cmurray.org

There, I said it.

Having read both the hype and the dismissals, curiosity got the best of me: I created an account and downloaded the Second Life software. Within minutes I was bumping into virtual poles and falling into virtual rivers.

It seems like a fun game though. And there is certainly some reality to it. I walked up to a woman in the same orientation site as myself, said hello (or rather typed hello into the chat window), and she walked away saying nothing. Just like real life (in Boston, anyway). Fabulous.

But then I read things in places like Forbes magazine that say Second Life is going to burst wide open, like the Internet did no less. It’s going to be the next big thing and there’s lots of investment behind it. IBM uses it for virtual meetings. In fact, I read that you can actually buy real estate in there, islands no less, and create private little worlds. Spending real dollars buying virtual islands, pixels on a file server.

I don’t know. I’m missing something in this discussion, I admit. It seems like forums with cartoons. People are hoping customers will buy things in there? Companies will provide support in there? Damn, I have a hard enough time getting good support from many companies out here. Am I to drop myself (my avatar, rather) into a virtual world and expect something different? Dream on.

I wonder if I’ll get taken to task like David Churbuck did when he said he didn’t like Second Life after admittedly using it for less than ten hours. I used it for about an hour and don’t care for more than that. Seems like a game to me, money or not.