Sony, Microsoft Begin Battle of Virtual Worlds 180
Slatterz writes "Sony and Microsoft are poised to do battle in virtual worlds. The console kids both announced Second Life-style virtual environments at the Tokyo Game Show today. Both games show striking similarities to Linden Lab's creation. Players are represented by avatars which live a virtual life — engaging in relationships, going about day-to-day business."
"Oh yay" (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:"Oh yay" (Score:5, Funny)
Re:"Oh yay" (Score:5, Interesting)
Trivia:
One of the first (perhaps the first) online virtual worlds was hosted by Quantum Link for the Commodore 64. Connections were made by modems with speeds from 0.3 to 2.4 kbit/s. Q-Link eventually renamed itself America Online, aka AOL.
"Q-Link's Habitat is a multi-participant online virtual environment. A cyberspace. Each participant ("player") uses a home computer (Commodore 64) as an intelligent, interactive client, communicating via modem and telephone over a commercial packet-switching network to a centralized, mainframe host system. The client software provides the user interface, generating a real-time animated display of what is going on..." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_Link [wikipedia.org]
Note that it says "animated". This wasn't some text-based BBS, but a fully-graphical interface similar to the world wide web, but with much lower resolution (320x200).
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Re:"Oh yay" (Score:4, Informative)
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Nice photos! I like how those old magazines used direct camera shots of televisions. There was no such thing as a "screen dump" back then. Here's me in 1989: http://www.qlinklives.org/qlink-old/me1989.jpg [qlinklives.org] * And here's the 1985-Commodore 64 version of "Miis" - http://www.fudco.com/chip/habitat.gif [fudco.com] - I don't know what this is but it looks cool - http://www.gamasutra.com/db_area/images/feature/1991/c64_11.jpg [gamasutra.com]
Those were the good old days, when computing was an adventure into unknown territories
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"There was no such thing as a "screen dump" back then."
Screen dump or screen capture? We definitely had screen dumps, it might have been spit out on a dot matrix and print speeds were measured in characters per second, but you could get hardcopies. On a IIe it was PR#1 (with your printer interface card in slot one) or thereabouts. My emulator is useless on this one. As far as screen caps, you could just tell the system to write 8k bytes to disk starting at the memory location of screen memory. Ha, as you lo
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Re:"Oh yay" (Score:4, Funny)
be as lazy as you like :)
Isn't that a very elaborate way to be lazy?
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I don't quite agree with your analogy. Guitar Hero is about the rock star experience. It's about getting up and, essentially, pretending to be a rock God, on stage, and getting into it. Second Life is about sitting on your butt and catering to that which you already are. One of them at least requires a smidgen of imagination and activity.
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Second Life is about sitting on your butt and catering to that which you already are. One of them at least requires a smidgen of imagination and activity.
Second Life doesn't have a storyline or a goal.. it's up to you what you do. Those who have no imagination are probably those who are used to consume a game like they consume TV... and they pretty fast discover that Second Life is not for them, and leave it.
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Last time I watched a few friends play Guitar Hero it was very much about sitting on their butts and clicking buttons in sync with little colored discs on screen. It's essentially Dance Dance Revolution for the lazy.
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Interesting for me is that Microsoft creates an alliance of competitors by virtually going against the rest of the market. Every succesful business model gets less successful Microsoft competition. I wonder why they don't compete with Amazon and eBay.
Microsoft seems to be very desperate. So Second Life is the next member of the anti-Microsoft alliance camp. All these companies are bent to kill Microsoft. They are like super-activitists and not driven by rational business choice, they really do want to kill
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Depens on what you're interested in. SL is not a game, it's more like a technical platform.. where you can implement games, if you like. What I like about it is that there's no fixed goal.
Dwight: Second life is not a game. There are no winners and no losers.
Jim: Oh there are losers...
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If you check out Jim's avatar in SL, his rez date actually predates Dwight's avatar's rezdate. And unlike Dwight's avatar, who looks like Dwight, Jim's is your stereotypical SL music scene attending "cool guy". So Jim's more of an "SL loser" than Dwight, he just doesn't want to admit it. Jim's avatar was also partnered with Pam's. The Office character's avatar profiles are a fun read.
Furry playground (disambiguation) (Score:2)
So, two clones of something that is little more than a furry playground?
"Furry playground"? Are you talking about Second Life or the Animal Crossing series?
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| In Animal Crossing, I don't run across furry malls with gigantic fox penises on the walls and laser-lit dance clubs.
yea, I liked SL better too...
In all seriousnes, I'm in SL Daily... haven't seen a "furry" in over 2 months, and about the same for a laser. It's not all furry heaven, just so happens, thats all anyone looks for. Most new Internet users jump online and look for all the nasty to 'prove' to their friends that it's as bad as they think. Thats like getting on the web and 'proving' that it's no
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Re:"Oh yay" (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:"Oh yay" (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:"Oh yay" (Score:4, Funny)
There may be less of 'em, but, my god, what has been seen cannot be unseen.
