Architecture For Dummies, SL Style?
Over at the official Second Life website, there's a new issue of the 'Second Opinion' newsletter (yep, new for September, tho the URL date is August!), and it has an interesting article on an architectural firm using SL for demonstrations.
A lot of Second Life-related marketing/promo stuff seems very contrived, but if this company is doing things right, it's absolutely genuine and smart: "We had a client, for example, who really wanted a small house. We tried to explain that it was a little too small and that he’d need more space to be comfortable. But the client held fast to the idea of small. So we built the house in Second Life exactly as he wanted it, and then we walked through it with him."
In other SL-related news, following Mathew Kumar's recent 'Letters From The Metaverse' column profiling game 'Numbakulla', and which has received a pretty vociferous response over at AOL-owned Second Life Insider from co-creator Caliandris Pendragon.
She suggests: "I'm a little fed up with people who can't be bothered to acclimatise properly coming in world and then being negative about the ways in which Second Life is deficient when compared with their favourite RPG/MMORG/FPS etc." Well, one of the reasons that we set up Mathew's column is to really independently evaluate some of the SL projects from a measured outsider's point of view - which is what I believe he did, and the SL Insider commenters seem (at least vaguely!) to agree with.
Comments
Whilst Second Life is merely competant at doing simple world simulations, the underlying technology is pretty awful in every respect; dog-slow 3D, lame physics implementation, poor real-time interaction--the list goes on and on, much to the chagrin of anyone who wants build something 'serious' within SL. Which covers pretty much anything beyond clothes or bingo.
And "acclimatization" is bollocks; she's either in complete denial of the facts, or just too accepting of SL's myriad flaws. Serious developers in the SL community have been crying out for a technology rewrite for a long time now. More so since Linden Labs appears* to be highly profitable right now, yet is sitting on its hands (except for regular bug fixes).
Personally, if SL doesn't get a major engine overhaul by the end of 2007, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see its popularity - and creativity - dwindle quite quickly. People are already squashed against the limits of what the current implementation can do, and Linden Labs risks alienating creatives and doing a disservice to its customers.
* Rumours abound that Linden Labs continue ploughing their efforts into media spin, in the hope that SL be bought out for a huge amount of cash.
Posted by: Wrestlevania | September 4, 2006 4:42 AM