Second life Alternatives

[Trog]

The uses of virtual worlds are very diverse. They are in almost every area, be it science, business or entertainment use. Thus, as buildings or even entire cities to be built, virtual l visited first. This technique allows the building owner or architect, the clients with the simulation of a city, a building or an entire virtual world to present a sensual experience. Sales and marketing companies and departments benefit enormously from this new presentation technologies, because especially when it difficult to explain or very large or microscopically small products is about, which offers virtual reality technology in virtual worlds is an ideal tool. Compared with a costly change to the finished project provides the simulation, a suitable alternative.

Currently, millions of players already living in the world of Second Life. The social aspect is predominant in this game Unlike other massively multiplayer games, there is no quests, no fighting against the environment. Fighting between players (PvP) are allowed in certain areas, but are not mandatory for progress in the game. The transition to a free model (pay-option still exists) has greatly contributed to the popularity of Second Life, but it was mainly certain peculiarities of the game that explain its current success. I am here trying to provide you more service for better alternative for that.

Notably, the total freedom given to residents of Second Life. Indeed, almost the entire virtual world is directly produced by the players, and they are the ones that change their own world. Second Life is also known for its economy. The lack of progress levels typically encountered in MMORPG encourages players to consider the creation and accumulation of wealth and consumption as ends in themselves. On the other hand, the game's internal currency is convertible into dollars. It did not take much for top brands like Adidas, Dior, and Toyota fall in love with this new consumerist paradise.

Beyond the social phenomenon that is becoming Second Life, this game certainly seems capable of satisfying different audiences. Some will be attracted by the infinite possibilities in terms of role-playing. Others by social interactions enabled by a world already involves more than 9 million people. More by greed or seeking a showcase to promote their creations. The future will tell what Second Life can meet expectations, or not.

How it Works

As in most of the virtual social spaces (online games or virtual worlds), the first step in launching the program is to create a character (an avatar) to represent the user and allow him to interact with peers virtual. Once connected, one of the main activities in Second Life is to customize their avatar in his image. From one of eight basic models available in the interface to create avatars, it will be possible to change the character's appearance in detail (since its size and girth up eye color, shape Face or arm length through the choice of an outfit).

The appearance of the avatar is such a place in Second Life that barbers and merchants of apparel (more or less altruistic) are legion. Each user can indeed design and import outfits in the world of Second Life, where appropriate, offer for sale (cons Linden dollars, convertible to U.S. dollars - at a rate of one U.S. dollar for 273L $). Once satisfied with his appearance as a "virtual tourist", the resident will explore a world whose main function is to materialize and share the imagination of designers. During these trips, the resident will visit places of socialization inevitably where to meet, to come across users with common interests. Most investors will join the builders in Second Life, every day that shape the universe, multiplying the sights that the first visit.

As a tourist, he can to discover a universe of disparate, partly because the developer Linden Lab , but also and above all the other residents of the virtual world, totally anarchic. A medieval area can mix a futuristic space and a region where the night is permanent, may adjoin a city bathed in light, according to the tastes of the creators or visitors. Some regions are realistic (reconstruction of the city of Dublin or Amsterdam or Mont St. Michel) or freely inspired from reality (see e.g. Little Egypt, Little Deauville or Sigil inspired the American West in the 19th century), others are entirely imaginary and worthy of Lewis Carroll (as the island of Svarga, for example).

[Trog]

But Second Life can be understood as a coherent universe in which it would be possible to walk. It seems difficult to map (it would be like trying to draw the geography of the Internet or to place websites on a map, relative to each other). In Second Life, each area is accessed using a search engine, listing the regions corresponding to the keywords searched. The resident then teleports his avatar in the region of their choice within results found. The world of Second Life today consists of approximately 3500 regions (the area of each of them is equivalent to about 65 km ²). Today the universe is an area equivalent to four and a half times that of Manhattan. The tour of the high places of Second Life are important in residents' activities, to the point that there are virtual travel agencies, lying Guide (real, but represented by an avatar) to serve tourists willing to in the price.

By dint of travel, the resident will cross a multitude of other stakeholders to interact with, visiting exhibitions, attending a conference in night clubs and other clubs more or less private (and often popular), or detours to a mall and a boutique fashion. The Second Life residents form social groups united by cultural affinity, political, artistic, etc. and places of socialization are legion. The ability to network or meet other residents is a strong motivation in Second Life, to the point of sometimes mercantile. It is not uncommon for a contractor pays (in Linden dollars, convertible to real dollars) of extras or dancers to remain in his virtual nightclub or shop to attract transient residents .

The boldest can also monetize their service as escort girl / boy, offering their client of the discussions (even animations) and sometimes ribald strictly virtual. So may be less trivial, there are also more and more communities have a real interest virtual headquarters in Second Life. This applies, for example, NOAA, U.S. government dealing with environmental issues and climate or the American Society for the Fight against Cancer. Second Life stands out as a communication tool, or even real media to communicate with other residents with common interests.

