Location: Searching for Eno, Kula Sims

I’ve read about a few alternatives to SL, and I’m not impressed.  I’d never use any of them that are Windows-only, of course (my Macs and I part company very, very reluctantly).  But even if a great world beckoned me back to the Dark Side and I logged in from a PC, it would have to be as open-ended as SL and enable residents to create their own content.  And Cecil, if you read this, you do magnificent work using Microsoft’s crippled OS…

SL has its problems, clearly explains, but its creativity and libertarian environment remain the promise Linden Lab holds out to us. I say that not as someone who drinks the Lab’s purple kool-aid; I like SL despite all the down-time, flaws in its interface, broken in-world tools, and lack of coherent zoning in the metaverse (the magnificent mosque at Chebi Sim used to be quite close to an adult-products shopping mall). 

I’ve compared SL to the gallery districts that get shut down for the same banal chains and mass-culture crap that populates so much of our RL space. 

If one wants sterile perfection in RL or a virtual world, its going to bore many of the artists and bohemians to tears.  And perhaps that is fine; the world is big enough for multiple metaverses.

But if Linden Labs wants to thrive as the “different” metaverse for the likes of brilliant Linux coders, dancing academics in gorilla suits, walking ham-hocks, and Brian Eno, they have to work a bit harder to keep the globe’s “Creative Class” happy in-world.  Let the giant corporations and their passive consumers cope with our freedom from islands of their own devising.

I hope my guest-writer “Midnight Angel” reads this post.  It’s hard for gamers to get it, but there are a lot of us who don’t want games—we want worlds we can build ourselves (and where we can game, too).  The Internet and the marketplace should be big enough for that, too. To be continued.

Be sure to check the “In a Strange Land” Archive for old posts

Howdy from Borg Prime! 

First off, I read your blog semi-religiously, not because I get a cheap thrill seeing my name in there from time to time (I do), but because you bring up a wide variety of things I would love to expound upon. Alas, the text comments need to be concise so I will try to contribute without sounding like an idiot.

I am glad to share your posts with others as well as I now have a direct RSS feed to my new Cecil art gallery which is NOT in SL but is key to my approach in utilizing the web and its various apps to show you what can be done with technology. http://www.gogofrog.com/Cecilhirvi/

It is always amazing to me to hear people saying that one piece of technology is better than another or that some tech item can be “made better”. Of course anything can always be better….but we are still talking about things that are man-made. And that “ain’t ever gonna be good, mistah!“ (Lamest Pappy imitation ever!)

I mean it is really naive to think any technology is “ideal” in RL or cyberspace. Governments spend billions touting the “precision of smart bombs” when in reality your lucky if one of those things don’t fall on your head while your walking to the store for a jug of milk (code for: moonshine). 

WARNING: Over-simplication ahead! Raise shields!
Because the PC is roughly still a wild kingdom, there are many more apps available to me to tweak and twist and hammer to suit my needs. I loved using the Mac but it was very stifling creatively….and I didn’t appreciate getting “held-up” quarterly so the company can post a profit. Sooo…in essence, the PC taught me to be a technological wanderer; constantly foraging for new grubs in uncharted lands.

That mentality has taught me to assess which apps is best for certain purposes. SL is my homeplace where I connect with peeps and shoot films. But I use Youtube to present them. And now I use Gogofrog as my main art gallery because they are both accessible in-world and out and FREE.

I’m glad that what you want out of SL is the same thing that I want. A mature place to be entertained, entertain, learn and unlearn.  There is a certain point in everyone’s life when you should stop playing games and learn to play the “game of life”. I think SL has that potential for many people to learn new things and we are just discovering how it can connect us and expand our abilities.  After all, there is just so many people and things you can blow up in two lifetimes.

-Cecil “Don’t Hate Me Cause I’m Beautiful” of Borg.

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