Rumor: Microsoft Wants a Second Life

[Tom Goldman]

Rumor: Microsoft Wants a Second Life

Microsoft might be trying to get its hands on Linden Lab's online virtual world, but for what purpose is unknown.

Second Life [http://secondlife.com/] is a well-known social virtual world run by Linden Lab where players can acquire land, build their own objects, trade virtual goods, and hang out with other people's avatars which are sometimes dressed as furries. According to rumors, Microsoft has put in a bid to purchase Linden Lab, and Second Life along with it.

Despite everyone from major corporations to politicians creating their own virtual spaces in Second Life, Linden Lab recently got rid of 30% of its staff and went through a corporate restructuring, fueling speculation that the game could be in decline. This could mean that Linden Lab is looking for a buyer, and sources are saying Microsoft has stepped up.

For what it's worth, a prominent member of the Second Life community recently tweeted: "A little birdie told me that Microsoft may have silently offered to buy Linden Lab this week." TechEye reports that "a very reputable individual still employed by Linden Lab" says the company is "entertaining offers" and Microsoft has put one in. Microsoft has apparently been looking into acquiring various social developers lately, so this isn't a stretch at all.

Though Microsoft once Kinect [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/88070-Microsoft-Calls-PlayStation-Home-Outdated-Tech]. Social gaming is big with casual players, and Microsoft is hoping to bring that casual market to the Xbox 360 through motion gaming. To show casual gamers that they could effectively be their created avatar through motion control in a virtual world would be huge, and I bet plenty of hardcore gamers would want to check something like that out as well.

Source: CVG [http://www.techeye.net/internet/microsoft-to-buy-second-life#ixzz111ftKrYZ]

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[VanityGirl]

I'd rather keep my avatar and use it in a Second Life type settin. I enjoy the more cartoony world.

But all in all, I don't really care, becayse if they do get Second Life, I doubt I'll play it even if its free.

 

[Jared]

...of course they do - Second Life never seemed to kick off anyway, so why would they want one? It will just end up like SL...

 

[Cynical skeptic]

Wait, second life with kinect support?

So instead of binding "fuck the furry female's tits" to 1, I could just mime what I wanted to do? Or even better, bind "plug purple middle leg into festering ****" to me jerking off?

HOLY SHIT SIGN ME UP, DAWG.

Ugh.

Second life is probably the most pathetic thing in existence. Can't wait to see what microsoft does with it.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

I still think the new avatars look stretched... they would look weird in a 'Second Life' setting.

Still I suppose if Microsoft managed to acquire Linden Lab it'd be win win.

Linden Lab have the money to do as they please and Microsoft have a big casual developer to help them make... something... probably something interesting...

 

[JourneyThroughHell]

I hope they're doing it to have full access to the server room to then BURN IT TO THE GROUND.

But that's not what it is, is it?. Oh, Microsoft, the hardcore gamers you love to talk about will be so happy to hear about the addition of Second Life to your empire.

 

[Worgen]

yeah yeah its easy to bash on second life since you dont seem to realize that sl is the mmo equivalent of /b/ but the big thing about second life that was revolutionary was if you made something in it, then you owned that thing and you could sell it for real money and actually make a buck in sl, not to mention you can do any damn thing you want in sl, you wanna fuck something really weird, go for it, you want to play doom, you can do that too, in sl your creativity was only bound by the time it took to make something. with microsofts record I would have to wonder if all that would keep up or if it would become a bland thing like sonys house did

 

[LawlessSquirrel]

Microsoft wanting control over something where users pay large amounts of real money for intangible, cheaply produced content? No, never, they wouldn't want something like that.

 

[BobisOnlyBob]

As a once-resident of SL... I have no idea what Microsoft want with it. The place is digital anarchy. Or at least it was; the walled garden of "adult" areas continues to be wonderfully and mindlessly anarchic, and the rest soldiers on like it always did. Empty worlds, more terrain than people, but never enough for everyone to have their own haven.

Tragic little virtual world, far ahead of its time, yet utterly flawed. Full of freakish and outlandish things. Populated by sexual deviants, outsiders in general, and lonely programmers.

I have some fond memories from SL, but I don't know what'll become of it. Maybe in the future it'll be better, but I recall saying that five years ago too.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Why not?
I mean, who doesn't want to buy virtual deadwood with real life money for absolutely no reason?
It's the one thing Xbox Live has been missing all this time! [/sarcasm]

 

[Lullabye]

Wha-?
Microsoft, if you buy this, then it better be for no other purpose than to destroy it. It's like the 4chan of videogames.

 

[Therumancer]

I'm not a user of Second Life, but I see the entire point of it as being the freedom to do whatever you want within it. I can't see Microsoft really allowing that.

As someone pointed out, it's the "4-chan" of video games (or virtual worlds more accuratly) which is sort of the point. You had humanity in it's entirety from the highest to the lowest, from the most normal, to the most freaky.

I would think Microsoft would do better to design their own from the ground up, rather than take that game/service, or it's name/concept when they are unlikely to ever really exploit it properly.

Second Life was an interesting experiment, and some neat stuff (like that Destroy TV thing I heard about) came about from it. I think it's better to leave it be, than ruin what it managed to achieve.

Not well articulated, but the bottom line is that while I was never interested in doing it myself, I did think the basic idea was cool, and that idea does not mesh well with an entirely corperate mentality.

 

[Therumancer]

Why not?
I mean, who doesn't want to buy virtual deadwood with real life money for absolutely no reason?
It's the one thing Xbox Live has been missing all this time! [/sarcasm]

Oh I agree with the sentiment, but Microsoft has already been doing that with their Avatars and the various items for them. People are apparently paying like $5 for a coat for their cartoon icon ot whatever.

With Second Life it was pretty ridiculous, but they didn't really sell items. The company itself instead sold space to permanantly store items (ie you pay for storage space). You can make anything, but it's not permanant and anyone can change it unless you pay for it to be permanantly stored so to speak.

Certain people who were good at building items apparently were selling their talent as artists to other people. Not really all that differant from paying for a characture portrait at a fair or whatever in principle, though I guess it got insane with people charging hundreds and thousands of dollars for custom sex animations and so on.

I never thought much of paying for that kind of stuff (even if I understand the logic) and was never interested enough to get involved, but the thing that made it interesting was unfettered freedom to do whatever you wanted and make whatever you wanted. I fail to see how Microsoft would ever allow something like that, since even Linden Labs apparently had issues with the idea of freedom and free expression taken to it's conclusion that way, and without that, all it would be is a police state where people sell computer produced art to each othr as long as it doesn't offend the owners.

Besides, truthfully, I'd think Microsoft would be more interested in going the root Home did and instead of opening the door of player generated content, opting to control the content themselves and then of course sell it piecemeal to the users. I mean if people are paying for virtual clothes for their avatar now, there is no reason why they won't do it if they create a virtual world like Home or Second Life for such Avatars. Why allow any player generated content and a player to player economy, when they can run the economy directly and make ALL of the money instead of dealing second hand in storage space for houses and large constructs which is what Second Life's busineed model was based around as I understood things.

 

[Caradinist]

Believe it or not people, Not all of second life is just made up of furries and tits.