One of the most innovative features of Second Life based on the possibility of designing objects (buildings, vehicles, clothing, but also virtual furniture or sculpture - the only limit being the imagination of the creators) and share them with other residents. Each object is modeled using design software , dressed textures (made for example in Photoshop) and eventually led to using scripts specific to Second Life . Sharing these creations can be purely altruistic (some as Yadni World, distribute some of their creations for free to their visitors) or more mercantile. Some creations are indeed marketed in Second Life (see below).

What are the positives points ?

• The world of education is already a major consumer of virtual worlds. The special issue of the journal of Virtual Worlds Research on Education shows interesting result in this area.
• The world health has done much research on the use of virtual worlds. I would strongly advise this blog made by a hospital pharmacist, a wealth of information on this subject. In addition, a study done by doctors showed the superiority of learning in a virtual world from learning 2D.
• The corporate world focuses more and more serious game. However, a serious game needs a virtual world. The call for proposals NKM on the subject has been a great success (I am one of those projects, with the aim of building a factory to open source making serious games).

Best Alternatives for Second Life

MTV's Virtual Worlds

The main target of MTV, youth from more and more time on the Internet, MTV Networks has decided to tackle the problem and attempts, through its diversification strategy, media, keeping his audience that television does much more interested than before. One of the initiatives taken by MTV is creating a virtual world somewhat in the style of what Second Life represents. The acquisition by MTV last month, Atom Entertainment Group and its subsidiaries Atom Films, Shockwave and Addicting Games follows a series of acquisitions that MTV had started buying companies specializing in interactive entertainment as XFIRE, Y2m , GameTrailers.com, IFILM, Neopets, and.

The group tries anyway to become a heavyweight in the growing market of casual gaming, which already includes over 50 million players, which are over 400 million parts per month. These redemptions enlarge the multimedia offering made available by the channel to its customers. With the Virtual Laguna Beach, MTV hopes to repeat the success it has had with his show of semi-reality, transposing its Internet branch. It will continue to benefit from advertising that she had with her TV program by transposing also on the Internet, as more and more advertisers rely on the Internet medium.

This particular project however, is only part of the gigantic social network MTV hopes to build, which would use and promotion of different brands belonging to the group. The virtual service is entered into beta testing Wednesday, and uses technology from There.com , which is also used for the famous Second Life. Users will feel at home because the environment in which they will be exactly the same as the TV series. MTV has obviously thought of everything and will offer episodes of actual preview in the virtual world to attract customers.

vSide

User’s familiar with Second Life knows how the game can be immersive. This is the case vside which is based on the same principle. The case has a player life simulation MMO that will interest many. Actually after registration, you can fully customize the character, thus showing his style. The action takes place in three cities, but the player must choose one to start. Vside offers the opportunity to shop, work, partying, talking with other players, dancing and more. A good software to socialize while having fun.

Vside is made in the replica of Second Life but in a more specialized kind of music. Indeed it is a virtual world based on the music or you can meet many passionate people. Your character will be immersed in a 3D world with an international atmosphere. Players can fully model through a comprehensive wizard to create an avatar. Then simply choose one of three available city and explore the surroundings. As in real life, you can find a job, organize parties, shopping, etc. All things are possible and if you have toured your city why not visit the two other cities available. In vside, the social bond is critical since it must constantly expand its network of knowledge to travel, organize parties and even work. In sum, the real virtual life.

Whyville

Founded in 1999 by the American neuroscientist Jim Bower, whyville.net is one of the most popular website for interactive learning presented on the web. It is actually a virtual city for young people, building on principles of edutainment , of educating and instructing young people while entertaining them. To date, there are nearly 5 million subscribers to Whyville, mostly aged between 8-16 years. E-learning in the real world.

Whyville is constructed like a real community. There are people (players) who work and earn a salary based on the practice of essentially educational activities. Players learn to develop skills so diverse, both scientific and artistic, while participating actively in the functioning of the city. Whyville is a simulation of real world designed to entertain, educate and sensitize young people to adopt socially responsible behavior. It is a place to educate young people about the issues of today. By attending the site Whyville, young people feel involved in the world and find some value because they are considered full citizens.

[Trog]

In addition to giving young people the opportunity to learn more about the various spheres of society, Whyville enables them to participate in numerous activities from disciplines as diverse as music, astronomy, journalism, marine biology , environment, history, nutrition etc.. The emphasis is however placed on the science, as Whyville has been especially designed to support and develop the curiosity of young girls in science and mathematics subjects for which interest tends to decline during adolescence. Whyville's popularity among young girls (68% of Whyville users are female) can be explained by the fact that this game non-competitive, where social interactions, such as "chat" and sending email, are put forward.

