Scan & Fix 100 registry errors freeSecond Life for Mac User Reviews
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"uhhh?"
Version: Second Life 1.6.9
Summary
This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
i read the hype. tried it. signed up. paid money. it's stupid. cancelled my membership. -
"Call it what you will....."
Version: Second Life 1.6.4
Summary
This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
Call Second Life whatever you want...whether people are trained or taught or if it is for nothing more than creative expression or fun, it is getting to be a miserable experience for me.
I have a GOOD high speed connection, great hardware and this is awful. After sending an email to support, I get back "try again in twenty minutes. Database is loaded." oh well....my heart pumps purple p***. Even if that is the case, then something still needs to be done. Get better hardware, folks. Plus, I've been trying for more than an hour this time.
And I'm paying and have paid money for this? Whatever was I thinking?? It started off being a unique way to have fun but it is getting to the point that it is nothing anymore when a person has to try for more than an hour to log on. Reminds me of AOheLl. I don't do that anymore either.
Try spending money on something else and wait until the kinks are worked out. Me? I'm going to sell all my land and cash in my Linden Dollars. At least that is the plan unless something happens real damn fast. -
"Servers are gagged situation degrading"
Version: Second Life 1.6.4
Summary
This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
The servers are degrading to the point where you cannot log on during many hours of the day. Too many users not enough infrastructure such as routers nodes etc. are lacking. Avoid the program until Linden buys some more routers and switches. -
"A Virtual World which will change the way we work..."
Version: Second Life 1.6.2
Summary
...in the next few years...
This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
Some of the reviews posted here concentrate mostly on two things:- the software has bugs (sure, which software doesn't)?
- it's a bad chat client (sure, there are better)
- there is some sort of "scam" going on for charging you a lifetime account for US $9,95 after a 7-day trial period
- there are better "3D games" out there (sure, there are so many!)
Well, let me try to make you understand what Second Life really is and what is isn't.
First, despite the description - it's not an "online virtual world game". It's certainly "online". It's definitely a "virtual world" - it has its own society and economy, which fits in nicely in our "real" economy.
But it's not a "game".
Second Life is a platform for collaborative work in a 3D virtual reality environment. The best way to describe it is picturing the Matrix as shown in the movies of the same name. Of course, it's still the Matrix on version 0.01 pre-release! While characters - avatars - are rendered at "almost-Shrek-quality", the rest of the world is still not very photorealistic -- yet. We can only improve on that - after all, we're talking about a technology which has only been deployed in the past 3 years and which gets new versions pretty quickly (sometimes, one per week).
The other big difference is that on Second Life, there is not an "Architect" who has created the world, and the rest of the inhabitants are merely spectators. Not at all - Second Life is created by every single one of its inhabitants. The world, as deployed by Second Life's creators, Linden Lab, is flat -- and empty. It's up to us - the residents - to build, to create, to program, in a word, to provide interesting content.
So, what's the "point" in a "platform" that has nothing to offer but work, work, work? Another way to envision Second Life is as a 3D modelling & programming tool which allows users to create items collaboratively with other people - at the same time, in real time, and with immediate rendering of their creations, while all the other users see the changes happening "as if by magic" in front of their eyes. A house being built looks like "magic" - someone is dropping bricks on the ground, joining them together, fitting the ceiling, putting tiles, then windows, and finally fitting the furniture inside. We see this happening in front of our eyes, and we can even help them out, "creating" more bricks and joining them to our friend's homes.
The important aspect is that the tool is targeted towards amateurs - not professional 3D designers. All the tools for building 3D objects are used inside the virtual reality environment and are pretty simple to use. If you can use complex types of software like Mail or Pages, well, you'll be able to handle Second Life as well. And with a bit of practice, you'll be as good as any professional 3D designer. All this done in a few hours of fun - and not months or years of tweaking with things like Maya, Blender, 3D Studio Max or Lightwave, which need years of experience just to do simple designs. And, of course, are not half as fun to use.
It's fun building stuff together, but it's all there is?
Once you have a way to create content and program it (also done inside the virtual world) to respond to all sorts of interactions, you can do what your creativity leads to. Some people just build houses, monuments, landmarks. Some do vehicles, furniture, or strange collector's items. Some do bars, pubs, night clubs, fashion shops, cinemas. Or casinos, horse races, or... you name it. If you can imagine it, you can build it.
So what about those that are not really into "building stuff"? Enter the "social life" of Second Life. Through Events announced throughout the world, you can go to parties, contests, fashion shows, discussions, competitions, awards, or simply dancing with some friends. If you're thinking that this sounds familiar to the Sims or similar "games", think again.
