The Observation Deck

For quite a long time I've been a host to a 2 dimensional virtual reality. 14 years actually. In the last several months, I've been involved in Second Life, a 3D virtual "world" or reality. This has been on CBS evening news, several times, in Business Week several times, and is spreading world wide, since real world money is being made in this virtual world.

The human equation, where money is involved, it gets real attention. Many people are making an excellent living from only the money they make or have invested in projects, clubs, developments, cities, islands, you name it, in SL.

This is a virtual reality of the likes that only the imagination can conceive.

Real businesses, real creativity, real profits (U.S. denominations) and the opportunity to see, do and experience things that in "real world" we might not.

What I'm doing now in Second Life is, besides several personal endeavors, from owning a night club, started a police department, and doing recreational type things, is going about the process of forming a future vision of our city, but in a 3 D total experience.... virtual reality.

There is one catch. My concept is to remodel our "real world city" in SL as we call it, to be the way it could be, rather than the way it currantly is.
This is a way to see and experience options, before investing vast amounts of monies, be it safety forces, apartment complexes etc.

I welcome anyone who would like to be part of this to private message me on here. I'll "hook you up" with the right site, and show you the ropes as they say. You may even see how great amounts of finance plays a role in SL, how the residents, business owners inside SL are making vast amounts of monies. Anche Chung, a real estate magnate, (a woman in Second Life based in China in real world ) has been written up in sevearal U.S. business magazines, about her multi-million dollar empire she built inside SL. Whatever you can conceive of building, or experiencing in real world, and much more, is available in Second Life.

I apologize if this isn't the right place for this topic, but I wasn't sure WHERE to put it.

Here is a link to a short teaser about Second Life:

http://www.machinima.com/films.php?id=4430
I'd suggest on the left side of the page, just click "Watch".

Your welcome to google as much as you want regarding Second Life, by Linden Labs, Inc.


Mark

Is this like Dungeons and Dragons?

..

Charyn Compeau wrote:D & D online is no fun... it is only fun when you are waiting for the dungeon master to flip though all of monster books to figure out what monster he wrote when he cant read his own handwriting...

Sure went through a lot of graph paper back then too.....

Peace,
Charyn
(aka Dragon-Slayer 19xx)

I would rather be making deals all over town...

Here is something this reminded me of: RPG Gamers are selling blood and sexual favors to pay for status points in imaginary games.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/co ... 82001.htmI


t's not a game, by any means. It is a second reality, to put it in general terms. There ARE areas in the "world" there, where you can participate in some games that some residents invented, but those are mostly kids. What is more common is the economics, industry, social conscienceness, from factories to stores to libraries on and on. People make things, from t-shirts to cars, to cell phones and aircraft etc, and the "public" inside SL buys these products. The residents buy and sell land at times, and everyone hopes for a profit, but as in real world, it doesn't always work out that way, due to the same things that affect property values in real world. Neighbors, or neighborhood, condition of adjacent properties etc.

A army reserve member, built her concept of what a fast-setup field hospital could be like, down to the wiring. She went on to sell that to the D.O.D., and made quite a large amount of monies, and her product is being used on a daily basis by the military.

It surely isn't a get rich quick scheme by any means, but it is literally a 2nd reality, mirror imaging real world, but with some things added, to make it more appealing.

It is anything you want it to be, and you can do anything you want to do, as long as it doesn't disturb the rights of others, again as in real world. That is the beauty of it.
What is is not, in general, is a fictional "game", where there is winning and losing, unless you refer to finances, or the game of life, both in real and virtual.

One article of many regarding the reality of this second reality:

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/co ... 982001.htm

is it like a computer aided drafting program? or the board game Monopoly?

The only way to understand it, is to download it, and check it out. Theres no cost..

It's not like any board game. It's not like any computer game.
Other than that, maybe wikipedia has a better definition of it.

Try this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Life

This sounds like the premise behind The Matrix or Terminator trilogies.

It seems I didn't make the point of this topic very clear. I am attempting to highlight a "thing", part of "virtual reality", especially this one particularly successful area of it, its usefulness in the hands of any creative person, and hand it to the readers of the forum here. If it seems to be of no worth, then please disregard.
I'm not promoting myself or anything, by the way.

Mark "sometimes sees things from a different perspective than the masses" C.

I can understand the concept of allowing people to participate in a virtual world much like our own, as consumers and producers of virtual goods and services.

But it is a virtual world. In order for it to function with some resemblance to modern economic theory and markets, there must be arbitrary limitations of resources built into each "community".

The problem then becomes that it is easy enough to start unlimited numbers of communities with unlimited variations of rules. It becomes - perhaps - a "Brand" issue. Think of it like Pornography: There are virtually limitless porn dealers and models out there, but Playboy and a few others make most of the money.

This is perhaps less expensive and cumbersome than setting up a model trainset with a scaled town in the basement.

I would like to build a 37 pound burrito in cyberspace.