Weblo

Friends speculators, you will be met. From Monday, September 25, you'll be able to own domain names, virtual land, cities, states and even celebrities! This is what you get Weblo , a new website created by Rocky Mirza, a virtual copy of real life, where almost everything is for sale. Given the price Real Estate in real life, it will leave you a second chance to finally become owner of your dreams. For now, the price of buildings is 1 to $ 2, a city is around $ 350, a state cost $ 50,000.

Better yet. You've always dreamed of managing the career of a celebrity. With Weblo, it is possible and you could win maybe a lot of money with the transfer window celebrities. This is a cross between Monopoly and eBay. The site allows users to buy any property through the virtual world of Weblo but with real money. Members have the opportunity to purchase domain names, cities and even states.

It must be said that the owners of cities and states receive royalties from all users who buy a property on their territory. It motivates even on the Internet you pay taxes. There are several formulas for the free subscription retro giving away 10% of revenue, to the VIP membership at $ 269 U.S. per year, yielding 50% back. Between the two formulas, there are subscriptions bronze, silver and gold that entitle respectively 20, 30 and 40% of the profits. Weblo not account for the time that 2400 subscribers, but that number is constantly growing and leaders hope to reach 100 to 120 million unique visitors per month. The company was funded by various investors including a former chairman of MySpace.

The model looks attractive and it will closely monitor this type of initiative to see if the economic model can be replicated or whether the fact of introducing the market is a competitive advantage which limits new entrants. The economic barrier is low, is marketing that can make the difference and advertising agreements with major players in the net like Google or Yahoo. The risk is that these two giants will also throw in this activity with the credibility and integrated revenue management. If I buy a virtual house on a site of 'Monopoly' of the net, the difference in confidence in the continuity between Weblo and Yahoo will make a difference. Especially if Yahoo guaranteed minimum income as it manages the pub live while Weblo to outsource this activity. It is also possible that the 'worlds' most complete virtual grow and offer this feature.

PlayStation Home

It is always exciting to enter a new world: I read the first pages of a book, I'm looking forward to the adventure that awaits me, I start full of a video game for the first time, my eyes do not differ from the screen. So I am curious how it will please me in this latest world when I Playstation Home load on the hard drive of my console - after I have a long wait on Sony's social gaming community, as the company's online offering describes himself. But before I was born there, my home has been a warning sign out Users must always act lawfully, stands in the terms that I must accept. I accept, therefore, to be good - and decide also meticulously to watch what I say in my new home, or do Just me informed about Sony on my screen that all operations and their communications with or without explicit reference can be monitored and recorded.

Demand for commercial space is stronger than our offer, our designers have worked hard to expand the shopping center with a second zone. Join us this week for the grand opening of several new stores: Billabong, Lockwood nDreams and LucasArts. These shops include all your favorite content in places easy to find. Billabong and Lockwood also offer new content. Start by going for a ride in the Billabong shop where you will find a fantastic new collection of clothes. Ladies, discover the hoodie fleece night (three colors) and two new dresses: Cosmia dress in red, blue or black dress Lucy in blue or red. For you gentlemen, t-shirts, hoodies, hats, surf shorts and a wetsuit are available. You like surfing? Go check out the surfboard pro you can display in your apartment.

Discover the latest innovations in Lockwood in their new store at Mall original. This week, there are three new hairstyles for men and woman should go to rob you if you want to change your look.

Conclusion :

For today's entertainment industry is the simulation of virtual world’s old proven recipe for success. The virtual chats hijack the user for a long time in unknown worlds, where they spend hours with their friends stop to call , chat or flirt perfect partner to guess the. Since the 70s, there are the so-called MUD's (Multi User Dungeon). These are text-based Role Players that any number of players on a central server to run and because of the textual description can be expanded easily. Fans of the MUD's stress that is limited by this very simple design your own fantasy hard.

The new virtual world. New technologies and new global searches make it appear that this virtual world is much stronger than the real world. Throughout this year has demonstrated that the virtual world is growing by leaps and bounds. Social networks like Facebook and have their own games from a virtual world at the hands of Zynga, virtual goods, virtual pets, virtual relationships and online gaming to turn this business into a large virtual world. Sure, there is a virtual world of games for everyone and every style, strategy games virtual games, virtual skill, virtual reality games virtual games and more developed and improved every day in the hands of the community.

The great Sims, as a virtual world for these times and has been a little behind it? the simplicity of the new virtual games have passed, which is why the big companies have already taken action on the matter. I noticed several interesting statistics over the 2009 on the purchase of shares of this virtual world: Electronic Arts acquired Playfish in a staggering $ 400 million in November and Zynga sold part of its shares the Digital Sky Technologies company hundreds of millions. Everything suggests that this virtual world is in a great process of expansion, virtual days have started and with them the virtual game. Millions of people have embraced this latest trend phenomenon, you'd expect, your adventure begins a virtual at this moment.