Second Life Blows

I apologize if this post offends anyone. It is very biased and mostly opinion. If you play Second Life actively, however, I reserve the right to laugh at you and call you names.

I’ve been on a tirade this month voicing my hate for some of the more popular services on the web. I explained why the new “Digg-like” startup Spotplex sucks. I also talked about why Technorati is a joke. Now I’m attacking Second Life – probably the king of overhyped money-making bullshit.

What is Second Life?

Second Life is a Sims knockoff that allows users to live a virtual “second life” through the game. The video game acts as just that – a second life. You do things you could normally do in real life if you weren’t such an antisocial jackass. At least in real online games you get to smash dragons. This one you just buy a house, get a job, and visit a prostitute or two.

I would go into a whole rant about why Second Life is an extremely lame and boring game but Tyler has already done a fairly good job of that.

So Why is Second Life Popular?

If you read Tyler’s article up there then you probably understand why Second Life is so boring. If you are still wondering about it, then please go sign up and play it for an hour. You’ll see. So that leaves us with the question “Why is Second Life so popular?” There is one reason and one reason only why Second Life is popular at all.

(Mostly) Old people think it’s the “next big thing” and hope it will make them rich(er).

There you have it. I blew the whole thing wide open. Old farts who barely understand the internet or online culture have deemed that Second Life is going to revolutionize the world and become the ultimate portal of internet (and eventually all social) activity. They see it as simply a new “world” to capitalize on. If Second Life consists of imaginary land that people want, there must be a market for selling imaginary land. If Second Life involves activities such as soliciting prostitutes, there must be a market for pimping.

Many believe that Second Life is only going to get more and more popular, and that eventually ones online presence in the game will become extremely valuable. They could be true. But they’re probably wrong.

Why Second Life Blows And Will (Most Likely) Fail

1) The game sucks – okay so I’ve already gone over this. The game itself sucks. It’s a dumbed down hybrid of the Sims and GTA. It’s worthless and lame. If the gameplay entertains you then you really need to go outside and experience **something** – anything!

2) The economy is false – at the moment there are people making a ton of money from Second Life. Don’t be fooled by my pessimism, there is a lot of actual cash being thrown around in the game. But who do you think is doing the spending? The fools who think the game will eventually pay off. Virtual real estate is worth actual money right now because there are a ton of dummies trying to buy up as much as they can hoping to sell it for a profit later. It’s warriors selling to warriors. Get rich quickers selling to get rich quickers. The bulk of the people playing Second Life right now are in it for the money. They’re playing because they read about it in Business Week. They’re playing because they read about it in Forbes. They’re not playing because they want to or because the game is any good. They’re playing to get rich. Some are – but it’s an inflated economy that will last only as long as the hype does.

I’m obviously speaking in general here, I’m sure there are a couple super super dorky people who play this game for the sheer enjoyment. Then again there are still people playing text-based RPG’s, so I guess anything can have a natural following.

3) It’s still just a game – at the end of the day Second Life is **still** just a video game. Eventually the hype will wear off and people will have to choose whether or not they want to play it based on how entertaining it is. The problem with that is it’s not entertaining. It is only being played because of the hype. That’s it. Period. When the hype dies, so will the game.

I’m sorry for this rantish post. I’m just so tired of hearing people talk about Second Life like it’s worth a damn. It sucks. It will go nowhere. It does and will blow for years to come. People are playing it now because they want to get rich. Once all of the get rich quickers have paid for their property and there’s no more (or far too few) people to sell to then the economy will crash, a ton of people will lose money, and people will flock away from the game onto the next cool eBook, report, or program.

In my personal opinion, if you are playing Second Life hoping to get rich, you’re wasting your time. You’d be better off gold farming.

Update: After all this I can’t believe I forgot to include the original link that got me thinking about this: Coldwell Banker’s Second Life.