Sunday, March 30, 2008

Has nobody at Linden Lab played a videogame before?

Well, this isn't exactly what I was hoping for.

I've been hesitant to return to Second Life for a number of reasons, but the biggest sore spot has to be the game's impenetrable interface.

Clearly I'm no stranger to videogames - one look at my other blog will tell you that - but for some reason I just can't wrap my head around the multifarious menus, submenus, and sub-submenus that comprise the nuts and bolts of the Second Life experience.

In an article for CNNMoney.com, Fortune senior editor David Kirkpatrick suggests that Second Life has significant value not necessarily in how it currently functions, but for the potential and groundbreaking approach it suggests for future online interactivity.

"Second Life is important as much for what it represents as for what it offers today," he says. However, he flat-out states that "so far, Second Life is way too hard to use." It's impenetrable to almost all but the most tech-savvy of users, and it requires a computer with more than a little horsepower behind it.

I'm glad someone else is seeing the faults the same way I am. But on the flip side, perhaps my initial impressions were too harsh. While Second Life is largely clunky, inconsistent and buggy, it is an example of a Web where interactivity and multimedia are taken to unbelievable new levels. It may just be a big experiment, but it could very well be the framework for a revolution in human interaction.

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