Lynden Lab’s Second Life virtual world was so popular that people were investing in virtual real estate and making significant sums of money off their investments. This was in the glory days last year and in 2006. Now the virtual world is bleeding users fast, and there doesn’t seem to be a way to hemorrhage the problem.February 2007, Reuters reported that real estate prices in Second Life had climbed to undesirably high levels and that land speculators could suffer when more is created. Lynden Lab’s virtual world was so popular that people were looking towards virtual real estate as a smart investment. In fact, Second Life was starting to imitate the real estate climate in Sydney, with high property prices and a fear that cheaper properties being developed on the outskirts in large quantities could significantly damage to the market rather than help struggling families.
Website Alexa, which monitors website traffic, shows a significant decline in visitors to Second Life over the past year. It’s now outside of the top 1,700 websites in Australia, the United States, Great Britain and Canada (outside of the top 2,000 in some), and over the past three months alone has dropped six percent in its global reach and 18 percent in its traffic rank. Having had an almost 0.08 percent reach this time last year, it’s now dropped down to under 0.03.
News source: gadget zone
View: Second life website
Well said.
Look at EQ. It still isn't dead...
Hell, even I would give WoW a try if the graphics and art direction weren't so Fisher Price. It gives me an excuse to keep my life off of digital crack. If they ever update the game engine to something from the 1990s or later, I'm doomed.
I agree. I always sigh when my brother saves up all his money for WoW, and purely that. I save all my money for other,
more usefulactually useful things, and then he gets jealous. But still plays it. Ah well. Joke'll be on him when he fails the end of year exams, I suppose. Then he might learn.Why do people waste real money on virtual/fake things? Laziness? Boredom? Asparagus? *sigh* I don't get it. Guess I need the mainstream media to tell me what's cool so I know what to buy.
Don't get me wrong, i like the idea of a world where everyone can make stuff and contribute, but I knew the idea that real money could be exchanged for virtual money and vice versa would bring the game down.
I'm not following... what exactly is your point in saying that?
No crazy graphics, it's easy to pick up, and no massive attempts are commercialism
Plus it's free to start a basic account.
So I don't see it dying anytime soon.
Sorry, not biting unless that bridge is virtual...
Yes it's called webhosting.
CNN is the Democrat version of Fox News. If you got the $$$ or political clout, they'll report whatever you want them to.
If I can't play it free on-line it stays on the shelf.
If I can't play it free on-line it stays on the shelf.
To Rohdekill: You do realize that Second Life is free to download and play, right? You don't have to spend a penny if you don't want to. Most RCE's are like that. Free to download and free to play. You may be limited as to what you can do for free, but the option is there. I actually play another RCE called Entropia Universe, which is a little more engaging than Second Life, but please don't bash RCE's until you've actually played one. Investment opportunities are there and I know of a number of people who play Entropia Universe as they're job. They make enough money to support themselves and their families.
To others: It may be a fad, it may disappear in 5 or 10 years, but if I have the knowledge and the ability to make money now, and know when to cash out, what does it matter? One player in Entropia Universe paid $100,000 for a virtual space station about 2.5 years ago. He made back his initial investment in less than a year and now profits from it.
Its all about risk. Stocks aren't real either. The company could fold and your stock is worthless. Same theory applies here. Yes, the game could crash, the developer could fold, but its a calculated risk. If you don't have the stomach for it, fine, but there's no reason to bash everyone else who is willing to take that risk.
"POOLS CLOSED"
?
Why does everyone seem to be so glad that SL may be loosing steam? Oh, right... because you have nothing better to do than pick on lifestyles you don't agree with and most likely have no real understanding of.
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