Tom, count me in as non-believer ... don't get it either, maybe also because I'm 32 and as advertiser I don't see point of being there ...

I'm 26, and as much as I'd like to be a believer, I'm not. I get bored after 5 seconds, let alone 5 minutes.

Same here, i don't get the picture either. Because of thorough coverage (call it hype) on BoingBoing and many other blogs, it looks like it is very promising platform. I managed to survive Second Life for 10 minutes, but than i gave up. I also think it is a hype and i'm completely clueless about any added value it could bring to brands, let alone Belgian companies. 26 too, supposed to be early-adopter, but not adopting this one, ...yet?

I'm almost 50 and I understand what SL is about. Maybe 32 is too young to understand it? It's a funny that people think it's possible to understand second life after wandering around for 5 minutes. It's like a foreigner arriving in Belgium and expects to understand what Belgium is about in 5 minutes.

Good resource on the SL Hype Cycle:

http://lovecreative.typepad.com/love/2007/01/second_life_in_.html

I've looked into it, and maybe it's good for companies who want to make some quick money from people who stupidly like to spend real money on fake money in a virtual world. If you really spend hours and hours playing this game maybe all you need is a little reminder from Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Mars, or Snickers that it's time to stock up for the next session of your Second Life!

Well, if Clo is there, that's enough reason for me to go there too... ;-D Anyway: understand the remarks. But on the other hand: Phil has a point. If only the interface wasn't so sloooow.

I'm in there too, but it looks I'm there alone. I always end up in abandoned places! I didn't give up yet, but I'm not mega-excited eiter. Actually, I'm only interested in building stuff. I've got some 3D knowledge, so why not make some extra money by building the atomium and running a restaurant at the top. It would be so funny if I could give up my day job for that. But it would become very boring after a while without irl colleagues.

@all,
Thank you so very much. I felt like an outcast but I just found out I'm not alone. :-)

I think one can compare SL with the the life cycle that IRC had. Everyone who was an avid user of IRC realised what a great potential chatting over networks had. But those were the tech savvy guys who didn't bother about "packaging". The early majority only jumped on the IM bandwagon once MSN Messenger/Yahoo Messenger came into play.

The analogy with SL is striking. Lot's of tech savvy early adopters are loving it, because they look beyond the technology and the interface and they focus on the idea behind SL. But it will take another few years, another platform and a much more immersive experience (think Wii) to convince people like me.

I understand your skepticism and all other dismissive opinions. But I think you are looking too much at the SL experience 'right now'. I am convinced that it has tremendous opportunities as a business place.

For me the opinions around SL are a bit like when people express their opinions about blogs or other 'new technologies'. They tend to be very pro or completely contra. They call it 'too much hyped' or 'the next big thing'. That's not how it is or will be. It depends of the use of it. Some blogs are good, some are really bad. The possibilities to create nice communities and have cool experiences are, I think, big in SL, but need some growing and maturing...Give it (virtual worlds...can be SL version3) some time (he says philosophically)... :)

Cool article on poeppen in second life.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/09/good_sex_in_second_life/

As a geriophile SL is of no good to me.
Why does everybody make their avatar look young?

@Uberkevin,
Very interesting point indeed. I guess that gerontophilia is as rare in second life as in the real world. There's simply no future for GILF-hunters. But the real world is getting better and better for this hobby. which is kind of nice, I guess.

BTW: thanks for the link. very interesting article.

Yup, "de vergrijzing van de maatschappij" is the best thing that ever happened to me.

Hi Tom, I reacted on my own site, Digimedia, in Dutch. Let me know if I convinced you a bit or not at all :-)

Back in the 50's they thought that nobody would ever have a use for a computer in their home. In the early 90's the Web was decried as a waste of time, useless to (print-world) advertisers and 85% porn. Now I see the same thing happening with SL. You know, I went downtown the other morning, to the great big convention center. It was totally deserted! Not a soul was walking around. Why do they have that great big building there if it is just going to sit unused? Also, I think that Paris is a shitty little town, cause I spent 15 minites there once on layover and I walked up and down the main airport concourse. From this, I gathered that Paris is full of angry Germans and nothing but shops. nobody even lives in Paris. I didn't see one house the whole time I was there. ... Are you seeing the sarcasm here? Go ahead and stay away from SL. More opportunity for me. I will remember all of the posted comments and smile, the next time I am teaching Photoshop or Illustrator or Flash to someone in Japan or Australia, as I have for the past 4 months, and getting help on scripting from someone in Austria or Korea. Today part of my job is teaching college professors how to use HTML and the Web, since they can no longer function as a teacher without it; and in 10 years, I will be paid teaching people like you how to get around in the Metaverse. I am 36, and I have a rich second life - and all I gave up in the first one, was television. Good riddance!