2008 Woodie Awards
Online reality 'games' a waste of time, money
Matt Cook
Issue date: 2/6/07 Section: Technology
I generally try to avoid writing commentary about Web sites that are designed to take away people's every day lives. After all, a large part of the online world is intended to provide distractions at home and work.
However, I do have a problem with Secondlife.com, a site that allows users to control a virtual reality identity in a 3-D world. At the surface, Second Life is a lot like the PC game series The Sims. Beyond the use of avatars in a digitally created world, though, Second Life can be a serious waste of time and money for users.
The basic idea behind Second Life, or SL for short, is to create an online identity tied to an avatar that can buy land, houses and objects to fill their online home.
But here's the catch - users pay real American dollars to the company behind SL, Linden Lab, to get Linden dollars that can be used to pay for real estate and household objects.
The total number of SL users is supposed to be around 3 million, according to secondlife.com, although this number includes people with multiple user accounts.
Even considering that this is a simplified explanation of Second Life, doesn't it sound a bit outrageous to you?
Maybe I'm too well grounded in my real life. I really don't have time to spend buying a house and meeting people online when I can't buy a house and hardly have time to put a face with a name in reality.
In the end, SL may just follow the trend of other online massive multiplayer games that run their course and then die a slow death as another "awesome" game comes along and takes its place. In the meantime, I'll be spending my money - and time - somewhere other than Secondlife.com.
However, I do have a problem with Secondlife.com, a site that allows users to control a virtual reality identity in a 3-D world. At the surface, Second Life is a lot like the PC game series The Sims. Beyond the use of avatars in a digitally created world, though, Second Life can be a serious waste of time and money for users.
The basic idea behind Second Life, or SL for short, is to create an online identity tied to an avatar that can buy land, houses and objects to fill their online home.
But here's the catch - users pay real American dollars to the company behind SL, Linden Lab, to get Linden dollars that can be used to pay for real estate and household objects.
The total number of SL users is supposed to be around 3 million, according to secondlife.com, although this number includes people with multiple user accounts.
Even considering that this is a simplified explanation of Second Life, doesn't it sound a bit outrageous to you?
Maybe I'm too well grounded in my real life. I really don't have time to spend buying a house and meeting people online when I can't buy a house and hardly have time to put a face with a name in reality.
In the end, SL may just follow the trend of other online massive multiplayer games that run their course and then die a slow death as another "awesome" game comes along and takes its place. In the meantime, I'll be spending my money - and time - somewhere other than Secondlife.com.
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