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There are more non-furs in Second life than there are furs
There is a MUCH higher (furs)/(non furs) ratio in Second Life than in meatspace and, face it, most of the internet.
Nice try.
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{citation needed}
I mean seriously last time I installed this there was a "Virtual Badger Dick" lying on the ground at the first random place I went to...
you mean, you actually recognized what it was? (Score:3, Interesting)
i'm curious; how could you tell that it was a _badger_ dick rather than, say, a weasel or ferret dick?
Re:you mean, you actually recognized what it was? (Score:5, Funny)
It was well labelled. It even came with a note. Apparantly with some effort for keybinding I would be able to make it urinate *and* ejaculate. Also it was "compatible" with someones sex animation system, or whatever the hell.
I did put it on, scale it to around 12 foot long, and go walk around IBM SOA island for a while, while their foreign outsourced builders told me to "Please wear off that penis".
So I guess the moral of the story is that there is an objective to SL, trolling. I think I won, because I got booted by IBM :P
LOL! (Score:2)
After reading that, for the first time, I want to try Second Life XD
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Theres just something inside my rather well-developed brain that screams out "dressing up as animals and fucking each other is not right". Logic suggests the only reason real foxes aren't being fucked is because people would have their cocks bitten off.
Its like a giant cult of bestiality, with a reaction on par with the scientologists when you let them know they are a bunch of loonies.
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I think you're reading too much into my post. As stated, the pythonic "yaaay" and the rest of the sentence following it pointing out that that alone wasn't lethargic enough, it's not about intolerance, it's about complete and utter disinterest.
I couldn't care less about furries, so i place them into the same slot i place vegetarians and christians: people who i don't care about unless they shove their sexual preference, eating habits or insanity in my face. I merely find it amusing that both Sony and MS dec
Real Moneyz? (Score:2, Insightful)
Now the real question is will people be able to make real income off these clones as many have and failed in Second Life?
Animal Crossing: It prints money! (Score:2)
Now the real question is will people be able to make real income off these clones as many have and failed in Second Life?
Nintendo appears to be printing money with its Animal Crossing series.
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As far as I can see, no.
This isnt about your content: This is about them selling YOU content.
Ofcourse, they may add some ways for you to make a buck, or I suppose other people will come up with ways to make a buck despite Sony's objections (e.g. coming up with gold farming in EverQuest).
Heck, look at SecondLife: Its own in-world currency wasnt worth anything other then being a game token until someone decided it was worth real life dollars. And the rest is obsessed, greedy, overly-advertised history.
Article misleading? (Score:5, Insightful)
Having RTFA, and also having a background as a games dev.
Home is a virtual world, but isn't Microsoft's avatars pretty much just the same approach as Miis?
I think the article's a little misleading in implying that Microsoft are making some virtual world (like Home or 2nd Life), when instead, it's just giving devs a representation of the player to put into their own games, like how Miis are currently handled on the Wii.
Re:Article misleading? (Score:5, Interesting)
It's funny how the article also talks about home like it's only started development, yet it will be out in November. We've been waiting for it for something like 2 years now. If the MS thing is just like Miis then there is nothing like a 'battle' going on..
I hope Home is as technically advanced as GTA with the ability to drive around and play minigames. I wonder if there will be any overlap between the two. Getting your Home avatar into GTA would be pretty cool, and I'd prefer a better method for finding multiplayer servers as well..
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that's an interesting idea. Sony could get together with the major game publishers and establish a standardized player model format. you would be able to customize the model in the PS3's Home interface, and then load the 3D avatar into games as your player model. each game would render the model differently (different lighting system, character sizes, graphical style, etc.) but the basic features would still be recognizable as your Home avatar.
i don't own a PS3, so I've never used Home, but they could also
Re:Article misleading? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's actually another useless article from The Inquirer [theinquirer.net], republished on pcauthority.com.au.
Sure, Home bears a glancing resemblance to Second Life, albeit a homogenized one, but the NXE bears absolutely no resemblance other than they both have avatars and feature text and voice chat. Virtual world, NXE ain't.
Where is slashdot's bullshit filter when we need it?
