6 ms·

Was Second Life partially a money laundering scheme? Asking this because I can't find any other explanation for people paying millions for absolutely nothing

sieabahlpark 3y ago
[dead]
amanaplanacanal 3y ago
There is a ton of money in virtual goods in games. Of course second life isn’t exactly a game.
- RajT88 3y ago
  Sony briefly tinkered with a SL clone with the PS3. Some sort of customizable social space where you could buy virtual furniture and stuff. I forget what it was called. It was a neat tech demo, but of course I would never have paid real money for anything. SL for a hot minute was the Next Big Thing. Everyone was going to have work meetings there, and have virtual homes and participate in the virtual economy. To be honest, they were more successful than I ever thought they'd be.
  - sp332 3y ago
    PlayStation Home. It wasn’t terrible but it wasn’t anything close to SL.
    - RajT88 3y ago
      Thank you. Yes, it had more graphical polish, but far less extensibility. This many years later, it's become clear what sort of crazy next-gen platform will become our "second life". It's not something with a high barrier to entry like Second Life, or VRChat. It's the ones with the least barrier to entry. Like Facebook or Twitter.
  - worrycue 3y ago
    > Everyone was going to have work meetings there I think we can give up on anything common from the real world happening in VR (including SL style 3D worlds). Why have meetings in VR when Zoom is better? Why shop for things in VR when Amazon works just fine?
  - Pamar 3y ago
    No thread on SL is "complete" without mentioning that despite not having much in terms of gameplay in it, it managed to attract lots of "orphans" from Star Wars Galaxies - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Galaxies https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Galaxies - specifically those who liked SWG for the non-combat elements, including social gatherings and roleplay. All that plus tons of sexual content, of course.
  - fullspectrumdev 3y ago
    I recall in 2008 or so visiting the local Nortel office, they had a whole fucking lab room dedicated to second life.
Turing_Machine 3y ago
People pay money for all kinds of strange and/or intangible things. A rare McDonald's wrapper from the '70s where the logo has a variant hue. The right to have your name (or your company's name) on a stadium, or a college building. A limited edition pair of sneakers. And so on. I did own some land in SL at one time. Why? Because building stuff in there was fun, and purchasing your own land was the only way to build permanent stuff and be assured others couldn't (easily) mess with it.
- erulabs 3y ago
  Presumably the original commenter wouldn’t accept the idea of subjective value or otherwise they wouldn’t have asked that question. Saying “I find value in it” is sufficient only for those who have bought the premise that value isn’t something up for them to decide.
- mavhc 3y ago
  People pay money to see a film at the cinema, yet they can't come back the next day to see it again for free. People pay money for software, and cpu time, and storage space. That's what SL payments get you. People give you money for your time, also intangible.
- cykros 3y ago
  Worth pointing out here that OpenGrid does exist, and you can absolutely just spin up your own instance, if you want that building experience without paying (separately) for hosting. At this point you could probably run it on the same hardware as your client if you have a halfway modern gaming set up. Of course, then you won't be tied into the Secondlife ecosystem. All depends on your goals there.
leptons 3y ago
My mother was very into second life. She's a singer. There's venues inside second life and she had fans (lots of them actually) and did shows and had a tip jar - she was making money doing live performances - broadcasting herself singing in second life. And this was like 15 years ago. I got into second life because I don't live anywhere near my mother, so I made an avatar and went to some of her shows. It was pretty cool, honestly. I put a few dollars into Linden Labs to get some credits, and went shopping. I bought a virtual boat, a helicopter, jet skis, clothing (for my avatar), and all sorts of stuff for the avatar. I don't think it was all for nothing, I kind of got a kick out of it, at the time. There were all sorts of freaky things going on in second life. It's probably what "the metaverse" wishes it could be.
- Obscurity4340 3y ago
  Genuinely cool story
ilaksh 3y ago
I've been paying for Second Life for over ten years. I think it's been like 3-4 years since I logged in. I'm not sure why I haven't canceled it. It might be a combination of sunk costs (spent a lot of time working on some scripts/objects) and the fact that I am not sure I remember how to log in to cancel anymore.
- vintermann 3y ago
  The most profitable subscriber type.

sieabahlpark 3y ago

[dead]

amanaplanacanal 3y ago

There is a ton of money in virtual goods in games. Of course second life isn’t exactly a game.

