Chapter 42

Google Unplugs Lively as Hype Fades Over Virtual Worlds

Although Google’s entry into Second Life’s market gave many of us .edu-dev-type people the sense that maybe there WAS something to this virtual worlds thing, it looks like that was a short-lived experiment.  From a Reuters article cited in the above:

It’s hard to say what, if anything, Linden Lab can do to make Second Life appeal to a general audience. The very things that most appeal to Second Life’s hardcore enthusiasts are either boring or creepy for most people: Spending hundreds of hours of effort to make insignificant amounts of money selling virtual clothes, experimenting with changing your gender or species, getting into random conversations with strangers from around the world, or having pseudo-nonymous sex (and let’s not kid ourselves, sex is a huge draw into Second Life). As part of walking my “beat,” I’d get invited by sources to virtual nightclubs, where I’d right-click the dancefloor to send my avatar gyrating as I sat at home at my computer. It was about as fun as watching paint dry.

Although I’ve expressed my skepticism about virtual worlds in higher ed before, I do feel sorry for those colleges out there that can’t afford to redesign their viewbooks this year because their budget is tied up in the maintenance of a Second Life island.