*"Second Life a Ghost Town?*"

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I've been an active member of Second Life now for 48 hours, since getting a computer with memory and graphic card up to the job, and am finding the place both fascinating, ( flying, weird fantasy landscapes, etc), and like a ghost town, dead, deserted, EMPTY!

Who else is a member and could recommend some good places for people watching? Or some brilliant environments/landscapes?

They should institute "feature" characters, like in Runescape etc, to make the streets etc seem more interesting/lively. It provides something important. Otherwise is like film sets. Or like in 28 days later, someone said in an article about the problem!

I've been a member of Second Life for about a week, but I need more memory. Lots more. I'm fascinated with it, but can't keep from crashing long enough to discover other people. Are you saying that if I get enough memory, I won't find a world where I can live in a bookstore?

Haven't been looking for a bookstore , so no idea if there are any on SL where could read more than on the net generally. I suppose the environment might be pleasant.

Since posted have watched four youtubes about the geography so I have a slightly better idea of the general layout, and where the most elaborated landscape and architecture is, mainly the oldest area, Northern Continent, and have been on a train ride and a ferry, ( ),but apart from promotional dances, sales, market-survey pressgangs, and camping-seats to earn linden dollars, haven't seen many people doing much anywhere.

In fact the more time I spend on SL the weirder and more peculiarly deserted it seems. All these extraordinary creations and nobody there.

Apart from the absence of figurants, there has apparently until recently been little understanding of how "traffic" is event-driven, which Jagex also took a while to find out, on Runescape, until some super "constructions", like underground cities, ended up sitting around empty after the initial opening quest activity. They have since started putting shops etc into such zones, to encourage trade and therefore traffic.

It's weird in fact to see how space-use evolves and declines depending on what people get out of it.

Have you seen Welfare Island yet where people park their avatars for hours to earn the equivalent of cents which site-section owners will pay out to increase traffic so that qualify for the SL bonus? It is really wild. And the people queuing up to do market surveys to earn a few cents too?

In Runescape at least there is the possibility that you will be attacked by a "feature", animal, human, or otherwise, and have to run away or fight while exploring. But here the most alarming thing that happens is that someone sends you a card asking you to "join their group", offers which I have without exception declined till now.

Anyway, advice, tips etc, for livelier exploring, would be great.

I love MMOs but I hated Second Life. I just couldn't understand the appeal of a game where you do nothing but socialize. If you want action, head to any of the major cities in World of Warcraft. You can socialize, AND you can craft, fish, kill stuff, do quests, play the auction house, and ride the tram.

I didn't care for second life much myself. I got bored quickly but then I really just don't care to socialize much even online, I play WoW but I am probably the definition of casual ... three years and only level 65( at 60 I did raid before burning crusade I didn't like the time commitment though) on my highest level character. I eventually hope there will be something that mixes creation of elements with game play, sandbox and exploration. Actually I'm pretty sure that will eventually happen.

After barely two days of smooth/fluid access to Second Life I am coming to a very similar conclusion. While I could only catch glimpses of it, and only "just" manage to fly, with the old computer's memory and graphics card,I thought it looked amazing, but now that I can move around freely etc etc, am almost totally disappointed with it.

It is a strange and intriguing environment, but as a phenomenon, rather than as somewhere I want to spend time.

Hmm. As you say it seems like a chat site, with design and trade features/functions, and that's about it.

Last edited by ouinon on 01 Apr 2008, 1:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

That is almost exactly what my son and I were saying. How combining those elements from runescape, and second life for instance , might make for something pretty good.

I was just reading that unless are into the design and construction aspect of Second Life and/or socialising then yes it probably is boring.

I would prob never get into the socialising, but am wondering whether it might be worth working at the "sandbox" and "creation" side of it. Has anyone else done any of that? Can you take "creations"/designs out of SL? Is it a useful language/script system for graphics in RL? Or would I do better to learn a graphics script/system outside SL?