The biggest problem with communicating with Second Life is its isolation. Second Life is a very large and vast virtual world which has more areas than most people could think to visit. All of this virtual real estate, however, is surrounded by impenetrable brick walls. By this I mean that Second Life does not agree with other virtual worlds that embrace "open source" software. In other words, it is not possible to take one's avatar from Second Life in to any other virtual worlds and communicate with others who spend little to no time in Second Life.
Not only does this limit communication abilities but also educational ones. If one is an avid Second-Lifer, be it for personal or educational reasons, and he or she wants to go explore the virtual excavation site of King Tut in Heritage Key, it is not possible to do so. He or she must create an entirely different avatar in the new virtual world and start a new virtual personality. Many of these open source virtual worlds are friendly with each other. By this I mean that it is not uncommon to be able to use the same avatar in multiple virtual worlds.
For these reasons I feel that Second Life surely needs to make some serious changes or they will have some very serious competition in the very near future that may slowly force them out of the market place. Second Life seems to be getting harsher and harsher on the user, while other virtual worlds are getting more and more accommodating. These virtual worlds going in opposite directions are creating a gap which will force the user to decide which road to take, and I think that they will go in the more accommodating direction. Interconnectivity will easily push isolation out of its way and take over the market place.
Right not, with something called "Hypergrid," your avatar can teleport between Open Sim based worlds. Nothing goes with the avatar, so you end up with a new inventory (and a default look) in every new world, until you customize yourself.
ReplyDeleteYour old inventories are not lost, and when you return to a previously visited world, your goodies for, say, Reaction Grid await you.
Some workarounds exist so SL avatars--without inventories--can go to Open Sim worlds. I've not tried it, yet.
For the final project, it will be useful to briefly discuss why you make the claim that SL is getting "harsher and harsher" for users. In your time in-world, what have you learned about this?
Of course, I speak out of bias, too...SL could be the best of many worlds in an interoperable cosmos of them. Instead, for now at least it's a very large "walled garden" (a metaphor used often in discussing VWs).
I agree. I think that Second Life should open itself up to other virtual worlds so that you can travel to Heritage Key or other virtual worlds.
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