Second Life does not provide "skills", or "experience points", or "killing awards", or any sort of artificial rules to "advance" your expertise. There are no dialog boxes where you click a button and pay a fee, and suddenly you "advance a level". It's not a MMORPG. The skills you have - are your own. The only "artificial" thing you have besides your inventory is the amount of virtual money you carry. And since there are several "money exchanges" where you can directly change US$ for "virtual money" and vice-versa. Surprise, surprise: these money exchanges are done by users of Second Life. The company behind the platform doesn't earn a dime from that.
So, if you are a good talker in real life, you'll probably be a good talker in Second Life as well. If you're a good programmer, you'll probably be a good programmer in Second Life. But if you're a hairdresser or a banker in real world, is this platform for you? Sure is. Actually, hairdressing and banking are two areas that are much in demand in Second Life :)
What about if you don't seem to fit in? Well, think about what you like to do best. That'll be your job. Yes, there is even lots of fun for anybody who really doesn't enjoy anything else than watching a movie and drink a beer in front of the TV. While the beer is (unfortunately) virtual, you can have the rest in Second Life as well. You can even invite your friends to watch the movie with you, and afterwars all go out for the nearest night club for a quick dance...
Second Life is also strange in the user's demographics. The average age of all users is around 30 - and not 15 or so (there is a "main grid" which you have to be 18 to enter, although an upcoming "teen grid" will allow underage children to join as well). There is a really large population over 40, or even over 60. Although 30% of the users are male, women are connected much longer on average, so that the population is almost 50%/50% - of course, "gender" (or even "species") is not really an issue on online worlds. There is a large population of hearing impaired users, as well as people with some kind of deficiencies in real life - but you'll be hard pressed to notice any difference, since they'll be doing their utterly amazing projects just like everybody else.
So, although this is not a "game", it's certainly "entertaining". By self-expressiong yourself, having virtually no limits to your creativity, you have lots of fun. And you can even sell your creations and make a profit. Of course, it's "virtual money". But when you start selling things and having a big success, and suddenly understand that you can exchange all that virtual money for US$, maybe you start thinking twice. The richest players easily make US $2000-4000 a month just by building amazing things. Suddenly you understand why they're so "addicted" to this platform...
All this is not really new - many MMORPGs also allow you a degree of socialization, personalization, and self-expression. The point is, by focussing first on "entertainment" and on "creativity", Linden Lab not always explains properly what this tool is all about. Actually, this is much more than "fun". It's the beginnings of what will be very soon a major paradigm change in the way we view our communication on the Internet.
Before 1993, we had email, news, FTP, telnet and a plethora of tools to communicate online. The Internet was still something more for the academics and researchers out there, but people envisioned the day when emails would replace faxes. When the Web came along, suddenly the Internet exploded. Now here was a medium which was "fun and entertaining" which gave you access to knowledge, information, communication, and commerce. We can hardly imagine an Internet without the World-Wide Web.
But the Web is limited and has a cumbersome user interface. Sure, by now, everybody in the world expects to see rectangles on a screen, some of which are tiny and you can click on them to open new pages. But the "experience" of an "online shop" is quite different than what you experience in real life.
Consider an old-fashioned bookshop. You go to a place where books are indexed according to their style and content, you can browse through them, see if they interest you, and talk to the shopkeeper, asking her if she has more on the subject, or asking if she would recommend you another book.
Amazon.com tries to recreate this feeling by putting snapshots on a web page and having reviews on the books, written by "someone" on the net that you have never met. Is it the same "experience"? Definitely not. "Browsing around" an online bookshop is more a question of doing a few searches and locating - mostly by chance! - other items that attract your atttention. Since we're so used to the way the Web works, this is all second nature to us.
Now consider explaining this "Web experience" to a 60-year-old who never used the Internet in his or her life.
Second Life changes all this, and puts the "digital experience" back into a human-centred mode again. A bookshop in Second Life looks physically like a bookshop in real life. Books are really stored along the walls, and sorted according to some criteria. You touch a book, you get a notecard with it, which you can read at the moment or later. There is a shopkeeper at a corner which is probably able to help you out with related material. You can chat a bit about books, the shopkeeper can recommend you to a "reader's circle" which has an event discussing a particular author later in the evening, or suggest you to try another place. This is a fellow human being - not a "robot", an "AI", or a clever data mining tool which tries to guess your preferences. No, it's another Second Life user, who enjoys spending his time at his bookshop and talk to prospective customers about his wares.
That's the kind of "digital experience" that you can explain to a 60-year-old. Everything is digital, yes, but the environment is familiar. Books look like books - and not like rectangles showing snapshots of book covers. "Browsing" a book store is really going around the place, looking at the bookshelves, reading the titles, opening the books. It's not a "fancy name" to describe an artificial method of clicking on rectangles or underlined words to "get some results".