RajT88 3y ago
Sony briefly tinkered with a SL clone with the PS3. Some sort of customizable social space where you could buy virtual furniture and stuff. I forget what it was called. It was a neat tech demo, but of course I would never have paid real money for anything. SL for a hot minute was the Next Big Thing. Everyone was going to have work meetings there, and have virtual homes and participate in the virtual economy. To be honest, they were more successful than I ever thought they'd be.
- sp332 3y ago
  PlayStation Home. It wasn’t terrible but it wasn’t anything close to SL.
  - RajT88 3y ago
    Thank you. Yes, it had more graphical polish, but far less extensibility. This many years later, it's become clear what sort of crazy next-gen platform will become our "second life". It's not something with a high barrier to entry like Second Life, or VRChat. It's the ones with the least barrier to entry. Like Facebook or Twitter.
- worrycue 3y ago
  > Everyone was going to have work meetings there I think we can give up on anything common from the real world happening in VR (including SL style 3D worlds). Why have meetings in VR when Zoom is better? Why shop for things in VR when Amazon works just fine?
- Pamar 3y ago
  No thread on SL is "complete" without mentioning that despite not having much in terms of gameplay in it, it managed to attract lots of "orphans" from Star Wars Galaxies - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Galaxies https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Galaxies - specifically those who liked SWG for the non-combat elements, including social gatherings and roleplay. All that plus tons of sexual content, of course.
- fullspectrumdev 3y ago
  I recall in 2008 or so visiting the local Nortel office, they had a whole fucking lab room dedicated to second life.

Turing_Machine 3y ago

People pay money for all kinds of strange and/or intangible things. A rare McDonald's wrapper from the '70s where the logo has a variant hue. The right to have your name (or your company's name) on a stadium, or a college building. A limited edition pair of sneakers. And so on. I did own some land in SL at one time. Why? Because building stuff in there was fun, and purchasing your own land was the only way to build permanent stuff and be assured others couldn't (easily) mess with it.

erulabs 3y ago
Presumably the original commenter wouldn’t accept the idea of subjective value or otherwise they wouldn’t have asked that question. Saying “I find value in it” is sufficient only for those who have bought the premise that value isn’t something up for them to decide.
mavhc 3y ago
People pay money to see a film at the cinema, yet they can't come back the next day to see it again for free. People pay money for software, and cpu time, and storage space. That's what SL payments get you. People give you money for your time, also intangible.
cykros 3y ago
Worth pointing out here that OpenGrid does exist, and you can absolutely just spin up your own instance, if you want that building experience without paying (separately) for hosting. At this point you could probably run it on the same hardware as your client if you have a halfway modern gaming set up. Of course, then you won't be tied into the Secondlife ecosystem. All depends on your goals there.

leptons 3y ago

My mother was very into second life. She's a singer. There's venues inside second life and she had fans (lots of them actually) and did shows and had a tip jar - she was making money doing live performances - broadcasting herself singing in second life. And this was like 15 years ago. I got into second life because I don't live anywhere near my mother, so I made an avatar and went to some of her shows. It was pretty cool, honestly. I put a few dollars into Linden Labs to get some credits, and went shopping. I bought a virtual boat, a helicopter, jet skis, clothing (for my avatar), and all sorts of stuff for the avatar. I don't think it was all for nothing, I kind of got a kick out of it, at the time. There were all sorts of freaky things going on in second life. It's probably what "the metaverse" wishes it could be.

Obscurity4340 3y ago
Genuinely cool story

ilaksh 3y ago

I've been paying for Second Life for over ten years. I think it's been like 3-4 years since I logged in. I'm not sure why I haven't canceled it. It might be a combination of sunk costs (spent a lot of time working on some scripts/objects) and the fact that I am not sure I remember how to log in to cancel anymore.

vintermann 3y ago
The most profitable subscriber type.