(Link) Emanuel Maiberg, author, thinks Second Life is a shabby World of Warcraft… Really!?!
WoW 2015?
I have to wonder what part of SL Emanuel has been looking at…
On the beach…
The article points out several good reasons for SL having survived. Fair enough overall.
Quote: “Indeed, the most surprising thing about Second Life is not that it’s still a thing, but that 13 years after its inception, it is still way ahead of its time.” Continue reading
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Seems there are a bunch of articles referring to Second Life™ and Project Sansar this week. The Australian in their LIFE section has an article titled Welcome to the virtual reality social revolution.
Seems a fair enough view of SL and the image used is recent.
As I write this there are only a couple of comments. If all the comments were like the first, I would conclude the Australians are far more civil than Americans.
Ciaran has a review of an article about Second Life that appears in the French newspaper Le Monde: Absurd, creative and debauched: ten years later, “Second Life” is still alive.
Ciaran has written a nice review of the article. So, I’ll skip adding my thoughts as I’m way short on free time today.
In my reading I came across this article on the Intel Developer site: Unity Tip: Using Second Life As A 3D Modeling Package.
Quoting:
You may need to use 3D modeling to create objects for your project but do not have the technical experience yet to do so, or find that your package of choice does not provide the feature that you need (for example, creating spheres in SketchUp is very difficult). There is an alternative, user-friendly solution though. You can create your objects in the online virtual reality world Second Life
I think that is pretty interesting…
Even more interesting is they promote the Firestorm Viewer as the viewer of choice. Their reason for recommending Firestorm is the Collada export feature found in Firestorm.
The article provides a tutorial on how to export 3D items from Second Life™ using the Firestorm viewer.
Annie Gaus, a reporter for the San Francisco Business Times has written In virtual reality, Second Life prepares for its second act. Annie interviews Ebbe Altberg. Starting with Second Life as a virtual world and moving into talk about Project Sansar.
Nothing new here to those following Sansar in the SL Blogosphere. But, it is a nice article.
Xiaoyu
Second Life™ is in the news again. It is mentioned in an article about pedophilia. So, is Morrowind, Elder Scrolls. It isn’t what you think. The article is about how those aware of their problem are sublimating (especially in psychoanalytic theory) divert or modify (an instinctual impulse) into a culturally higher or socially more acceptable activity) and controlling their desire using virtual worlds.
{ Help! I’m not really Insane! } for Style Kingdom Mag
A Dr. Seto points out that “prosocial” pedophiles—ones who experience empathy for children or shy away from harmful sexual behavior—more often than not don’t know where to turn for help.
Historically we have been down this road with other differences thought of as illnesses. Homosexual preference is not a disease or mental illness. Their gender identity is different. We have learned a lot about what shapes gender identity. Continue reading
Second Life™ made it in the news this week, again. This time at WIRED in an article titled: 5 Companies You Thought Were Doomed But Are Actually Fine (For Now). The title explains most of the story. The companies are; Dropbox, Pandora, Yahoo, Microsoft, and Second Life.
Simple Things
There is nothing in the story we don’t already know. Nor do I think it will inspire anyone to come check out Second Life. But, its press… and positive…
The Boston Globe has run an article titled: Second Life shows new promise as virtual forum for diabetes education. The article is about the Boston Medical Center training diabetics how to manage their condition via classes in Second Life™.
Blowing my diet on Food Friday
The Center did a study to see how effective the class was. They assigned half the study participants to a class in SL and the other half to a class at the hospital. Quoting the Globe:
The trial was a hit. Mitchell said the Second Life participants didn’t just sit in on the course sessions. They made friends, swapped recipes, had dance sessions, hung out. Most tellingly, participants wanted to know if they could involve their families in the game too.
The results were both groups progressed at the same rates and improved in equal amounts. But, it was the SL group that evidenced more engagement and learning persistence.