4 ms·

Interesting, didn't know HBO was going to be doing online only shows now like Netflix, Apple and Amazon. Snowcrash is the book that inspired Philip to create S

by Keverw 7y ago

Interesting, didn't know HBO was going to be doing online only shows now like Netflix, Apple and Amazon. Snowcrash is the book that inspired Philip to create Second Life. Then he moved on to create High Fidelity, but they are now pivoting more for virtual meetings and business use it looks. One thing I kinda don't like about the new virtual worlds, they are disconnected spaces while Second Life tried to have a sense of continued space, but never seemed to get as popular as Facebook and a region can't hold more than 100 avatars at once but even 50 is a limit in some places. I feel SL was early for it's time though, they started working on it in the late 90s and opened in 2003. High Fidelity seemed more focus on HMDs then keyboard and mouse but I feel that is still a bit early too but it's an interesting space. I have some ideas on my own too I've been thinking about exploring, but still a lot to learn and then getting funding at some point when a more solid plan.

akira2501 7y ago
> but they are now pivoting more for virtual meetings and business use it looks. I feel like they tried that before and a room full of literal flying penises ended that experiment just as quickly as it started.
- Keverw 7y ago
  Yeah griefers. Particle spam it sounds. Wasn't someone being interviewed for a media report who made a bunch on virtual real estate? Back in the early days too. SL got a bunch of media buzz back in 2006 and 2007. CSI did a tie in too. I think the HiFi idea might be private spaces though, so probably need to be invited. Kinda like how Google Apps let businesses have their own private version of Gmail and Docs. I guess that's one of the problems of creating a platform... Got to balance being too open or being too closed... One of the coolest things I thought about SL is you can just start building in world and scripting. However now with Mesh you create stuff externally and upload it, but don't think there's a way to really preview it much so stuck to pay to upload it, unless you logged into the beta grid. But not sure how much stuff can be stopped other than responding to abuse reports. I think screening all content like Apple does might be a solution too, but still has it's own pro and cons. I guess give people tools, and they'll abuse it. I was thinking maybe charge like half of what a high quality game on a console is to create an account, but then I doubt it would grow as much but it would limit people from creating troll accounts and help fund developments and servers.
MivLives 7y ago
I used to play a lot of second life when I was younger. It was interesting to see what happened to everyone I used to play with. Everyone became a programmer,or a 3d modeler. Something about having a programming language and the ability to make things strapped to what was essentially a chatroom. I wonder if your comparisons to Facebook are really fair. I always assumed Secondlife was trying to be something closer to IRC or Discord today then something like Facebook. It's not just a series of events to read but something active to engage with.
- Keverw 7y ago
  Yeah wouldn't surprise me if people learned to code in SL and then moved on to real world projects, since learning one language is always similar to others. If you could do LSL, you could probably handle Javascript. Hmm interesting on comparison to Facebook. Never thought of comparing it more to IRC chat rooms, but I feel like if you looked at the stats maybe it's better to put your effort into a iPhone or Facebook app if you want a bunch of users. I know there's also some stat that a large amount of the userbase just chats with friends instead of exploring the world. But also some content creators are able to make a full time living too. http://www.gridsurvey.com/ http://www.gridsurvey.com/ According to that 41,905 people are online right now. But I guess my point is it seem more niche than mainstream, but still impressive and profitable.
- Kroeler 7y ago
  The co-founder of Second Life eventually became a VP at Facebook, where he drove the acquisition of Oculus: https://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2014/08/confirmed-facebook-purchase-of-oculus-rift-second-life-cory-ondrejka.html https://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2014/08/confirmed-facebook-purchas...

by Keverw 7y ago

akira2501 7y ago

> but they are now pivoting more for virtual meetings and business use it looks. I feel like they tried that before and a room full of literal flying penises ended that experiment just as quickly as it started.

Keverw 7y ago
Yeah griefers. Particle spam it sounds. Wasn't someone being interviewed for a media report who made a bunch on virtual real estate? Back in the early days too. SL got a bunch of media buzz back in 2006 and 2007. CSI did a tie in too. I think the HiFi idea might be private spaces though, so probably need to be invited. Kinda like how Google Apps let businesses have their own private version of Gmail and Docs. I guess that's one of the problems of creating a platform... Got to balance being too open or being too closed... One of the coolest things I thought about SL is you can just start building in world and scripting. However now with Mesh you create stuff externally and upload it, but don't think there's a way to really preview it much so stuck to pay to upload it, unless you logged into the beta grid. But not sure how much stuff can be stopped other than responding to abuse reports. I think screening all content like Apple does might be a solution too, but still has it's own pro and cons. I guess give people tools, and they'll abuse it. I was thinking maybe charge like half of what a high quality game on a console is to create an account, but then I doubt it would grow as much but it would limit people from creating troll accounts and help fund developments and servers.

MivLives 7y ago

I used to play a lot of second life when I was younger. It was interesting to see what happened to everyone I used to play with. Everyone became a programmer,or a 3d modeler. Something about having a programming language and the ability to make things strapped to what was essentially a chatroom. I wonder if your comparisons to Facebook are really fair. I always assumed Secondlife was trying to be something closer to IRC or Discord today then something like Facebook. It's not just a series of events to read but something active to engage with.

Keverw 7y ago
Yeah wouldn't surprise me if people learned to code in SL and then moved on to real world projects, since learning one language is always similar to others. If you could do LSL, you could probably handle Javascript. Hmm interesting on comparison to Facebook. Never thought of comparing it more to IRC chat rooms, but I feel like if you looked at the stats maybe it's better to put your effort into a iPhone or Facebook app if you want a bunch of users. I know there's also some stat that a large amount of the userbase just chats with friends instead of exploring the world. But also some content creators are able to make a full time living too. http://www.gridsurvey.com/ http://www.gridsurvey.com/ According to that 41,905 people are online right now. But I guess my point is it seem more niche than mainstream, but still impressive and profitable.
Kroeler 7y ago
The co-founder of Second Life eventually became a VP at Facebook, where he drove the acquisition of Oculus: https://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2014/08/confirmed-facebook-purchase-of-oculus-rift-second-life-cory-ondrejka.html https://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2014/08/confirmed-facebook-purchas...