{ "attachments": [], "comments_archived": true, "date": "2005-11-01T16:02:10.000Z", "layout": "post", "tags": [ "asides", "gaming", "secondlife", "if", "interactivefiction", "moos", "muds", "vr" ], "title": "No more Second Life", "wordpress_id": 760, "wordpress_slug": "no-more-second-life", "wordpress_url": "http://decafbad.com/blog/?p=760", "year": "2005", "month": "11", "day": "01", "isDir": false, "slug": "no-more-second-life", "type": "entry", "postName": "2005-11-01-no-more-second-life", "html": "

Over the past few months or so, I've given Second Life about 6 hours of my primary life. At first, between all the rapidly aging machines I own personally, I didn't have a single one that did the place justice. Now though, I've got a work machine with enough horsepower to do it up right.

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Anyway, although I wouldn't call mine a dedicated attempt at living an alternate life, I think I've seen enough. Between the awkward controls for navigating space which make me yearn for Quake 2, and the 90% crud which comes from all ecosystems of \"Consumer Generated Media\", I don't think I'm going to get it.

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So, like the people who say mostly these same things about podcasting, I think this is a signal that Second Life is not meant for me. It might obsolete sliced bread for some people—but all it does for me is make me want to waste time with Everquest, wash my brain out with Zork, or script something in a MOO.

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Of course, I've never really bought into the whole Cyberspace / Metaverse thing past recognizing it as a neat device in William Gibson novels. I mean, why would you ever want to limit info freako space to a shoddy simulation of meatspace's meager 3 dimensions?

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Archived Comments

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\n\n\n", "body": "Over the past few months or so, I've given [Second Life][sl] about 6 hours of my primary life. At first, between all the rapidly aging machines I own personally, I didn't have a single one that did the place justice. Now though, I've got a work machine with enough horsepower to do it up right.\r\n\r\nAnyway, although I wouldn't call mine a dedicated attempt at living an alternate life, I think I've seen enough. Between the awkward controls for navigating space which make me yearn for [Quake 2][q2], and the 90% crud which comes from all ecosystems of \"[Consumer Generated Media][cgm]\", I don't think I'm going to get it. \r\n\r\nSo, like the people who say mostly these same things about podcasting, I think this is a signal that Second Life is not meant for me. It might obsolete sliced bread for some people—but all it does for me is make me want to waste time with Everquest, wash my brain out with [Zork][zork], or script something in a [MOO][lm]. \r\n\r\nOf course, I've never *really* bought into the whole Cyberspace / Metaverse thing past recognizing it as a neat device in [William Gibson novels][wg]. I mean, why would you *ever* want to limit [info freako][if] space to a shoddy simulation of meatspace's meager 3 dimensions?\r\n\r\n[sl]: http://secondlife.com \"Your world. Your imagination. Not mine.\"\r\n[cgm]: http://www.clickz.com/experts/brand/cmo/article.php/3515576 \"Fire up the buzzword bingo\"\r\n[lm]: http://www.lambdamoo.info/ \"MOO. Build your own cow.\"\r\n[if]: http://www.jesusjonesarchive.com/lyrics.htm#Info%20Freako \"Info Freako, there is no end to what I want to know....\"\r\n[wg]: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0441569595/0xdecafbad01-20?creative=327641&camp=14573&link_code=as1 \"A sky tuned to a dead channel...\"\r\n[zork]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zork \"Take leaflet.\"\r\n[q2]: http://www.fruitz-of-dojo.de/php/download.php4?dlnr=6 \"I used to be a Peter-Parkerian ninja with the grappling hook.\"\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
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Archived Comments

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