In 2005/2006, lots of large corporations were jumping on the Second Life bandwagon and generating publicity with their new portal. Most recently, Secondlife.com was listed as one of the 5 worst websites of the year by Time Magazine along with eHarmony.com and MySpace.com.
In 2007, Wired Magazine said in How Madison Avenue is wasting millions on a deserted Second Life that "Once you put in several hours flailing around learning how to function in Second Life, there isn't much to do. That may explain why more than 85 percent of the avatars created have been abandoned. Linden's in-world traffic tally, which factors in both the number of visitors and time spent, shows that the big draws for those who do return are free money and kinky sex." This is highlighted by the CNET live virtual interview of avatar Anshe Chung, the first person to make $1million US on Second Life, when she was bombarded by flying penises.
I experienced all of this in my searching through Second Life. Many sites toughted as highly popular (Dell, the CDC, Imperial College London) were ghost towns. Some of those that were ranked the best (Pontiac, Reuters, H&R Block) had completely abandoned Second Life.
In 2007, Wired Magazine said in How Madison Avenue is wasting millions on a deserted Second Life that "Once you put in several hours flailing around learning how to function in Second Life, there isn't much to do. That may explain why more than 85 percent of the avatars created have been abandoned. Linden's in-world traffic tally, which factors in both the number of visitors and time spent, shows that the big draws for those who do return are free money and kinky sex." This is highlighted by the CNET live virtual interview of avatar Anshe Chung, the first person to make $1million US on Second Life, when she was bombarded by flying penises.
I experienced all of this in my searching through Second Life. Many sites toughted as highly popular (Dell, the CDC, Imperial College London) were ghost towns. Some of those that were ranked the best (Pontiac, Reuters, H&R Block) had completely abandoned Second Life.
There are supposed millions of avatars in existance, however, it seems like very few were ever used on a regular basis and there are so many small sites open all during the day that it is very easy to never see anyone. The few sites I came across that were populated frequently were people who already knew each other and were holding "mature" conversations.
The graphics were almost untolerable too. All too often, I ran into invisible walls that were still loading. The viewable distance made exploring difficult since you could only see a few body lengths ahead.
Although, I do not see this as a viable means to sell real products; the training benefits seem achievable. There are several medical and language training programs that seem much more enlightening that reading a textbook.
For me and my avatar (Freddy Philly), the highlights were hang gliding on the Bora Bora site and finding a free Unibanco Segway and beer at the Brasil SP Jardins site(Unibanco is a large Brasilian bank where my sister-in-law works). I also picked up a "tucano" t-shirt from the PSDB (Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira) which is a large political party. No site owners were ever present in these sites but a bunch of avatars gathered for social chatting and playing with the toys.
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