyright.

      KFG
    • Will real-world designers start to steal from the virtual one? Is that a copyright violation?

      Yes.

      It's called a "derived work".

      Same thing as one designer doing a sketch for a work in progress and another copying the sketch into cloth.

  • Fashion... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Peter Trepan ( 572016 ) on Monday September 25, 2006 @01:45PM (#16188701)
    ...wants to be free!
  • sharing should be mandatory.
    • second life has a huge economy. sharing goes against the very fabric of their business model - you can exchange real life dollars for second life money. people can and do form entire businesses in second life to make real life money. every time one of these echanges is made, the game's publisher takes a share. that's why people are pissed about their designs being copied - it's actually costing them profits.

      second life is about creating an artificial that somewhat models real life - paying for shit with

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Golias ( 176380 )
        Which makes me wonder... If nearly everybody is playing "Second Life" to generate money, who's putting all this money into the system?

        I mean, say I'm an aspiring archetect, and I've decided to design and sell virtual homes on Second Life. The first thing I'd do is figure out how to look like a half-way respectible member of the virtual community while investing a minimum of my own money into it. If everybody in there takes that very sensible approach, nobody can possibly make much money.

        The business model

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by vadim_t ( 324782 )
          Creating in Second Life is hard.

          It's very hard to be proficient at everything in it. I can think of maybe of one person who I know can build, create avatars, textures and script. Most people will specialize in one of those. So when a scripter wants a fancy home, they go to a builder.

          I'd say that making a living in SL is noticeably harder than in real life. If you have decent computer skills you can get SOME kind of job fairly easily. Now, if you wanted to live on a SL business, you'd need to invest quite a

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Golias ( 176380 )
            Say, creating an avatar that doesn't look like crap is a skill that can easily take weeks to develop. The monetary cost is low (you need to pay for texture uploads, but you could just use free ones), but the time cost is high, so paying $3 for an avatar turns out to make a lot sense.

            Except, isn't one of the pleasures of the game supposed to be creating an Avatar for yourself? It was certainly the most-fun element of City of Heroes. The idea of paying somebody $3 to create a hero for me in that game would

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Gwala ( 309968 )
              With City of Heroes - you only have so many combinations, AFAIK, it's not possible to upload a completely custom skin, right?

              Same process - people buy parts, then mash them together. You can create your own parts if you want - but most people dont have the skill to be able to design say, a dress - since it requires a fairly decent amount of skill with Photoshop to get it seamless and looking good.

              So, people buy the dress, then combine it with a shirt they have bought or made, etc etc.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by vadim_t ( 324782 )
              $3 is for a ready made one, for example like this [luskwood.com], a custom one will probably cost you several times that.

              Well, more complete explanation: You can roll your own (human one) for free by adjusting sliders, but that only goes so far. You can get clothes and stuff for free, and you can buy that too. Now, if you want something truly fancy, you'll need some custom work. Looking like Neo is easy and can be done for free, looking like a dragon is going to take lots of time or paying for it because no slider combina

            • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

              by Unoti ( 731964 )
              isn't one of the pleasures of the game supposed to be creating an Avatar for yourself? It was certainly the most-fun element of City of Heroes. The idea of paying somebody $3 to create a hero for me in that game would seem like utter insanity. How is Second Life different?

              I felt the same way you describe when I started SL, but feel totally different now. Here's why.

              For weeks when I first started I never bought anything. I built and scriped everything I needed. It was a matter of principle, a matter of

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by Unoti ( 731964 )
          The business model only works if you have a lot of people playing Second Life who only want to be consumers... and what could possibly be the draw of the game for them? If they want to build a social network, they can make a MySpace page.

