Second Life's Potential
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 at 8:25AM Second Life – Not to be confused with a cloning agency, a born-again organization, or the most bad ass game of all time: “Half Life.”
No, this steaming pile of crap is a choppy, useless, graphically rendered AOL chat room. When it isn’t telling users their graphics cards aren’t good enough to handle its shit pile game engine, it’s wasting millions of users' time with its poorly designed controls. So much so that a miniscule task will use up 20 minutes of precious Internet surfing life.
Ok, so maybe you want to create a virtual rendition of something in real life. Ah, now this is interesting, right? The building looks nice but what are you supposed todo in it? There in lies the problem, the game lacks enough realism to accomplish its goal in creating a simulated life in which users can interract. It's boring and difficult because the game has the feel of something out of a CD from Wal-Mart advertising "Over 2,000 games inside!" The end result of the most carefully crafted virtual planet leaves the user with nothing but a moderate bit of eye candy in trade for hours of hard labor that won't repay itself.
Although, some major companies have joined in on this concept (Sony & Google), no one hasgiven it the functionality it deserves (Though there is technology very similar to SecondLife being used to reproduce historic places, like www.beyondspaceandtime.org; an accurate reproduction of the Chinese Forbidden city~Tony) . The Second Life realm would see a serious increase in active users if only it took the time to develop a world that was physically responsive. If Linden Labs does this then their end product would surpass the Grand Theft Auto series in its simulation of real world fantasy and hence it's following.
Armed with the ability to simulate everything in real life in detailed textures, life like faces, and a physically responsive environment; Linden Labs could shape the one platform for everything digital. Web sites would be converted to simulated buildings. Meetings could be held in the rocky mountains, surveying a model or a live video feed of a new store or oil rig. Users could tour a hotel with web cams to back up the model. Friends could watch movies together from the corners of the earth. Gamers could interact with the world around them using only minds to create an immersion never seen before.
This what every Internet user out there wants in a game like Second Life: believable fantasy. The immersion factor in second life just isn't there. The characters walk around as if boards were stuck up their arse and flying reminds me of Lego men held by five year olds. The realism of a person walking and flying shouldn't be hard to produce considering the not so recent innovactions in gaming that have effectively simulated flying air planes, dragons, and spaceships for crying out loud.
This sort-of three dimensional (current) pile of crap has the potential to alter the world in its Internet habits. No longer will flat web pages be enough to satisfy the average web user, shopper, or teen looking to chat. When this game or one like it is built to these expectations you can expect the entire world to shift its perception of the Internet and life itself.
The application needs some serious upgrades along with plenty of company developed content to spur on the rest of the population. Alas, I don’t see this happening until affordable hardware can catch up with the requirements of a detailed game like this. (And if people stop trying to e-bang each other on virtual giant Swastikas~Tony)
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