DISQUS

Innocent Bystander · 3 years ago

I cannot imagine a bigger waste of time. What's wrong with this life?

Me? I'm gonna go donate a pint of blood, maybe attend the local city council meeting? Do you participate in your local community?

Or do you waste your hours imagining you are a person?

Yawn.

scobleizer · 3 years ago

Innocent: so much anger! At what? Some people getting together and having fun. I'd hate to be in your shoes.

Eric Rice · 3 years ago

You shoulda seen the money raised in Second Life for Hurricane Katrina. And the uses for disaster preparedness training by building scale models of oh, I dunno, YOUR town. Rapid prototyping with 3D software that is democratic in nature like blogging. Hmmm, never can tell. /smirk.

BTW, I just bought Nino's building, although we've talked briefly. He made 20 real dollars off me for that tower. ;-) Economics! Holy Crap!

SL Fan · 3 years ago

I found a direct link to your building over on Eric's blog....

http://slurl.com/secondlife/slackstreet/200/200//

Philip Linden · 3 years ago

Welcome to our little world... bring on the evil... nice build. Geez, all these famous people moving in.

scobleizer · 3 years ago

Philip: famous? Geez, I don't have a currency named after me! ;-) I'm very honored to have you in my little world, by the way! Yours is a lot cooler!

Innocent Bystander · 3 years ago

Anger? Naw, I just think people are beginning to favor online virtuality over reality - to the detriment of the real world.

Or maybe I'm an old fogey.

scobleizer · 3 years ago

Innocent: I guess you've totally missed just how fast these online gaming communities are growing. But, why get angry cause some people are wasting time on their computers? Sounds like you have an elitist problem. "If you don't live my way you're S88t."

Steph · 3 years ago

I'm not quite sure I see the point (aren't we busy enough in our first lives?) -- but I didn't see the point in Blogger before I signed up.

So I'm signing up, and hope I won't have to regret it ;-)

pt · 3 years ago

when i see you in real life, i'll wear this and also be in scoble inc too...

http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2006/02/ph...

one of the rigs i made uses a tablet pc, oddly enough.

cheers,
pt

Torley Linden · 3 years ago

Nice... teaming up with Seig for this! So THIS is what the build's gonna be used for. I often muse how there's not enough cyberpunk-style megacorp buildings in SL. I've been watching related towers come together in the sandboxes.

Mebbe see you in SL sometime... :)

Mike Driehorst · 3 years ago

I think Innocent has some valid points. He/She is not angry. I've never been too involved with Sims and just glanced around Second Life. However, I've seen and heard of people leaving the real world for these virtual ones. Sure, for most people, we can separate the two. But, for a whole lot of people, real families and lives do suffer.
People can do what they want in creating these virtual communities, but most people just need to get a *real life," not a 2nd life.
Mike

wesley · 3 years ago

one of the few games that gets better the more you play it.

Eric Rice · 3 years ago

On the other hand, one thing I'm finding is that I want to spend *more* time outside to capture media. One member of the Spin Martin posse and I strolled around the streets of Seattle friggin *admiring* architecture and park design. From being more designer-y than game-y, I found a new appreciation of the boring ol' stuff around me.

And then of course, I wanted to go log in and build what I saw, but hey, we don't fault a painter for making a sunset on canvas based on the real thing do we? How dare you put pretty pictures in your house! ;-) I kid because I love.

Richard Brownell · 3 years ago

Innocent: Scoble got it right: elitist. Please explain to me why wasting time in a virtual world is any worse than watching TV, playing cards, playing any game imaginable really, or doing any other leisure activity? And by the way, tossing in a "well you aren't doing anything physically, so it is not as good see" is bull because many who partake in digital worlds are quite fit. To point out somebody in this very thread (Sorry Scoble, Eric has you beat) http://ericrice.com/

What you are arguing against is leisure time and it's elitist and moronic. But I suppose all of your time is spent donating blood and at city council meetings. We'll just have to agree to disagree about the detriment to the real world when without online, you wouldn't have such worthy causes as childsplaycharity.org and many others. Real world detriment indeed.