          There are a lot of people playing SL who are primarily consumers. More than content creators, in fact. Linden's CEO estimates about 75% of the players are primarily consumers. As for the comparison to MySpace: there's something special about having a virtual presence, an

        • Re:If they really want this game to succeed (Score:4, Insightful)

          by cowscows ( 103644 ) on Monday September 25, 2006 @02:35PM (#16189599) Journal
          Second Life is two things basically. On one hand it is a sandbox for people who want to build/create/script/model/texture/whatever. But for a lot of other people, it's just a really fancy chat client. One where you are represented to other people by your customizable avatar. I think most people end up somewhere between the two extremes, it's fun to dabble in making your own clothes or whatever, and you'll learn faster and probably have more fun if you're at least a little bit social.

          The neat thing about SL is that you get both of those aspects in one package, so you can sort of float between them at your lesiure. Then add in the fact that a basic, yet very capable SL account is free, and they've ended up with a decently sized userbase, and a solid in-game economy.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by DrXym ( 126579 )
            Having tooled around in Second Life I fail to see what the attraction is. The client is dog slow, the world is ugly and it costs real money to do things. What struck me most about Second Life is that I've already seen exactly the same thing before 15 years ago - TinyMUD. While MUD stands for Multi-User-Dungeon, the only way I saw TinyMUD used was by people who wanted to craft their own objects and locations that they hanged out in to chat.
            • You won't find much argument that the client is laggy and a couple of generations behind as far as visuals go. I'm not familiar with TinyMUD, but if it's similar to Second Life, then good for it. If there's still a market for such software 15 years later, then maybe SL isn't such a bad thing?

              You can play second life 24/7 without spending a dime of real cash on the game. You have to pay a subscription fee if you want to own "land" within the game. On land that you own, you have some privledges that you don't
        • Everybody is not in world to generate money, there are a great many that are happy to be there as consumers. One of the draws of the platform is the user created content. Many people are there for many different reasons, though there are a lot that simply enjoy being there and playing around with the creation tools with no interest in trying to make money. It is what you make of it, and that is attractive to many people.

          Judging by your comment about sweat-shop gold farms.. sounds like you have no idea what
      • What I wonder is how much you can build on the work of others and how much involves reinventing the wheel / building from scratch. I guess I should play the game to get a feel for it.
        • It's worth it. I'm not a great game player, my machine isn't up to playing SL really and I don;t have enough time to get sucked into an immersive game. However I found downloading the free client, reading the scripting guide and trolling about in the world for a few hours to be interesting and worthwhile.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by fitten ( 521191 )
        /sarcasm-on
        Odd how this mimics real life. /sarcasm-off

        Since designs are just intellectual property (both in this game and in the real world), what does it say about things in the real world that are IP, like OSS and music? Can the same 'arguments' be used for both? Example: The designers are just selling IP. If someone copies their work, how is that depriving them of anything?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jafuser ( 112236 )
        every time one of these echanges is made, the game's publisher takes a share. that's why people are pissed about their designs being copied - it's actually costing them profits.

        You are probably thinking of There.com. LL does not take a cut on each item copy (there is a fee for using their currency exchange when you cash out, but you aren't forced to use theirs and there are alternatives).

        I'd like to point out that the catalyst behind this particular instance of net-drama was with an issue of fair use, not
        • You mis-read my post... I was saying that LL takes a cut every time SL money is exchanged for real cash.

          Yes, SL is full of hypocrites and prima donnas... that's why I played it for a week to see what it was like and the account remains lifeless now. It's an interesting character study though, to see a bunch of copyright infringers clamoring for DRM.
    • My preschool was arrainged in open activity stations. We were taught explicitly to enjoy one station as long as one would like and not share. There were plenty of stations, so if you waited your turn, you were free to use it as long as you wanted. If you got bored waiting, there were other things to do. The real reason to share is when you like someone and want them to be happy, not because you feel some social pressure.

      The result was that the children did not bug each other or whine about not getting as
      • I don't even remember preschool.