I would not like to say that "in the near future, all our digital experiences will be like this" - because it's not in the future, it's the present. Magazines like Wired have described how people, using Second Life today, are doing workshops and presentations inside virtual conference rooms. How they're helping people with disabilities to cope. How they teach young adults, who have been victims of abuse, important skills like team building, making and trusting friends, and exchange ideas. How autists are able to function in a world where people cannot be discriminated - because, in the Internet, as the old saying goes, "nobody knows you're a dog". How museums and monuments are recreated inside a virtual world for visitors to explore and interact with - much beyond what you can do with VRML on a web page. And how some bank managers or Big Corp VIPs are slowly using Second Life as an alternative to videoconferencing (because it's thousandfold less expensive).
All this for US $9,95, one-time fee, for a basic account, that will last your life. You even get a return on your investment back: every week you are online, you get a "weekly allowance" of virtual money, courtesy of Linden Lab. Spend wisely. Because if you don't spend it at all, and at current exchange rates, you'll get your $9,95 back after some 10 months or so. And that is by doing nothing! By simply going around a bit, participate in some contests or other events, you'll quickly find out that you'll earn much more than that.
Some people are already being trained using Second Life, because their employers or partners think that they're getting vital skills to be able to cope with the next major paradigm in computer interfaces and digital communications. Second Life is the tool for the Internet of the 21st century, as the Web was the tool for the late nineties. We'll all be using virtual realities to some extent in less than 10 years. Some of us can't wait much longer - we're connected now, and today, and we're the early adopters of this technology, which will change lots of things - but, in some ways, it will be a friendlier, much more humane (or at least human-centric) Internet.
Skeptic? Well, think of how many people were skeptic when the first text-only browser for the Web appeared. Back in 1993, if you told people that "one day, the World-Wide Web will be the way people communicate, make business and have entertained", you'd be laughed at and ignored, by people shaking their heads and telling you that the Web was the stuff for kids and academics. That's the point we're now with virtual realities. The early adopters have to cope with a brand new product with rough edges, yes. But how much fun we're having with it!...
Disclaimer: Not affiliated with either Linden Lab or any of their partners. I'm just one happy user. One of many, many thousands...
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"My Favorite Online Game"
Version: Second Life 1.5.14
Summary
This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
It's an free-form MMO that keeps growing in size, userbase, and features. We create the world. We run the events and create the entertainments. We don't have to, but we can.
We can create new elements to the world and then sell them, even selling off he game money earned for real money. We don't have to but we can.
You can play for life with a single $9.95 payment and never have to pay again. There is no monthly fee if you don't decide to own land, and you don't have to but you can.
Build you own mansion, create a business empire, or hang out with friends in a unique interactive environment... Second Life can be almost anything or everyone.
I've been a active member for since August 2003. Come see for yourself. -
"Whiners"
Version: Second Life 1.5.9
Summary
This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
First off, you don't need an account to view screenshots.. there's a bunch on the main page of the website incase you were blind.
Now on to providing a REAL review.
This type of program is really hard to rate. Why? Because there's nothing else like it to compare to. It's not a game for starters.. It's not 'The Sims'. I think of it more as a cross between a graphical MUCK, and somewhat like IRC. Lots of people like myself use it to meet other people and chat with individuals or in a group. Others enjoy exploring the world (there's LOTS to see and interact with), plus you can build your own items, clothing, avatars, buy and sell said items, write scripts to make items come to life (from something as simple as a door that opens as you approach to intricate things like vehicles, flying machines, disco balls that project light and rotate like the real thing).
The potential here is incredible, and granted it's unfortunate that there's no 'trial' version per se, a lifetime membership to join is only like $10.
Some technical comments, this virtual world is a GPU hog as the world is so big and can take a while to load new areas because all the objects, texures, etc. are streamed across the net.
If you ever used a MUCK or IRC, you owe yourself the chance to explore and help create your own slice of this virtual world.
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"Customers"
Version: Second Life 1.5.9
Summary
This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
They absolutely don't want visitors to their site since you have to sign up to see their products.
Thus, I'm rating the product as absolute minimum - extremely POOR. -
"Dreadfully slow on my mega-computer"
Version: Second Life 1.5.1
Summary
This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
I have a dual 2.5Gig G5 with 128 graphics card and a very fast internet connection, and this thing won't even run if I use any of the high quality settings like bump mapping and it runs really really badly if I use local lighting, shadows, or just about any other of the high quality settings.
Overall, I'm still very impressed with SL in concept. But the GUI is terrible and the performance is quite poor on a machine that should be able to handle it with ease. I know there are some lag issue that are related to their servers rather than my end. -
"Sloooooooowwww"
Version: Second Life 1.4.11
Summary
This review was originally posted on VersionTracker.com.
On a dual 1.8Ghz G5 with stock graphics card I am getting crappy fps with this thing. Windows users on the same server get something like 30fps while I'm getting 6fps. This machine kicks arse playing Halo and UT2K4, but it grinds and clunks along with SL. No thanks.
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