I am seeing articles about Second Life™ popping up much more often. Today I see another article appearing on PC Gamer. This one is by Ian Dransfield and titled: Remnants of Earth: the MMO inside Second Life.
Remnants of Earth Landing Point – 2015
Again, this does not appear to be written by one knowledgeable about Second Life. From just this article, I suspect whatever experience Ian has with SL is cursory. I suspect most of the story came from watching the video trailer about Remnants of Earth.
But, the information while limited, is accurate. The images are recent. So, in the arena of stories about Second Life, this is one of the better ones.
Changing direction a bit…
Awhile back Jo Yardley was on about creating more good videos about Second Life, ala Drax World Makers. Outside our community I don’t see much mention of his videos. That is a shame. His work is well done and reveals a part of ‘gaming’ seldom covered.
However, the video Remnants of Earth (RoE) is getting quite a bit of coverage. I’m not sure why. I am guessing it is seen as fitting well into the editors concept of what is appropriate for the PC Gamer site.
That the RoE video is getting traction should suggest something about what type of video these sites are looking for.
PC Gamer tips RPS (Rock, Paper, Shotgun) for their coverage of RoE on Sunday: Second Life Players Made An MMO Inside Of An MMO. RPS is bit less kind to Second Life. The first sentence of their article brings up giant penis sculptures…
RPS gets past that unkindness and focuses on the development of an MMO within and MMO.
Both are short 250± word articles…
This is not the first article RPS has carried about Second Life. See: Category Second Life. You will find mention of Drax’s World Makers. You’ll find they run one or two stories per year about Second Life. While they seem to always get in a cheap shot, they are pretty accurate and their shots are based in fact.
Nor is PC Gamer covering Second Life for the First time. They mention, different than cover, Second Life once or twice a year. I consider ‘mention’ a story like the NSA Spying on game players that mentions Second Life. Or an article about Linden Lab where they mention Second Life as an LL property or creation.
What is happening…
I am not sure if this is just coincidence there are stories popping now, close together, or it is just RoE fits a niche that makes it popular, or whether something more is going on. For now I assume RoE scratches an itch.
What is about RoE that has captured attention? Something new? I suppose that is an aspect of the popularity. That RoE is very much game like? May be some of that too. I find it hard to definitively decide. I don’t see where there was similar coverage of NoR (Nation of Remembrance), Toxin City and other in-SL games. Or maybe I missed that coverage… Or forgot…