        However, I do remember a few scattered bits and pieces about the later grades (1-4), and one thing I learned in school was to never bring anything to school that you didn't want to share with the entire class (food, etc.), because the teacher would force you to. It was also a good lesson on the problems with communism, resource-sharing, etc. One candy bar or whatever would be great if you kept it to yourself, or maybe shared it with one friend. But when you had to share it

  • What if I'm caught walking the streets in my "First Life" wearing, like, a skin texture that, like was created in "Second Life"? Will I be sued in my "First Life", or, like, in my "Second Life"?

    I'm, like, totally confused! You know, like???

    • Funny, but I'll bet it won't be too long before we see just that. But God help us if furry fashions catch on in First Life! That's just a joke, no really...

  • free focus groups (Score:5, Insightful)

    by neatfoote ( 951656 ) on Monday September 25, 2006 @01:51PM (#16188795)
    Seems like real-world clothing manufacturers could easily take advantage of such a system to provide low-cost marketing data. Is someone trying to pitch a potentially risky line of avant-garde designs? Create a quickie virtual mock-up and see whether the Second-Lifers go for it. Overhead is reduced to essentially nil, and you have the added opportunity to create a built-in customer base if you ever do decide to sell the clothing in real life.
    • Are the people who play online virtual-life games the same who would buy real-life avant-garde fashions, even if they find such things suitable enough for their avatars?
    • yes that way they could gather valuable data on the fashion taste of big nerds that basically never go outside.

      step 1:: gather data on the small percentage of population that REALLLLLY like MMORPGs step 2:: ???? step 3:: PROFIT

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by le0p ( 932717 ) *
      An interesting idea although I'm not sure that nerdy MMO addicts are the peer group generally sought out by trendy fashion designers. Unless, of course, they're designing dirty t-shirts and boxers: The hottest trend in your moms basement!

    • Seems like real-world clothing manufacturers could easily take advantage of such a system to provide low-cost marketing data. Is someone trying to pitch a potentially risky line of avant-garde designs? Create a quickie virtual mock-up and see whether the Second-Lifers go for it.

      That only proves whether or not the demographic that inhabits SL is open to your design. The question is whether or not that demographic is one that can be isolated and targeted in the real world.

      An additional factor is tha

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by vadim_t ( 324782 )
      I don't think SL fashion translates very well to the real world. To begin with, SL is entirely free of real world comfort, realism and materials cost constraints.

      Things you see in SL: People carrying katanas and various other weapons, robots, furries, very non-western clothes, people with more jewelry than Mr. T, strange things like a fish that swims circles above your head, hair styles that'd take lots of time and money to do in reality...
    • Fashion designers, having taken a clue from the digital world, have recently decided to use survey results from trial marketing data floated in a number of MMOGs, for example "Second Life".

      2007 fashions, as a result, are predicted to consist entirely of micro bikinis, Robotech suits, and "Furry" costumes with gender-appropriate orifices/prostheses.
      • I'm still waiting for Nike to release their new collection of epic shoes. They give you a +5 to trendiness.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by brkello ( 642429 )
      You are assuming that people who play Second Life are normal.

      (I kid, I kid!)
    • If you've spent any time in second life, you'd know that the clothing strongly ignores practicality and sensibility. Part of it is that virtual clothes weigh nothing and are indestructable, so you can make any shape or size of outfit you want (even including costumes like Ed-209, and people can wear them with about as much effort as a bikini without having to worry about getting into a car, or even about ever having to wash it. A second lost consideration is fabric. In real life, the difference between s
  • By April of this year, though, Ms. LaRoche no longer had that day job. Her online design business had become full time, aided by the success of her fashions and other contract work, such as helping American Apparel launch a store inside Second Life.

    So when the game eventually ends or goes under because no one is playing any more not only will Ms. LaRoche not have a job she won't have any marketable skills either.

    Interviewer: So, I see you have been working for yourself for the past 2 years. What business
    • Sounds alot like when I used to raid in World of Warcraft to get all this sweet gear that, now that I've quit, is just some bytes taking up space on some server somewhere for a few more years before they shut it down and call it quits.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Chairboy ( 88841 )
      Maybe.... but to play devil's advocate, people who quit their jobs to start website based businesses 10 years ago were also encouraged to "get serious about life" and go do something real. Some of those guys ended up making millions because they got in on the ground floor. There's no guarentee of success in any business, but there ARE opportunities and they aren't always obvious.

