I’ve been slumming around on There.com lately. It’s a 3D virtual world kind of thing.
I read BoingBoing.net every day, and one of the editors, Cory Doctorow, frequently mentions the comings and goings in the online 3D world Second Life. I bought a $10 membership to the place about a year ago but never used it. A few weeks ago, after having upgraded the guts of my PC, I decided to check it out. Maybe I had totally missed out on the reason for its appeal.
Well, I didn’t. At least to me, the place just plain stinks. It’s a virtual world that takes from the worst elements of the real world–sex, vanity, gambling, materialism and consumerism–and lets people go completely out of control with them. Practically every other user-created building in Second Life is a store selling slutty fashion for women. The irony of spending real money on more virtual property than anyone could ever need is completely lost on these people. And all the cybersex that goes on, along with the necessary equipment and scripts to support it, had me scratching my head and wondering, “What is WRONG with these people?” The worst part is the 3D physics and graphics were state-of-the-art about eight years ago.
So I decided to give There.com a try. Back in 2003, they blew through $30 million to develop their world and it shows. The landscape and professionally created structures are pure eye candy. The in-world vehicles are a blast to drive. It’s more difficult for users to make money as developers, so for the most part only the most skilled people can make a living at it, so the landscape isn’t so overrun with virtual crap.
What I like best about There.com is that it’s rated PG-13. I can let my kids play in there–supervised, of course–and not worry about coming across a pair of bare naked avatars performing oral sex on each other. The three of us have spent the past two weekends barreling over the landscape in dune buggies and flying over it with a jet back strapped to our character’s back. I met some people from South America and I’ve been able to use my Spanish (my second language) for the first time in ages. I’m trying to convince my sister in the US to sign on so that her two girls and my two boys can play together.
Yeah, so anyway, I’m sure we’ll get bored with it eventually, but for now it’s pretty fun. For about $4 in accessories, I even got my avatar to look like me, right down to my shoes:
Is that a hoot or what?
My username there is “Pavster,” BTW.
I will say this for SL: you can do some amazing things with the scripting. For years I’ve tried to get my daughter interested in programming – I guess I was boring, old school – anyway, she is having a blast with vehicle motion scripts. Also, they have teen only areas that seem quite safe. So far none of us have had to spend real $. 🙂
I was also tempted to learn about SL scripting, just to get an idea of how people did some of the amazing things I saw. But in the end, I decided to stick to There because I want to be able to share the experience with my kids. Maybe we’ll set up a house or design our own skin for one of the vehicles.
Last weekend Tony said he wants to learn how to make games when he grows up. I wanted to teach him how 3D modeling software works, but he insisted on waiting until he grows up. I’ll try again in a few years. I’ll make a geek out of him yet!
that looks pretty much identical to you, impressivly done.
oh Rich, is this the iRiver you have:
http://www.iriveramerica.com/prod/ultra/700/ifp_799.aspx
if so, i wanted to buy it so i can record podcasts on the go instead of lugging my laptop.
if so, i wanted to get one
Yes, I use the 799, but any iRiver with an input jack will work.
and how much space does it typically take for recording a podcast of 15 or so minutes?
hey rich!
what a scream! great to see that your off-air time has been well spent … and i mean that! down/fun/creative time is necessary.
aloha!
Hey Rich, long time listener, first time commenter. I have to say, I really enjoyed the video, it inspired me to register to There, dunno if I’ll see ya on there sometime, but it’d be kewl to hang if I do, heh. Anyway, when I first fired it up I TOTALLY thought you had started like a “Herro Flom Japan” animation, that scared me, lol.
I have a small question that goes along with Simon’s, when you use the iRiver to record your podcasts do you use the mic from the unit or something else, I think you might’ve mentioned it sometime before… but my memory sucks.
latez
I plug a pair of binaural mics into the iRiver. I’ve never gotten good results from the built-in mic. It picks up too much handing noise and I always get a clicking sound on the recordings too.
Hello Rich – Firstly, thank you for your podcasts. I’ve been listening/watching light flom the start but never commented, I guess I’m a bit shy 🙂 So, why do I like your podcasts? Maybe a short bio will explain:
I served as a US Marine in Okinawa (I visit Tokyo many times too) from ’93-’96 and just fell in love with some aspects of Japanese living, specially the lack of christianity, I’m agnostic. When my term ended I really wanted to stay in Japan but, having just transitioned from Hispanic to American culture I decided to wait. Well, needless to say, I never made the move. So its great to see today’s Japan again even if it’s through the lens of your camera. Thank you for sharing your experience with us.
In a different order, did you forget to mention that There.com isn’t Mac friendly? It isn’t. Bummer. It looks like fun.
Edwin.
Seeing how reliant the client is on MS Explorer and how the company doesn’t seem to be raking in much money, I can understand why they don’t support Mac. I get the feeling they have their hands quite full already. Developing and supporting a Mac version could hurt them financially unless the new users were to spend gobs of in-world money.
If they were to ask me, I’d tell them they need to open their API so deveopers can add more activities. Right now the only game you can play with other users is spades. I think their biggest problem is that once you’ve done everything you can and bought everything you wanted, the novelty wears off for most people and they leave.
Hmmm…I thought you’d modeled your visage after Gordon Freeman at first glance.
Anyway, thanks for turning me on to an interesting online playground. “There” seems to be more than just the usual virtual chatroom.