Jay Talbot’s Ramblings

Ok, I got really, really bored with DAoC and I cancelled my EQ accounts. What to do? Search for a new and even cheaper way of entertaining myself! I chose Second Life. It has many of the social aspects you might find in a community. In the few days I’ve been playing, I’ve made about 10 new friends and have learned the interface quite well.

Here’s a few reasons I like this game so far:

1. Most of the content available was uploaded and built by the players.
2. You can be anyone you want to be, and do almost anything you want to do. All games have their rules of behaviour, and in this game, it’s society who decides.
3. It’s extensible though a Java/C++/PHP like scripting language. The syntax is different, but the general format is the same.
4. They don’t care what you do with the content, it’s yours. They state that any intellectual property your make and upload to the game is yours and you retain full copyright and control over it. Also, money you make is yours to do with as you wish. They don’t care if you eBay it off or save it away for a rainy day.
5. You can own land, with a premium account. You can build houses, business, castles, rockets… Whatever you want.
6. Teleportation and flying. Walking is generally to slow to move across the SL world, so the installed teleportation and the ability to fly to your destination via markers.
7. Character customization. You can customize your character in any way you want, down to skin. There are even places that you can find genitals (by default, your character is neutral except for shape and clothes). Ever wanted to be a cat, dog, lizard, or something not of this world? You can buy a “Avatar” set and wear it. Currently, my character is a Cheetah, dressed in leather.
8. Most of the players are nice. Granted, I haven’t run into anyone I don’t like, but most of them seem pretty friendly.

Things I don’t like so much about this game:

1. You can be who you want to be. This is a double edged sword. While positive in many respects, I’ve found it’s a common practice to either be the muscle-head-hulk kinda guy or the barbie-doll kinda girl. I’ve found no one in the middle.
2. If you want more than the default 512 square meter strip of land, you have to pay real world money. It’s really annoying to me.
3. It’ll feed your gambling urges. I urge gambling addicts to stay away from this game at all cost.
4. True to it’s nature, content is not always the best. Much of it is amatuerish and really not worth the time to teleport and fly there.
5. The 7 day trial is annoying. They advertise that you start off with L$500 as a premium member, and you start with L$250. Basically, unless you activate your account early, you’re stuck in the limited basic account hell until you either activate or the 7 day trial is over.

I guess that’s about it for this rant. I give it a 3.5 star rating. It’s definatly something the casual player should at least try, and the hardcore gamer (depending on your tastes and play style) will like. It can also be used as a supplement to your real world income, but how that happens is up to you. You make your Second Life what you want. The possibilities are almost endless.

Tags: Gaming, Second Life //