I was thinking the same thing. Misleading. (Score:3, Informative)
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Yes, the author is clearly talking out of his ass on this one. Home is a lot like Second Life--with the notable exception of not being able to create original content, which a lot of Second Lifers would consider the defining characteristic of Second Life (I don't). But the new Live Experience is NOTHING like it (nor is it in any way a "virtual world"). The closest thing Live Experience has to a "virtual world" is a lousy 8-person chat feature where you and 7 of your friends on live can show off your lame Mi
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I found the headline to be misleading, but in a different way. "Sony, Microsoft Begin Battle of Virtual Worlds" to me sounds like they're both going to create virtual worlds and there would be a big LotR-style battle between the two. Now that would be cool! I'd pay to join.... except that I wouldn't want to be on either side. :-) Make an Apple or Linux virtual world and we'll talk.
2nd Life? (Score:3, Insightful)
Stupid.... (Score:2)
If you look at the press, the Second life seems to be doing well. That is because they think they understand it and because fancy pictures are to be had. However if you look at the number of participants in MMO games, you find that second life is one of the worst performers still in business. As it is doubtful that these new attempts will draw more people (they will basically have to to draw people away from Second Life, everybody that is interested in thsi kind of thing is already there) these efforts are
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I don't think it's precisely inability to get along with the client interface. As a (not exactly veteran) SL player who hangs out where the new players first show up, I can tell you why so many people quit:
1. The client interface just doesn't even work. It's not that they can't get along with it, it's that they sign up for a character and the SL client program tells them that it doesn't work on their hardware. They consider buying a new computer just to play a stupid game, and think "that's really lame"
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I see that literally every time I get on SL: a new person gets on, says "so what's the goal of the game?" and when people say "there isn't one" the person says "that's dumb." and logs off, most likely forever.
The correct answer isn't "there is no goal", but rather "you have to define your own goal". And if someone can't do that, they're probably no loss if they leave.
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There are a lot of people who are interested in virtual worlds but haven't enjoyed the experience that Second Life has offered them. We're talking millions, if not tens of millions. If these new worlds can learn from SLs mistakes then there is certainly a potential market there to tap into. Unfortunately the hype around SL led to the inevitable unfulfilled expectations and so people are likely wary. But that's really just a marketing problem.
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You mean "transgendered" and not "sexually challenged". Sexual identity and gender identity are not the same thing. And while SL does have a following among some MTF (male to female) transgendered folks (it's a lot like IRC in that way), the majority of female avatars are played by women. You can figure that out just by using the built in voice chat.
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escaping to another world. (Score:5, Insightful)
"engaging in relationships, going about day-to-day business."
Strange how people will sit in a bedroom controlling an avatar which is decorating it's bedroom....
Although I can understand to an extent. there have been times when I was unhappy and being able to spend a few hours in a virtual world completely disconnected from my real life somehow helped and overall made me a happier person. Don't play now that real life is good.
I avoid WOW at all cost though. I want to play it but I've seen what it does to people and I know I'd get hooked.
Because bells are easier to earn than dollars (Score:3, Funny)
Strange how people will sit in a bedroom controlling an avatar which is decorating it's bedroom
And strange how people will buy stuff to decorate a virtual bedroom from a talking raccoon. Dedicated gamers can earn bells, gil, plat, or whatever virtual currency a lot more easily than dollars.
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May I recommend Eve-online. A solid single universe game without the cushy penalties of WOW.(not that I have played WOW)
Playing games can be very relaxing. I remember when I was sick many years ago, playing starcraft took the pain away as well as any pain killer. But it worked faster. So I always played while waiting on the medicine to kick in.
Re:escaping to another world. (Score:4, Insightful)
SecondLife is like a trap for programmers (Score:2)
Imagine WoW, except every object in the world can be scripted. It's easy to spend a *lot* of time endlessly tweaking your autonomous bird flock, or tuning the parameters on your vehicles...
Virtual world, virtual boringness... (Score:2, Interesting)
Nice avatars to gather along -yeeah-...well I suppose that IRC wasn't enough graphical (or maybe too metaphorical in his representation for most people) and that you couldn't conclude serious business within all those Multi players games /sarcasm.
The problem is that they are wholly boring. the best of the world would be to include a "second world" into an already existing -and even moderately successful multi player game-. Imagine a "low paying" WoW/Eve/Warhammer account where your user would be forced to s
Hurrah. (Score:5, Funny)
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Windows needs your permission to use this program
Salt
If you do not trust the source do not use this program. This program can potentially harm your computer
Allow Cancel
Like Second Life? (Score:2, Insightful)
Start with Blockout and MySims (Score:3, Informative)
However its big plus is that you can create anything you like from basic shapes like cubes. This seems highly unlikely to be possible from online console games.
I had a PS1 game where I could build stuff out of cubes, and it came out in December 1995. It was called Geom Cube, a port of Blockout [wikipedia.org]. Nintendo even cloned it on the Virtual Boy [wikipedia.org]. As for texturing those cubes, Doubutsu no Mori (ported to USA as Animal Crossing) explored it in 2001, and MySims refined it.