TDavid · 3 years ago

Welcome to SL, Scoble! Eric showed me his digs a little while back and said you were going to be making a splash.

We have a group that has been working on the business aspect of Second Life for a couple months now recording our findings.

For those who pass this off as merely a time wasting "game" they are missing the creativity and interaction. One of my friends recently described SL as "chat on steroids."

I like that description. There is so much more than games and chats though .. those who have web businesses might consider the recent Wired article where some SL residents are pulling in a living wage.

Food for thought at least.

Innocent Bystander · 3 years ago

"Innocent: Scoble got it right: elitist. Please explain to me why wasting time in a virtual world is any worse than watching TV, playing cards, playing any game imaginable really, or doing any other leisure activity?"

Elitest? I'm pro-democracy but believe its a participation game, not a spectator sport. Know what I mean?

I'm not anti-leisure (far from it) but I think way too much energy is put into these things.

I don't game anymore since I spent 3 very concentrated months cracking one 1st person shooter. Got to the end, lifted up my head, looked around at what did and didn't get done, and wished I'd had those 3 months back.

Fiddling while Rome burns comes to mind (and if you don't think the world is going down in flames, you ain't been watching).

Its just my observation.

Richard Brownell · 3 years ago

So if you don't game any more, what are you doing with your time? I don't think commenting on Scoble's blog is any better use of your time in terms of saving the world going down in flames. And I'd be willing to bet that you have swapped in some other form of leisure activity in place of gaming.

If you spend all of your time saving the world with the occasional Scoble blog post though, I applaud you.

scobleizer · 3 years ago

Innocent: you strike me as the kind of guy who goes up to kids playing a game and yells at them saying "how can you kids have fun here when there are people dying in Iraq, poor kids starving in Africa, and corruption running rampant in politics?"

You might be right, but still makes you angry and an elitist.

Personally, I'd rather hang out with my friends who are trying out new technology and seeing what it's good for.

Innocent Bystander · 3 years ago

I'm used to being called elitest as a mac user. Its completely baseless but whatever.

But saying I'm elitist because I think spending hours and hours on computer games are a waste of time?

Ask yourself how much time you'd play in pretend-world if you knew you were going to die next year.

Because you might. I might. Or someone close to you might.

That's how I prioritize my time.

DaveKap · 3 years ago

Mmmmm biggest baddest software developer in Second Life, eh? Are you hiring? What is the starting salary? Do I get free dental? ;) Hope you enjoy yourself in the future internet.

By the way, all the jokes about "getting a real life before dealing with a second one" are slightly pessimistic in nature. I tend to look at the name Second Life and think "Two lives are better than one." or "It's another life for when this one gets to be too much or not enough."

Maybe I should be a marketer... *grin*

Chris Wild · 3 years ago

Innocent: So your life is *SO* full with non-meaningless acts that you have no time to play a game, read a book, watch a film, or graze on TV? All of them are escape from this life type activities.

You give blood... 1 hr every few months... a council meeting... 1 hr every now and then... picking litter up on your streets... feeding soup to the poor... helping old ladies cross the road... rescuing cats from trees... running for president... changing the world...

I salute you - where do I pin the meddle?

Your statement of "You can't imagine a bigger waste of time" is fine, many would agree with you, myself included... but why drop off into derogatory statements about someone elses choice of activities when you actually have no idea of how they spend their life?

Maybe you're not elitist, maybe you are an old fogey... but one thing you appear to be, is rude and disrespectful. Please wipe your feet a little before entering someone elses house.

Mike Driehorst · 3 years ago

Geez, guys, you really are laying into Innocent Bystander. Yes, there are lots of things to waste our time. Most of us can wade through it all and still be relatively productive.
Because things like SL can pull in many who are mentally weak or even obsessive, there should be a cautionary tone when touting them too much.
It's all about balance.
Mike

Eric Rice · 3 years ago

Okay so if a waste of time makes money, is it still a waste of time? BRB. Bank lurk. ;-)

Samantha Murphy · 3 years ago

Damn Second Life and damn Eric for spreading the word. Just kidding. I think it's amazing and I just have one question for Eric. Can I play in your club in the Second Life and will I make real money?