Web based SL client in development

There’s now a 3rd party web based SL client called AjexLife in development and available. So far it has more or less the same feature set as Slink, meaning it’s good for logging into the grid, chatting, sending instant messages, getting notifications, viewing the map and teleporting around. Of course – no graphics. The main focus is on for the main client underpowered machines and communicating so far.

Since this works with AJAX, it should be possible that it even works through most company firewalls – I guess the server makes the connection to the grid, not the webbrowser per se. I wonder under which license this work is going to be put under…

Desperate housewifes (and husbands) in SL

Sponto rides again, this time about religion and relationships. She’s stating that virtual polygamy is no problem for many peope. 

I can only agree on that. I know many avatars, male and female, that are happily married in real life (at least they say so) and are having relationships or at least casual relationships with other avatars, that also very often involve sex. Plain and simpe.

Many of them don’t have a problem with that, but some of them must hide there hobby from their RL partner, because if (s)he finds out, they are going for big trouble and they know it. Others are letting their partners know and (s)he has no problem with it whatsoever.

I guess, it’s depending on the relationship and on the trust, other’s are saying: it’s better only happening in the virtual world than ruining my real life with a real affaire. But of course, when emotions are running to deep, even SL can break up a RL relationship. People just like to betray themselves, they always do.

Second Life? No, Second Hell!!!

This link points to a cartoon of the German computer magazine c’t – many know the Heise newsticker, perhaps. It’s showing a devil and his wife, the devil playing a game on his computer and his wife saying: "Tell me, isn’t this game finally getting boring for you? You’ve been already playing that silly game Second Hell for over 4.5 billion years now."

Continent names

The "new" continent in the East has been named Nautilus. Quite a silly name for a continent, if you ask me, but even better the new, yet to come continent with around who knows sims is going to be named Corsica. Yes, right, Corsica, like the island in the Mediterrenean Sea.

In reality Corsica belongs to France, but the inhabitants of it are not happy with that and still many consider the French people as occupants. So now I wonder if the now defunct SLAA and its followers are going to put their headquarters there and are trying to battle LL from there, then. This would be quite ironic.

Interview with Philip Rosedale in „Focus Online“

Focus Online, one of the biggest German magazines, ran an interview with Philip Rosedale yesterday. The main focus, of course, has been Second Life, not real much chat about child pornography, whatsoever.

Some of his points and views are:

  • from a creative point of view he’s a god. He has been creating a virtual world, which is undergoing its own evolution right now. Humans are building things, communities, are making things better. He beliefs that humans are good and that therefore SL is a good world.
  • LL is going to work with local governments, if needed, in legal cases. The best police though is the cleaning force of the community itself.
  • No news about age verification, just that’s it still on the cooker.
  • Many companies are having wrong assumptions about SL and therefore no success. Even if only 10% of all registered residents are playing regularly, that’s still a great number, because that’s the number big companies like eBay started with.
  • Second Life is often economically overrated.
  • Why should companies still go into SL? Because it is a big marketing testfield for them.
  • If someone wants to have economic success in world, he should use the multimedia features of the world and provide a valuable service for the community.
  • Voice is coming, it’s done, when it’s done. The user interface is being worked on, too.
  • The big vision behind SL is some kind of standardized 3d internet.

Well, that’s about it, not really new points in it, anyway. The question for me is, if Second Life is really some kind of community or not.

If so, generating value out of the community can be a difficult kind of beast, because often what the community wants is not always what the company wants or is allowed to do by law. For example, the success of Youtube is founded on massive copyright violations, because that’s what the community wants, easy access to video clips.

If Google for example really is starting to make Youtube lawful, the community just would find a new service to get their thing and leave Youtube behind. That’s the problem with communities.

And some of the steps that LL is going to do in the next time have the potential to alienate great parts of the community, if there is such one thing. And if the alienation is big enough, we could expect to see a big player migration to some other places. That’s why opening up their server could still make sense to them, because then people could just host their own thing and LL would not be liable for it, anymore, as it is in some countries still at the moment, and the community would like that step, too.