Well, I decided to give SL a try last night, though the last thing I really need is another time-sink online world ;) So, here’s my summary, but take it with a grain of salt/first impression, as it is only from a few hours of playing:
First off, I found it a little annoying I had to choose a last name from a relatively small provided list. While it doesn’t change how the game plays, it felt a little odd being forced into a name when the rest of the whole game is so completely open to anything. The one saving note to last names in SL is that if you see a “Linden”, you know they are a helper/employee and can help you with questions. Perhaps this is their weak attempt and force-building a community. I dunno.
-----------------
User interface
-----------------
The UI takes some getting used to, but it is pretty well laid out. All the important things like Inventory, Map, etc are quick buttons along the edges of the screen, along with having hotkeys. You can switch to mouse-look mode at any time, and even zoom into objects very far away using “focus”. Other options that are less used have hotkeys or are available through a drop-down file menu, like a typical application.
The avatar customization section can be accessed at any time, and includes a TON of options for each setting. You can apply textures to your avatar on the fly, creating new clothes/hair/etc whenever you want. It’s really possible to make your avatar look like almost anything you could imagine.
---------
People
---------
The people I met around the areas I explored were very friendly and helpful for the most part. Of course there were a few goobs, but nothing we don’t see here. Surprisingly I saw very little ‘griefing’ going on at all. The event structure in SL seems a bit shallow, at least compared to THERE’s ease-of-finding centralized event structure. It looks like it will expand nicely once more people are in the world to participate, but events do not seem to be main draw currently.. although the website promotes them.
“Buddy lists” are compiled by trading “cards”, which basically is just like adding a buddy in THERE. You have to approve said trade, and once you do then you can see your buddies online or even fly to them. You can of course IM anyone any time, however you can only trade cards if they are near you in-world.
You can also instantly rate anyone in the world, giving them positive/neutral/negative ratings in 3 or 4 areas. It costs a tiny bit of cash to do so, but it pays off in the long run when someone rates you back. Trial users cannot rate anyone, so there is no worry of griefing from noobs in that area.
In fact, the way the trial account is set up is very well done – the trial users are restricted to certain areas, cannot build in the open land areas, cannot rate other users, and a myriad of other restrictions keep the trial system from being abused, while still given the user enough of a taste of the world to see if they really like it.
-----------------------
exploring/traveling
-----------------------
So naturally once I got my bearings and had my avatar customized enough to my suiting, I explored around a little. The first thing I was impressed with was the ability to fly around at any time, tho the control scheme could use a little tweaking. Flying is fast and lets you travel from place to place with ease – you can choose a landmark/person to ‘track’, and then fly right to them.
You can also teleport (amazingly fast I might add) to any landmark, but it costs a few bux. Tracking is a cool option, as it lets you follow a friend automatically by flying to their location. You can always tell where you are by the land name and coordinates set, marked in the lower right of the screen. It makes it very easy to tell a friend where you are, if they haven’t added you to their list for tracking.
There is a nice mini-map that u can make full sized, and in its little box of options is where you have all the landmark/tracking features.
There are also adult areas vs. PG areas, however the free trial does not allow entry into those, so I cannot comment on what they were like.
----------
Building
----------
Next I tried the building tools. While the in-game tools certainly pale compared to applications like 3DMAX or GMAX, it is sort of neat to watch your avatar use a magic beam to move things around real-time. Generally the building tools are primitive compared to a real 3D modeling application, but the possibilities are limitless; I saw some amazing creations in the game that really impressed me – stuff that THERE would never have.
You can build anything you want, and you have the ability to attach it to any part of your avatar. This means you can build a set of wings, a sword, or anything you can imagine (I saw some guy dressed as strongbad!). Build a new head, fit it over your avatar, and you can completely change your look.
You can also script movement for objects, and the game includes some pre-made scripts for those who don’t know how / cant be bothered to make their own. Things like rotation, and Fire effects were part of the free-trial package. Once you pay for the service, I guess you get access to a ton more, plus the ability to create your own.
When you build/take out an object, it costs “cash”. Put an object back in your inventory, and the cash returns. This keeps people from flooding areas with a ton of objects, and keeps down griefer behavior I’d imagine. I was told certain areas have a “tax” of a couple bux for X time frame, that you get charged for leaving out items. Since trial users cant own land plots, I’m not sure exactly how the pricing system works for those. You can, however, bulldoze/build the terrain on areas you own however you like it.
Finally, I met up with a fellow Thereian, and she showed me some of the glorious outfits she had bought – amazing dress creations that would never be possible in THERE, such as great flowing gowns and mini-skirt outfits, winged heroes, and the like. One important note however, is that the clothing, while looking incredible, did not ‘fit’ the avatar perfectly during certain movements, and sometimes looked a little stiff. This of course is due to the completely open-ended development environment, contrasted with the goal of appearance perfection that THERE achieves. There are of course pros / cons to both sides.
----------
money
----------
unlike THERE, in SL you are given a weekly allotment of cash, which varies depending on many things like your user rating, and other things I’m not yet aware of. You also cannot buy more cash with real cash. The starting salary is about 1000 a week, which is not too shabby since items range from $10-100 for most stuff, while big impressive things may cost $500. Once you have a good user rating, and whatever else factors on your allowance, you can get upwards of 3000+ a week. I have no idea if there is a cap to how much you can earn, I’d imagine the higher profile users probably make a lot more than 3k.
-------------
final thoughts
-------------
SL offers a virtually unlimited ability to create and mold the world around you, and customize your avatar to no end. Does this mean only builders/designers can have fun in SL? Well, no, because the market prices are not so high as to deny people purchasing cool items. However, since presently it seems the main focus of SL is creating things, the social structure pales in comparison to THERE’s.
THERE offers a much more clean-cut, refined environment, which is geared towards community activities rather than the ability to create. SL is a grittier, open-ended world, where the imagination is limitless but the interaction seems limited. SL feels more like the true “metaverse” described in SnowCrash, with its ability to build and script almost anything you can think of… but its lacking the flood of people milling about to give it the virtual world feeling that THERE has.