Stupid Question Alert
Monday, January 4th, 2010I’m getting rather bored of articles that open with my favourite stupid question,
Whatever happened to Second Life?
Guess what, folks, it’s still alive and kicking and its creators are still creaming its profits.
The latest in a line of pointless posts comes from PCPro.co.uk. You can read the entire piece here.
Essentially though, this is just another case of a ‘journalist’ (I use the term loosely) implying that Second Life is all sex, sex, sex and empty places. The article opens with a very stupid paragraph.
“It’s desolate, dirty, and sex is outcast to a separate island. Barry Collins returns to Second Life to find out what went wrong, and why it’s raking in more cash than ever before.”
Erm… if it’s “raking in more cash than ever before,” would it not be fair to say that nothing went wrong? Prat. Barry Collins then goes on to chart his couple of visits around the metaverse at which he encountered quiet place after quiet place. Yes, we know a lot of places are quiet. But he was in a mall, so you would expect it would be much quieter than most places. He then goes on and complains about events not being populated, before his description of the events he goes on to describe reveal he’s clearly checking out nightclubs. Golden rule number one, Mr. Collins (something you would be aware of had you done any element of reading around of Second Life blogs or other research before rezzing into world), nightclubs in Second Life are dying. They’re thankfully being replaced by more live music events, more creative, literary and arts events. I don’t suppose you checked out any of those, right? That would simply have ruined the spin you were trying to go for on your bullshit article.
In fact, even when forced to admit the business and educational presence in Second Life, Collins finds a reason to complain. Allow me to quote him:
“Academia has also invaded. Stanford, Princeton and Harvard Law School are among the pack of US universities that have established a Second Life presence. Princeton, for example, has a stunningly rendered campus complete with library, lecture halls and a frankly annoying population of wild squirrels.
Business, too, continues to pile into the picture. The IEEE might have taken seven whole years to sort out 802.11n Wi-Fi, but it’s had time to set up a Second Life campus, allowing engineers to discuss the finer points of desert-dry specifications while dressed like Marilyn Monroe’s slutty sister.
And yet, I still can’t help wondering what the point of all this is? Yes, these virtual recreations are magnificent and impressive, but once you’ve wandered around and seen the sights, what else is there to do?
There are no goals, no objectives, no points to be won or levels to be completed. Yes, there’s a degree of social interaction – although precious little of it in these glossy showcase areas. I found more people at a place delightfully labelled “Cumdumpsters” (which promises “rough sex, humiliation and rape”) than I ever did on visits to any of the Showcase sites.”
If Barry Collins had any thread of journalistic integrity to hold on to, he lost it when he tried to cast aside the value of such fine educational institutions as Princeton and Harvard (because they don’t let him win points) and turn the reader’s attention instead to ‘humiliation and rape’. Nice, Barry…. nice.
And allow me to share one of his final sentiments (yes, another bullshit statement).
“It might try and shuffle sex into a corner, and pretend that it’s a melting pot of creativity, business and academia, but it ultimately serves no purpose.”
If this guy thinks that Princeton and Harvard are all about ‘pretending’ to be a hub of education, then he’s very misguided. And perhaps he would have a better idea of the creativity in Second Life had he not wasted his visits in world exploring ‘CumDumpsters.’
Thankfully, ladies and gents, it does not seem Barry Collins will be returning to Second Life. He closes his article by informing us,
“I’m afraid I’ve got a proper life to be getting on with.”
Gee, how terribly important he must be.
/end sarcasm.
