MICRO-RANT ALERT: Second Life

I had the pleasure of performing a Twitter micro-rant on the topic of Second Life yesterday. Here are some of the posts with bit of added commentary.

• Jiggling boobs was one of the most media friendly roll-outs LL's made in a while. I've seen the future of SL and it has a nipple!  While I've written recently about the seeming effectiveness of the IMVU approach to marketing, I am NOT advocating that Linden Lab replicate the tactic. Positioning Second Life as the best place to create sexy avatars for hot chat would be like replacing Jodie Foster with Lindsay Lohan.

• Improving Second Life is like having sex. The more you're talking about it, the less you're probably doing it. This was obviously a dig at myself as much as anyone else. Our internet discussions can't change the Second Life platform. But by creating products, events, art and community on the platform, we can improve our virtual lives upon it.

• Stop denying it! Second Lifers are clearly resistant to change. That's why most of us are still there instead of on other grids. This was aimed at those who have been complaining about stuff for years but keep paying tier. It is possible to transport a Second Life community to an OpenSim grid, it just takes work and the sacrifice of inventory that won't transfer. A growing number of people in the creative and educational communities have already proven this.

• Stop blathering on about the future of Second Life. I'm much more correct in my under-informed pretentious speculation than you are. It's natural and beneficial to discuss our collective future through social networks, blogs and other public forums. But it's delusional to believe we absolutely know the one right way to proceed or can predict how the future will unfold.

• The difference between a Troll and a thought-provoker is the extent to which you agree with them. And that evil laughter thing. Someone last week thought my provocative tweets on pirating constituted trolling. Surprisingly, I actually considered the proposition and ended up understanding how my external actions could be perceived in that way. It comes down to intent. And no matter how hard we try, we can't know for sure what goes on in the hearts of other people. Unless they tell you.

• Soap Opera is the highest form of Second Life art. This is less tongue and cheek than it seems. The richness of our drama reflects a pretty deep story. We have plenty of comedic, tragic and evil characters who act on the public stage of blogs, social networks and forums. Oh yeah. And in Second Life.