14 DAY TRIAL // Let's not get started on the actual game, going back and forth over whether it is your life lived another way, your second choice to do it all over again or just a time consuming application. I wanted to add "mindless" to that last option but I would have given away my opinion about it and I want to keep it a secret.
Second Life just got its graphics taken to another level with the client release on Wednesday that incorporates the technology Linden Lab acquired when it took over Windward Mark Interactive back in May. The sky is blue, the clouds are realistic and the water has pretty reflections. That's about all I could see and cared to notice. That would be the update, that it actually looks good and by this it might appeal to the youngest gamers who were brought up with the "graphics over gameplay" trend that has been going on lately. Few remember the old pen'n'paper RPG that glued players to a table for hours. Eh, those were the days?
I must confess that I tried the game about a year ago. I created my avatar and started doing the same thing everybody does the first time when they enter SL: flying. After I got tired of that I tried to start a conversation with somebody but got ignored in a premium manner so I quit and uninstalled the client. I had had enough, but I continued to follow the news in the "not changing the channel, not paying attention" manner. Virtual parties (what were they actually doing???), buying virtual space for shops or whatnot (I can understand the publicity part but aside from that?), an embassy opened there to deal with the problems that might occur... all these blew my mind.
Why would you go ahead and sit behind a screen and do what you are actually doing in your real life? Why go to work there to earn money when you can do this in your real life? Why meet people there when you can do this in your real life? Why? Why?
Ok, the flying's cool, but that's about it. First Life over Second Life. Or First Life FTW, to use the Internet common language.