Sure, a lot of people are second-guessing Second Life these days, but at least the wise Jesuits see opportunity:
"It's not possible to close our eyes to this phenomenon or rush to judge it," Spadaro said. "Instead it needs to be understood ... the best way to understand it is to enter it."
It may be redundant to comment on Second Life at this point after so much has been written, but for what it's worth, here are my two Linden cents:
There is a lot to learn by experimenting in Second Life (or other 3D virtual environments). For instance, it might make the most sense for brands to use the space for small-scale events and actually do something with their presence there. Instead, what many did was just pour a lot of money to build grandiose virtual palaces with no function other than to look cool, and in the end everyone has been left with neglected or vandalized property.
But as much as I believe that there are positive things to learn by messing around in Second Life, it's also true that, as it stands, the experience in there really does suck. It's too clunky, it's too difficult to really get good at stuff, and it doesn't scale well for larger gatherings (50-100 avatars per Sim, or something like that). I've had an avatar for months and I haven't touched it since setting up the account, it was just too boring too be honest.
Who knows, maybe the Jesuits can straighten things out for everyone else?
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