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- Google Kills off Lively
- Posted About 1 month ago by Coop
Google’s ill conceived, laggy, poorly made Second Life clone, Lively, has finally kicked the bucket. They said in a letter posted today that they have realized that it isn’t going to pay off and decided it was time to cut the life support. I downloaded it after it was released, made a pig avatar, and walked around one of the many XXX rooms ignoring the cyber-sex and typing “Oink! Oink!” It was... epic.?
No, it sucked, and I was disappointed in Google. Seriously, they should know better, virtual worlds are crashing down every day. MMORPGS can barely hold up, and people aren't giving Sony's Home the time of day, even if it is well integrated. That's without even talking about the number of random, “real world simulators” like Second Life that have a dwindling user base. It’s high time people try and find a new way of interacting with each other in a virtual world, because walking around fake houses doesn’t seem to be working.
The full, open letter from Google can be found here, where they recommend taking pictures and videos of the creations so that you can remember all of the time you spent for nothing. Your virtual studios and houses will be deleted in December, so you might want to hurry up with those pictures.
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Comments
There are some actual positive benefits of virtual societies, particularly for people with social disorders. For instance, I know there's a special island in Second Life for people with autism that lets them interact with one another in a way they couldn't necessarily do in person.
Why not make real social networking places? You know, like work and other such places, where people can just mingle. Maybe even create a chain [or franchise] that people can go to in order to meet different people. Who knows? Maybe one day the world will really fall into the dark ages (Escape from L.A. style) and we'll all be forced to really be around others all the time.
Well hey, there's always Exit Reality...