Second Life. Hype or Home Run?

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

I first heard about second life in mid-2007.

http://secondlife.com/

At first glance, it appeared to me like a heavily trafficked version of the popular game titled, The Sims.  After more research, however, it appears that this idea could get traction and become a huge marketplace to network, and transact business.

The idea is huge. It appears that the site is still in its growth stage, but can you imagine, if we used a model like this to conduct all of our online transactions?

Think about this…

Want to buy land? Login to second life and use google maps to zoom in, find the parcel of land, Next, find the buyer via title research via the portal, and then submit your sealed bid via the site.  I've often heard that web 3.0 is coming and this could be the tip of the iceberg. A giant global social network of business merchants. Want to buy a book? Login to SL (as its known to bloggers) go to Amazon and chat with the virtual avatars behind the bookshelf in the Tom Clancy department. You can see the avatar's profile, interests, and books she is reading.

A colleague and friend of mine, named Dave Taylor told me this about Second Life…

"Second Life is an evolutionary step, but unto itself is definitely overhyped. We will get interesting virtual worlds in the next few years that will offer opportunities for businesses, but SL is faddish and already seems to have "come and gone" with the popular press, bloggers, etc. The problem is that the network and computer software can't keep up with the demands of a true 3D environment where everything has to be downloaded on demand. Compare it to something like Worlds of Warcraft, another huge 3d virtual world, but one where the avatars are custom and the landscape is created using a very small number of shapes and textures, and you'll see that SL is far inferior as a user experience.

Nonetheless, if the SL community is a target market for you or you want to dabble, I definitely would recommend you experiment and play around. Just don't spend tons of money because, in my opinion at least, it doesn't have real staying power."

I agree with Dave. Huge potential but overhyped….