Comments on: A second thought on Second Life

By: tecosystems » Second Life Goes Open Source…Sort Of

tecosystems » Second Life Goes Open Source…Sort Of — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 23:16:36 +0000

[...] But all that said, I’m instinctively mistrustful of closed environments; they’ve been tried before on the web, and most if not all have failed when faced with open competition. That does not appear to exist at the present time, so Second Life has yet to face a real threat of this nature, but projects can evolve. Like David, [3] I’m quite reluctant to invest significant time, money or both on either a personal or commercial level in a world that is inherently closed in nature – and could become more so depending on the financial fortunes of the organization backing it. I can’t forgo it entirely, because several of our customers are beginning to conduct briefings in the virtual world, but I’m definitely a skeptic (and can’t see myself spending money on SL clothes when I won’t do so in the real world . [...]

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 23:50:32 +0000

In my blog surfing today, I’ve read a lot more takes on SL. One of the more obscure ones dealt with the conversion of real to SL currency and back. The slant was on whether various RW countries would feel a need to tax this. I then wondered whether there is a cool money laundering scheme that could be worked. Let’s say the columbian cartels all move into SL – real currency gets passed to Linden, services traded within SL, and then ?? How to get it out? Will Linden Labs cut a check? Could Linden become the new Swiss bank of the digital world?

By: links for 2006-12-04 at tecosystems

links for 2006-12-04 at tecosystems — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 05:24:41 +0000

[...] A second thought on Second Life at Churbuck.com “Until then, Second Life feels eerily similar to Prodigy, a 3D walled garden.” – more thoughts from David on Second Life (tags: SecondLife virtual reality 3D marketing walled garden AOL Prodigy) [...]

By: tecosystems » Blog Archive » What the Hell Happened to November?

tecosystems » Blog Archive » What the Hell Happened to November? — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 23:03:45 +0000

[...] How is Second Life different from Prodigy? Not my question, but David’s. I was thinking something similar, however, when rereading Stephenson’s Snow Crash. In the novel, there’s a Second Life analogue called the Metaverse, and Stephenson’s vision of this does have a lot of promise. But I really would have a difficult time investing substantial money into a “world” that’s controlled by a single vendor. Nothing against Linden Labs, it’s more the principle. It may seem difficult to conceive of a world not controlled by a single vendor, but I’m sure people said that about the internet(s). [...]