I’ve been walking through Second Life for the last three weeks (my name is “Rayne Leominster”, if anyone cares to know).
At best, I’m rather dissatisfied with it. At worst, I find it pointless and annoyingly slow.
I’m dissatisfied with SL because I know that there’s much more that could possibly be done in it besides:
- Dance in a club with no music
- Change your avatar’s appearance every 5 minutes
- Build structures that will likely serve no purpose
I don’t feel the vibe of P2P on here (there isn’t any), and I teleport to a number of places (often either threadbare or filled to the brim with avatars and user-created objects) for no reason except to move from where I’m currently situated, only to be disappointed when I arrive.
I’m especially annoyed by the prominence of money (also known as L$) in SL.
The graphics and network lag makes usage of the client horrendously choppy. The UI is crowded, constricting and half-responsive, even when you’re in a lag-free area (which is extremely rare to find).
So that’s my first impression of Second Life.
I’ve had a rather different impression.
Yes, I’ve got plenty of gripes about the client software and some design decisions for the avatar, but overall I’m quite enjoying SL. I’ve even got my wife playing it too.
Now, of course, we’re looking for something completely different than the average user, and as an extension of the MUCK concept (where we initially met) with graphics, it works pretty well. Now, I’ve never tried to do any combat there, and I also generally avoid the hyooman-heavy areas, but what I’ve seen I generally like.
Rochndil, playing Marian Sittingbull on SL…
Never was a fan of SL. I like roleplaying on Furcadia from time to time, but SL flat out bored me.