      As silly as it seems right now, the succesful Second Life clothier might be the metaverse-based tycoon of the future.... or ho
      • Maybe.... but to play devil's advocate, people who quit their jobs to start website based businesses 10 years ago were also encouraged to "get serious about life" and go do something real. Some of those guys ended up making millions because they got in on the ground floor. There's no guarentee of success in any business, but there ARE opportunities and they aren't always obvious.

        As silly as it seems right now, the succesful Second Life clothier might be the metaverse-based tycoon of the future.... or homele
    • Lets see... if she actually presents this properly, this job would demonstrate some business skills, a willingness to take risks and do something different and 'outside the box', not to mention the types of design and programming skills required by her Second Life job, which have a proven marketability (and, if she's primarily interested in design, they're also probably fairly portable to other sorts of "real life" design jobs).

      Admittedly it's quite likely that an interviewer for most positions will simp

    • So when the game eventually ends or goes under because no one is playing any more not only will Ms. LaRoche not have a job she won't have any marketable skills either.

      Um, whatever. At the very least she will have skills doing 3D design. Creating models and skins for someone else's game for free (in this case, a Quake mod) was how one of my friends launched a career in the gaming industry doing 3D modelling and such. It's definitely a marketable skill. Not saying she's got a golden ticket or anything, bu
  • The game Second Life -- a simulated world with more than 700,000 'residents,' or players, who sometimes refer to their offline existence as their 'first life' -- is breeding a virtual world of fashion design

    And right along with that is the herds of fashionistas, strutting and posing. It's ironic that despite being a "virtual" world, Second life is one of the most shallow, materialistic communities I've ever experienced.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Unoti ( 731964 )
      Second life is one of the most shallow, materialistic communities I've ever experienced.

      There are lots of sub-communities. They're not all materialistic (is virtual materialism really materialism?) Certainly there's a big contengent of preening avatar appearance whores running around. But there's tons of other people doing tons of other things, too. Look at boat racing, miniature golf, or investigate becomming a dragon for glimpses of less self-absorbed community.

    • Sure, if "shallow" means "interested in different things than me."
  • I don't see why people should get so upset, its just like the corner street knockoffs. Make your brand famous and people will come to you, especially if you continue to innovate. You're only wasting your money and time trying to knockout the knockoffs... hmm this sounds a lot like the DMCA debate...

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Overloadplanetunreal ( 603019 )
      I believe there is a big difference in the Second Life setting.

      In the real world, they're cheap knockoffs. They're made from substandard materials and I'm sure the craftsmanship is not as good. But in a game like Second Life, stealing a texture to use on your own outfit has the SAME quality as the original, so there's no reason for a potential buyer to get the knockoff as opposed to the original.
  • Last time I saw a Second Life article on /. (a few months ago) I decided to try it, met a few persons, all in there recently for 2 or three weeks. I wonder how many people spend more than 3 months in Second Life (yes, I only logged in two times, I didn't like their creation methods)

  • Second Life Clothing Market (Score:4, Insightful)

    by RembrandtX ( 240864 ) on Monday September 25, 2006 @02:17PM (#16189215) Homepage Journal
    Well, I have to say it. Not only does second life irritate the CRAP out of me, but its whole 'system' is a mess.

    I honestly played second life for like 2 days, to see what all the fuss was about. Not only was the game slow, and unresponsive, but it was dull as shit too.

    It was basically a giant SHOPPING MALL. you could go to remote islands, and shop. You could go to the desert, and shop. All the while spending 'real' money for virtual clothes, so other people could watch you 'shop' in style. [As an added bonus, you could sell your virtual life $$ for 'real' money, allowing chinese etc. money laundering and farming.]

