While much of SL is faltering due to the incredible growth putting way too much strain on the infrastructure, part of it is that it IS a user-created world, and most users have no clue. They stick a dozen different 1024x1024 textures on everything, have no eye towards aesthetic or optimization, and generally, the place looks like the 90s Web, back when everyone was putting up plain HTML homepages on GeoCities with pictures of their dogs and a crappy MIDI of some favorite song.

I always recommend people heading into SL look around for some of the 'good location' lists before totally rejecting it. Head to Suffugium, head to Svarga, head to ROMA, Greenies, the Spaceflight Museum, The Future, any one of the numerous builds that were created by people who know how to build and know how to optimize. They'll load better, they'll run better, they'll be more fun than the waste that is the mainland these days.

The real problem with SL is a shitty search engine that hides all of this stuff. Second Life needs a Google.

Aliasi

frygar

I don't bash it because it is unorthodox. I bash it because it is boring, slow, unattractive, has a terrible client, and filled with dross. I have seen numerous virtual worlds and SL is no better than any of the others which goes back all the way to TinyMUD. If you want to chat to people, use IRC or a forum - it's far more effective.

"S3's Home concept is the same exact product model and people are not jumping on that anti bandwagon is pretty hypocritical."

No it isn't the same model at all. It's closer to Guild Wars with private and public instances with Sony (and other companies) providing the public spaces to meet. And it doesn't have a user economy or user created content outside of customisation of private spaces. Perhaps it might some day offer those things but it doesn't now. People are not jumping on the anti bandwagon because it hasn't come out to be evaluated yet. If it's dog slow, crashes, or is as retarded and superfluous as SL you can rest assured it will get its share of criticism. If it is reasonably fast and a good meeting point for clans and hanging out then it will take off. We'll see as soon as Sony opens up the beta to all-comers.

DrXym

MajoShinpan

I don't bash SL because its unorthodox. I think the idea is cool. Everyone making stuff in a game themselves. However, I think SL is a pile of shit.

You need some boundaries or it ends up being the lowest common denominator ( see pedo sex, furry sex, and flying penises ).

I would LOVE to be able to have a good toolset to make and create stuff in a game easily and without many problems. SL does not do this. The graphics are atrocious. Most of the entire game, when I tried it, felt counter intuitive and unwieldy. It feels like I'm using a Pentium I with a Voodoo2000 when I'm running it.

So, for people that have actually tried it with an open mind we can still come to the conclusion that it sucks balls.

( Yep I know everyone who plays SL will come up with some inane argument that I've seen 100s of times before on any article that is negative about SL. What is funny is when you see articles about Linden making subscription numbers inflated how you never see intelligent debate there. You just get a bunch of SL cult members commenting on how horrible the article was and how SL rocks. )

ehlaren82

Protector one

@SGOAST
your Energy LP avatar makes me happy. 1989 was a good year!

rainofwalrus

Losers kept off the streets? During my game development courses back in college we learned many game developers and game educators use SL as a meeting place, social hangout, place to develop or make income on the side.

This whole anti-SL bandwagon gets so eye rolling here sometimes. Albiet the video was hilarious, but it is no more of a sad realization of humanity than trying to explain a casual internet user 'netspeak' (lol, rofl, omgz, pwned, 1337) who of course finds all of that just as contrived and silly. The SL bashing gets so superficial or shallow (graphics & users) sometimes when people fail to realize that the SL world is built by users who have experience coding, modeling, and making games. PS3's Home concept is the same exact product model and people are not jumping on that anti bandwagon is pretty hypocritical.

Real 'gamers' shouldn't bash something that is unorthodox, a 'serious game', or does not fit in what their narrow definition of a game is - then this is doing a huge disservice to real open minded gamers and people actually innovating our industry today. There is more to the industry than Master Chief and how big Kasumi's tits are.

TC

From what little I saw, though, that video is highly accurate.

Achenar

;)

Jakey2.0

DrXym

Murrytmds

onikuwagata

Hello my name TheDollHouse and I use Second Life.

This vid did get a giggle out of me. My computer is crap but I still try to play SL like a alcholic.

TheDollHouse

Consolcwby

Cathaoir

x999x

electric_goldfish

hvnlysoldr

yeah, it's everyone's computers fault that the game sucks...LOL

because my 8800GTS can't keep up with second life

drlard

my personal favorite in this was buddy going down the hallway on the chair LOL

tried second life....really wanted to find it somewhat interesting....but my dear god it was useless...

drlard

However it's missing more. Like Flying Singing Penises. Retarded looking avatars dancing to the Soviet Union National Anthem. And everyone's favorite: Sex Pose Balls.

It might not be a fun game.. oh I'm sorry, it's not a game that's right. But I must admit, this is one thing online you have to see at least once in your life.

xiphos

selfhatingotaku

Hagglegaggle

And as far as the lag goes, it's not so much a poly count issue since it's all fairly low poly, it's more the fact that there's a massive boat-load of super hi-res images people feel it's necessary to plaster onto every square inch of every available surface. Hundreds of image loads at once = invisible walls until they show up :P

Sardu

I've shown this to a couple others SL'ers and we all kinda laughed at how off it was.

Murrytmds

Koneesha

Gamemaster

topaz420

I know 20+ people who have tried second life and only one or two other than I have stuck with it. I tell everyone that I introduce it to that although I love second life I don't think it is for most people.

To answer the question above - The arm in the air is how you hold your arm while editing/manipulating objects.

r.andom

matt57488

But being hosted by Sony, it couldn't be half as bad as Second Life once it is officially released.

MCWHAMMER

LittleBallOfHate

Truepatriot

The lag is so bad and (because of the user created world) the glitches so plentiful that the game does end up like that. The video doesn't show (arguably) the best part of SL, though... The item creation.

Gamemaster

MCWHAMMER

Sgoast

Got to the tutorial where my eyes promptly shouted at me to stop torturing them and delete the ugly program on my screen.

LxLegend

MCWHAMMER

seasponge

NitrousO