It was with much fanfare that Reuters opened a virtual office in Second Life in 2006.
The news service has since comes to grips with an essential truth about SL: It never lived up to its hype.
As UK paper The Register notes, Reuters has closed its Second Life Bureau and pulled embedded reporter Adam Pasick aka Adam Reuters out of SL's metaverse, assigning him to, one presumes, more tangible duties. A Reuters spokesperson told The Register:
We're still reporting on Second Life, but only as part of our usual tech and media coverage.
Meanwhile, Silicon Alley Insider has a first-person account from Eric Krangel, the original Reuters staffer assigned to SL:
Is Second Life dying? No, but the buzz is gone...
It's hard to say what, if anything, Linden Lab can do to make Second Life appeal to a general audience. The very things that most appeal to Second Life's hardcore enthusiasts are either boring or creepy for most people: Spending hundreds of hours of effort to make insignificant amounts of money selling virtual clothes, experimenting with changing your gender or species, getting into random conversations with strangers from around the world, or having pseudo-nonymous sex (and let's not kid ourselves, sex is a huge draw into Second Life)...
It was about as fun as watching paint dry.
GP: There are so many jokes one can make about Second Life. Our favorite? Chris Williams of The Register writes:
Last one to leave, turn off the flying penis.
Comments
Re: Second Life Lacks Buzz, Reuters Bails
I listen to NPR for news, and some of the programs say you can send comments by way of their live cast in Second Life. Having tried SL, it always boggled my mind that they would even bother. SL is never going to get a general audience appeal. Seriously, the article is right. Even if you can get past the creepiness factor (it really is about half sex), the act of creating game items and locations is dull as hell.
Re: Second Life Lacks Buzz, Reuters Bails
I disagree. For what its worth, SL was and still is an amazing success.
Sure, it looks like something from 1998, runs pathetically slow given its look, is the home of the worlds greatest (or worst depending on how you look at it) anonymous social deviants, and doesn't have any specific feature that is 'fun', but unlike many virtual worlds, it has survived for a long time and managed to turn a profit. Most MMOGs can't claim half the success.
Re: Second Life Lacks Buzz, Reuters Bails
Re: Second Life Lacks Buzz, Reuters Bails
Of course they have! It's called Trickster, and it's your standard asian import where you play for "free" and buy items from the game store. Actually, based on the art, I'd say it's half furry (more tails and ears, not so much fur and animorphic features) and half loli-bait.
http://trickster.ntreev.net/guide/guide_character.aspx
Never tried it myself, but then I'm not a furry.
Re: Second Life Lacks Buzz, Reuters Bails
I used to play MMOs, and despite being a furry myself, I've never nor will ever play Trickster.
Re: Second Life Lacks Buzz, Reuters Bails
Secound Life is only worth while for stories about people life who are so sad they make people feel better.
Re: Second Life Lacks Buzz, Reuters Bails
So I guess for them, Second Life is actually their first life!
Re: Second Life Lacks Buzz, Reuters Bails
*snort*
Good show, Chris.
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