Second Life : Geek Heaven

There is no doubt that Second Life is a wonderful creation which demonstrates some remarkable innovation - not least its own economy.  However, mainstream it is not.  Whenever people talk about the environment for marketing purposes I always wonder if they've actually spent anytime exploring the metaverse.  The reality is a wonderfully mad but stuttering world, especially on machines with processors more than a year or so old.  A bit like dial-up, in fact.  Unlike Hugh, I don't think it's creepy but I do think it's mostly inhabited by alpha geeks.  This GigaOm article nails it for me: "To play in Second Life, corporations must first come to a humbling realization: in the context of the fantastic, their brands as they exist in the real world are boring, banal, and unimaginative. Car companies are trying to compete with college kids who turn a virtual automotive showroom into a 24/7 hiphop dance party, and create lovingly designed muscle cars that fly, and auction off for $2000 in real dollars at charity auctions."