[setmenu]

I came across the this site:

http://secondlife.com/

Sounds like it could be fun.
Plenty of opportunity for opening a high end audiophile store and
building/selling the most incredible kit imaginable, hehe

I have never been into gaming [and know jack about it]
so those deep immersion role playing things whilst
interesting have realy not appealed.

But somewhere to just to bumble around and build weird stuff
in could be quite a nice diversion. [hang on mo, I already do
that in 'real life, oh well

]

Anybody here done a virtual community thing such as this?


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[NightWoundsTime]

The craziest thing is that real money gets connected to this thing. Your virtual life could actually replace your real life if you play it right. It brings up some interesting ethical questions about getting people addicted to something that powerful. The creators would claim that people who play it 20 hours a day hoping for a payback are no worse than workaholics, but real workaholics have to move their butts off the chair a few times a day.

I played World of Warcraft for a while, which isn't too far off of Second Life in terms of sheer addiction. Virtual worlds can be fun for a while but eventually the cold digital bits get old.

 

[plainsong]

I'm an internet old timer when it comes to VR, back from the days of MUDing and MUSHing. It's not always a bad thing to be emersed into a virtual world. After all it's real people behind the keyboards, so the world may be virtual but it's possible that the friends are real. I say possible because of course on the net anyone can be anything. I believe that people should have the freedom to do that, but if someone is becoming a real friend to that image, you need to let them know. Unless of course you want to be a jerk. Which leads to the fact that while it's really easy to break down the social barriers and make really close friends, it's also just as easy to be completely fished in. The kind of people who would do this in vr are the kind of people who would do it irl, so just listen to your instincts.

Things can be become really intense and move very quickly in vr, and that can be good and bad. In my case it's been mostly good. I met my rl husband on a MUSH, and have been in situations where people were really able to help each other out just because those barriers weren't there. However, there's an obvious badside. Again, listen to your instincts.

I think the old skool vr represents an utopia of what the net could have been. I can't speak for the new skool, but I imagine it's a bit more wild west, less wizards (moderators), little to no rules, and because of the increase in people, you get an increase in the bad people.

Hopefully there is still some good in it though. I'd like to think so.

 

[chadbang]

Isn't this the one that just got hacked and people had a lot of personal info stolen?

 

[terrymx]

ughnn...like the sim? i never played those games. maybe when i am rich and don't have to work. be fun to check it out, but i dont think i will put in any of my financial information.

for mmorpg, i know people buy armors and weapons from another character by paying them real money.

 

[setmenu]

Quote:

The craziest thing is that real money gets connected to this thing

I originally became aware of the site when I caught a short tv film about it.
A woman featured had set up a business selling her models,She said it had
grown from a couple of hundred dollars a month to around $4000.
Hence my slightly tongue in cheek comment about opening a hi fi store!
Hell, it could imagine that with a sufficiently large community one could start
a business and employ staff to run it, just as in the 'real' world.
I could even imagine real world high street Brand names,I cant see any
reason why the folk sat at the keyboards would be any the less inclined
toward brand name marketing in the virtual world as the flesh one.
The down side could be the site becoming one huge interactive add factory
with all the business vying for the populations dollars.
Nothing new there then!

Quote:

Isn't this the one that just got hacked and people had a lot of personal info stolen?

Really? Thats worrying.
I did notice they even want credit card details for the free account.
Stuff like that tends to put me off.
I don't like just giving out such details on casual basis.


Quote:

I'm an internet old timer when it comes to VR, back from the days of MUDing and MUSHing

I would definitely be a super noob!
What are MUDing & MUSHing??
I think I remember you mentioning meeting your Husband on one these thing
in past thread, very romantic.

In fact one the previously mentioned short films also featured a couple who
had met at the site.
But as you say,as with the real world it's a community and as such will
contain all manner of personalities in disguise.
I guess that weeding out the bad eggs from the good is potentially more
difficult without subtle body language we are all accustomed to reading in
face to face encounters.
With a sufficiently large population it would make an interesting study to
profile different avatar/fantasy persona's and see whether certain choices of
profile indicate real world behavioral traits.
I ultimately the degree of any risk would depend how far one chooses to
blend real and virtual world lives.

But there are some fun possibilities.
I mentioned the site to a friend of mine, who enjoys some sort of imersive
fantasy game. [not sure what]
He said that company he works for purchased an island there they use for
conferences!
That set me thinking about the potential for Head-Fi world, great for meets
and get togethers, a place where everyones can have whatever kit they
desire however mad.

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