I'm not a young hippster (Score:5, Interesting)
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I'm a fat dork. :-) And proud of it!
Wave your freak flag!
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Re:I'm not a young hippster (Score:5, Insightful)
Did you know that aprox 60% of women wear jeans and trousers that are too small for them?
Did you know 86% of all quoted statistical figures are made up?
Second Life! (Score:4, Funny)
Apples and Oranges... (Score:4, Insightful)
Sony's 'Home' is really not comparable with Microsoft's new avatars/Xbox UI. Home is a virtual world, MS' UI is just that, a UI.
This is not targeting Second Life (Score:4, Insightful)
What has been described in the press so far doesn't sound anything like Second Life, except at the most superficial level. These systems are targeting things like IMVU and Puzzle Pirates. There are more similarities between Slashdot and Livejournal than there are between Second Life and Sony Home.
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What has been described in the press so far doesn't sound anything like Second Life, except at the most superficial level. These systems are targeting things like IMVU and Puzzle Pirates. There are more similarities between Slashdot and Livejournal than there are between Second Life and Sony Home.
Parent has it right.
This is targeting the "We (corporate) create stuff - you buy it" market, that is populated by the mainstream typical user who doesnt want to learn how to create their own content or shape their own environment.
This is about you coming in and buying like a good little consumerist, then going to a fancy club populated by other cool people and run a dance animation for 2 hours trying to get compliments for your self assembled looks and get people to go play a game with you.
Ofcourse, this st
But do they have.... (Score:2)
Porn and virtual sex?
That was seemingly everyone's first priority the moment Second Life came out. It wouldn't surprise me if the first ever public construction on there consisted of 2 spheres and a cylinder...
Can't see them getting as much trade if they don't :)
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Hear Hear!. I may be addicted to World of Warcrack, but at least theres kind-of a point to it. (one which DOESN'T involve cyber sex)
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what an awful article (Score:5, Insightful)
Sony announced Home a long time ago. And yeah, it does look a bit like Second Life. But given that Second Life is meant to be like real life, it is odd that other things look like it too?
MS didn't announce any kind of virtual world at all. They have avatars now, but no world to roam in. It's not anything like Second Life or such.
Honestly, this whole article reads like more Second Life PR. I can't believe how much PR these guys get. A guy on the plane next to me two days ago was reading an article that said explained how Second Life is hot again, that companies are "moving in" again. Which of course is absurd, Second Life was never hot before and it isn't hot now, and companies "move in" at times, rarely having any positive effect on their sales or Second Life for that matter.
Linden Labs has some of the most amazing PR I've seen.
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Try summing up Second Life in one sentence while simultaneously covering 90% of the truth -- you'll fail. There have been some terse summaries above but they miss
He's back... (Score:2)
I vote... (Score:3, Interesting)
Misread the summary (Score:2)
Companies are represented by avatars which live a virtual life
Hello, I'm a Mac.
RTFA: Not even close to SecondLife (Score:2, Insightful)
"Ryoji Akagawa of Sony said that around 24 game design companies would provide the content needed for Home - but didn't give much else away. "
This is nothing like SecondLife, then - barely even an imitation.
SecondLife is about user content and creativity while Sony's - and quite possibly Microsoft's - solution is about you paying them for the right to purchase items created by other companies. You have zero capacity to create your own content and items.
In other words, this isn't a virtual world: This is a 3
chiseled spam (Score:2)
Both games show striking similarities to Linden Lab's creation.
You mean: "Both games, like Linden Labs' creation, show striking similarities to the Metaverse of Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash."
Hijack a Word (Score:2)
Missed the point (Score:2)
The whole point of SL is user created (and owned) content. Sony and MS both missed the point, or the article missed it by drawing a comparison between animated chat avatars SL. What Linden did was alot harder. They have to deal with a continuous world (no fragments) entirely made up of user generated content with no chance to pre-calc or optimize before rendering. It's a bit like comparing Pidgin to Python.
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I'm still waiting for Hiro to write his sword fighting routine's so I can behead anonymous cowards!
Da5id.
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> the failure of second life should be an indicator here
Wait, Second Life failed? When did that happen? I was having meetings about it only yesterday!
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That would be the failure. The gentlemen over at NASA would agree with me.
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Its like reality TV, why would my daily business be sitting in an armchair watching other people go about their daily business?
Now I get it: it is a manager's tool!
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There is no subscription fee for Second life.
There is if you want any land to put your stuff in. A parcel of Second Life land called a "sim" costs $1,000 plus $295 per month. This gives you 16 acres, the same area as an Animal Crossing: Wild World town.
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So I can set up my own second life server, using the open sourced SL server code? Oh wait, there isn't any!
With the same reasoning: I can view microsoft.com with Firefox, thus microsoft.com is open source!
Go back to your furries, AC.
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