    You are given an allowance of Lydon(sp) dollars every week. and my first (and only) $250 went to buy a t-shirt that said 'you all suck' on it, of course, I didn't get that .. I instead got a big 'box' hat that covered my little character and said 'sucker' on all sides.

    So not only can you SHOP online, but you can get ripped off online too.

    The company is just biding its time trying to get series-A funding. Something to drive the price up so the CEO can retire, or sell to warner brothers or something.

    Now, its also well known that Second Life has a HUGE gay following, its like .. the video game for folks who are/were/might be coming out soon. So maybe that has something to do with the endless fashion parade. Really, in the end of the day though, not only is this story moot, but second life is moot. Its a failed experiment, pumped up by marketing PR, hoping to last long enough so that the folks who own it don't need to get real jobs. The Sims online, has a larger marketshare, and sony called that game a failure.

    • Re:Second Life Clothing Market (Score:5, Interesting)

      by AdamTrace ( 255409 ) on Monday September 25, 2006 @03:43PM (#16190917)
      "I instead got a big 'box' hat that covered my little character and said 'sucker' on all sides."

      For what it's worth, the T-shirt was probably inside the box... Putting stuff in boxes is a pretty typical way to sell things. Not that you care, but just FYI.

      I signed up for Second Life months ago. I was never interested in actually "playing" it (meaning, I suppose, meeting people, making friends, wearing furry costumes, having virtual sex, etc), but instead, I had a great time making and scripting objects, and subsequently selling them.

      Seriously, tell me one other place where you can make your very own casino game, rent floor space, and make (or lose) real US dollars by having people play your game? Not everyone can make and sell clothing for real money, but you can in SL. There's something to be said for that.

      Myself, I've made a few casino/dance club type games, as well as some treasure hunt type stuff, and have made a couple hundred bucks over the summer. Nothing to retire on, but, on some level, more rewarding than the time I spent playing WoW...

      Adman

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by eyeball ( 17206 )
      I highly suggest you take a look at this presentation [google.com] from Philip Rosedale to get a better idea of what their vision is. The founders aren't going anywhere.

      Also, it's painfully obvious that a large part of the SL grid is devoted to shopping, but look around -- it's a reflection of the real world. I would guess that the spending ratios between things like clothing, toys, gadgets, education, real estate, and investment may be very similar between the two worlds.

      And the spending reflects the amount of activiti
    • "my first (and only) $250 went to buy a t-shirt that said 'you all suck' on it, of course, I didn't get that .. I instead got a big 'box' hat that covered my little character and said 'sucker' on all sides.

      So not only can you SHOP online, but you can get ripped off online too."

      So not only were you just a passer-by, but you didn't even take the time to learn how to remove stuff from boxes, and wore the box instead of its contents. Yeah, you really know your stuff.
  • It's official, Second Life now sucks just as much as real life.
  • ...is the bloody horrible LAG in this game. It has nothing to do with your hardware; I can only stumble around at about 5-10 FPS in moderately populated areas with my dual-core, 7900GT machine with 2gb ram. I want to like this game so much but when you're used to playing other huge MMO's like WoW at smooth-as-glass framerates, walking around as if you are trapped in a slideshow is unbearable.

    I hope they upgrade their hardware soon, because I'm willing to give it another go.

    • Re: (Score:1, Offtopic)

      by Gwala ( 309968 )
      Let me guess - dual core machine?

      Set processor affinity to a single core - that will fix it. SL likes jumping between cores at every opportunity which absolutely kills the performance on high end machines. (That being said, performance still isnt brilliant - user created content tends to lead to unoptimised areas)

      Another tip is to lower your draw distance if performance still sucks - preferences -> graphics -> draw distance - set to 64 (Default is 128), worst case that will give you a good framerate.
  • (somehow /. stuck this in the PS3 article....)

