I was sitting in an exotic night spot, watching brightly dressed dancers gyrate to the pounding beat of whatever the latest pop tune was. And, as usual in these situations, I was sitting off to the side and talking to the other non-dancer.
The part that wasn't usual was that I was actually sitting at my computer, watching a 3D avatar of myself talk to another 3D avatar in the online game Second Life. The look and feel of the place was much as if I had been playing Grand Theft Auto but decided to abandon my stolen car and just go clubbing for awhile. My new buddy, Schnorkie, was a pleasant-looking 20-ish blonde woman, apparently.
"Hey, welcome to SL. It's the next big thing, you know?"
"How could it be the next big thing when it's been around for three years," I asked.
So how long before they get VM to the sharpness that you'll be able to do what they do in Snow Crash? That's the point that I'll have to check it out, I think.
Posts: 12266 | Registered: Jul 2005
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I almost setup an entropia account to see if I could make money doing it since I spend so much time in World of Warcraft. I havent got around to installing the game but I have an account.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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erm, I just don't get it. What is the attraction? (Other than meeting "sexy" "singles" in your area?)
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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The scripting language is robust enough that you can create more or less anything you can imagine.
Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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I couldn't get a single perosnt o talk to me in there. I did see this wierd looking dragon person though, crazy stuff.
Posts: 871 | Registered: Jul 2006
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I see that you can have a free basic account but it mentioned something as a 7 day free trial. Does that mean after 7 days if I had a basic account (non premium or whatever) do I have to have a monthly payment?
Posts: 9754 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Did you give them a credit card number when you signed up? I didn't and I didn't get the message about a 7 day trial. Probably, they are trying to get you to like the premium version enough to start paying out, whereas with someone who seemed less than interested in paying up front they didn't bother with me. It's supposed to be totally free if all you want is the basic version.
Posts: 1214 | Registered: Aug 2005
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When I signed up last fall, the deal was that after your free 7-day trial you could either pay $10 for a lifetime membership or start paying a monthly fee for a "premium" membership (which gave you income in the game's currency as well as the ability to buy virtual land).
Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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Is it possible to play the game and have fun with no currency? Can one make aquire currency without a premium account?
Posts: 9754 | Registered: Jul 2002
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The first basic account is totally free. Adding a second basic account costs a one-time fee of ten bucks. If you've had your first account for over a month, I think, you get a 7-day free trial on the second.
One can indeed play the game and have fun without currency, and acquire currency without a premium account. There are events held regularly at which you can win money or prizes; I participate in a few trivia games, myself. And freebie items abound: clothes, vehicles, parachutes... you name it.
Socializing and dancing and so on are free. Building things is free, though there's a nominal fee ($L10, or about four cents) for uploading textures. Owning land or renting mall space costs money. Buying particularly spiffy items costs money. Placing classified ads costs money, and running events will probably cost you money in one way or another, at least in the short run. Generally speaking, it takes money to make money or to get the coolest toys, but people can and do hang around without spending a dime.
(For my part, I spent about twenty bucks getting myself outfitted well at the outset, and have pretty much managed to get by without paying any more "real" money since; the amount I make in-game covers my in-game expenses.)
Posts: 884 | Registered: Mar 2005
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The appeal for me is much like The Sims in that I can control my environment and design whatever I like. Except moreso, here, since I can create stuff from scratch instead of relying on The Sims designers to make things for me. Few video games have much attraction for me. The only games I've spent any appreciable time on at all have been various incarnations of Sims, Sam and Max Hit the Road, Callahan's Crosstime Saloon, and the Hitchhiker's Guide game. All of them emphasize problem solving. Wading towards the beach at Normandy, leading your SWAT team to secure a hostage situation, or stealing cars never holds my interest for more than a half hour or so. I like making stuff.
And the social aspect makes it work. Not just the chatting -- you can get that with Sims Online or World of Warcraft or any other MMORPG. And that's what a lot of people join for, the interaction. But if you're building a home or a shop or a Ferris wheel, everyone around you is also building their own little dream worlds. And sometime you can hook up with a bunch of people and build something together. I've met a lot of interesting people Spent some time last night wandering through a Firefly ship, in fact...
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Is this the kind of game that someone who's a klutz at computers would like? I started an account, but I can't seem to figure out how to do anything.
And I lost my hair.
Posts: 4655 | Registered: Jan 2002
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Don't worry blacwolve, I lost my BODY! I just made an account after reading this article, to see what it's all about, and in tying to change my outfit I somehow ended up as just a floating head. I can't even figure out how to move!
<-- my disembodied head, wishing it could move.
Posts: 3420 | Registered: Jun 2002
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How, exactly, is this done? Do you have to code something? Or is there an interface with paint/draw/render tools? If so, what's it like?
quote:Originally posted by Bob_Scopatz: Could I start a cemetery there?
I bet you could. I bet you could buy real estate there and instead of interring dead bodies you could sell monument and memorial space. I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see people buying virtual grave space for a loved one - human, pet, or even something intangeable like burying a grievance, or buying a plot for the death of Rock and Roll, or something.
Posts: 6394 | Registered: Dec 1999
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The learning curve is a bit steep -- expect to spend a week getting your virtual legs -- but it's extremely versatile once you get the hang of it.
I recommend hanging around Help Island for a bit if you haven't already left. It has helpful hints and volunteers eager to give advice on just about anything. If you've already joined the main world, New Citizen's Plaza and The Shelter are both great places for newbies. Search the Places for both. There are also many free classes; I can personally vouch for the ones at Teazers U. Do an Events search and check out the Education category.
In general, one of the things I like about the place is that the natives tend to be friendly. If something's giving you trouble, ask around. There are a few bad apples, as in any group, but most people are approachable and willing to help.
In Photoshop, I created four different textures by making a 512x512 square filled with the image I wanted to use. One for the fuzzy ball, one for the yellow yarn, one for the orange, and one for the red. They needed to be slightly different in feel or I could have made just one yarn texture and then changed the color each time later. In SL, I uploaded the textures. I selected Create from my options and starting making shapes (prims, for "primatives") by pointing at the ground and clicking. Immediately a prim appears, along with a control panel with the prim's current stats. Once a prim is created -- a cube, a sphere, a pyramid, a cylinder, a torus, etc -- you can select it and either use your mouse to reshape and position it or use the dialogue boxes in the control panel to adjust everything precisely. You then click on the Texture option to apply your texture to that prim, or to specific sides of the prim. In this case I wanted to be more complicated, so I made the fuzzy ball and the yarn strings flexible so I could apply wind, gravity, tension, etc, with the result that as you move around the ball flexes a bit and the strings move realistically. This sort of thing is used a lot to make hair that moves and skirts that swirl. Got everything more or less right, and then selected all the individual parts and linked them together. Later I attached it to my head and adjusted it to fit properly without my hair showing through. Once I was done I could remove it and reattach it and it will always go back to the same position. If I give or sell the hat to someone else, they'll have to adjust it to fit their own avatar.
All of this sounds much more reasonable if you're actually doing it, or watching someone else do it
If you want your prims to do something you can add scripts, but I don't know a thing about writing those yet. Fortunately there are any number of free ones available (and free textures, and free objects, and...) and lots of people selling them if I need something specific.
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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What is the attraction? (Other than meeting "sexy" "singles" in your area?)
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<-- my disembodied head, wishing it could move.
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