    What I find so amusing/ironic/sad is that Linden Labs had built 2nd Life on a kind of cool idea - a pseudo-utopian experiment where they were going to build the world and, as I understood it, essentially keep their hands off, letting the social systems and communities grow organically.

    Until something doesn't fit their PC-vision of what utopia should be, apparently.

    Like utopian socialists whose Pollyanna ideals of "from each...to each..." don't quite survive thei

  • 2nd Life fashion better protected than 1st life? (Score:3, Informative)

    by KiahZero ( 610862 ) on Monday September 25, 2006 @03:16PM (#16190403)
    Interestingly, because fashion designs in Second Life fall within the bounds of copyright, they are more protected than fashion designs in real life. Because real life designs are considered a "useful article," they fall under patent law rather than copyright law. Since patent law moves so slowly, designs wouldn't be protected under patents until after they're no longer worth protecting. Because computer code is not held to be a "useful article" (I have no idea why clothes are and software isn't... *shrug*) fashion designers who design virtual clothes can copyright their designs and sue infringers. I'd be kind of curious to find out what would happen if a real life designer started creating copies of their own work in Second Life and then attacking other real life copiers for making derivative works from their virtual copyright. The outcome would likely be the court deciding that the Second Life designs were similar to paper designs, making no difference to the current regulatory scheme. It's an interesting question nonetheless. (If you're interested in the topic, there's a paper on the topic here: http://www.law.virginia.edu/pdf/faculty/sprigman_p iracy.pdf [virginia.edu])
  • There's an interesting DRM angle to the "fashion designer who quit" story. She was a popular designer but had bought a "skin" from someone else. A skin is like clothing but an inner layer - it has facial makeup, tatoos, body shading, coloring, etc. Anyway she liked the skin but didn't like the face makeup, so she wanted to change it. But she couldn't.

    Here's where the DRM comes in. The item was sold "no modify" (as many or most clothing items are) meaning you can't edit it, you can't change it. However, we a
  • As computers get more powerful, where is the limit to virtual world participation? suppose that in 20 years quantum computers allow the perfect rendering and raytracing of virtual online worlds, with instant communication between server and client. What happens then? obviously, there should be a limit, because people would get hooked so bad in it that the society's structure will be severely destroyed.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Cee ( 22717 )
      One reason behind the huge success of the MMO(RP)G genre is that you can have an adventurous life for just about $13/month. It's far cheaper to buy Test Drive Unlimited than to get a Ferrari. Or travel to Tanaris (a desert area in WoW) rather than going to the Saharas.

      But will these games take over the world? I doubt it. A game is limited to its game designers, sooner or later most (but not all, of course) will get bored with the game's content. The real world on the other hand, is far huger and offers way
  • ...too bad it was ruined by complete psychopaths like Prokofy Neva and the completely opaque and even arbitrary Linden banhammer. If you're seriously considering trying out Second Life, keep these forums close, they're the one becon of sanity in this whole sad minagere http://forums.secondcitizen.com/ [secondcitizen.com] (I myself have only made one post there, so I've got nobodies adgenda but my own here)
  • There seem to be 3 kinds of people in SL:
    1. (pre-) Teen-agers. Surprisingly, these are NOT the overwhelming majority.
    2. Corporations hoping SL is "The Next Big Thing". In some places, you can hardly find an actual person, for all the corporate entities. They open "virtual" stores to enhance their brand. They also have casinos and porno complexes where you can watch "real" pornos. All of which are aimed at trying to make SL virtual-money ("Linden dollars"). Kinda wierd.
    3. Geeks. People like me. They usually ar
  • I find it terribly ironic that even with the draw of an idealistic computer-generated world, the people (both at LL and the payers) have mostly structured it with all the ills of the real world.

    IP??? in a virtual world? it don't even make no sense in the real world. Except in the interest of keeping people with busi-ness -- we don't need IP and the world would be better without ownership of ideas.

    I took about 30 minutes in 2nd life to realize it was the RL equivalent of a massive strip mall.
  • WTF?!? Seriously.

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