Second Life isn't a game, exactly. Some call it that, and indeed it is sometimes compared to various massive multiplayer online roleplaying games (MMORPGs). Really, though, Second Life is a virtual online world— it's not really a game, and there aren't a lot of default "gameplay" elements. Some call it "Web 3.0," but I think that sort of misses the point; it's not really the next version of the web.
Of course, what with it not being a game, one thing that people ask is, what do you do there? There are a lot of things to do. I enjoy building stuff. You can talk to friends, just like Internet instant messaging or chat software (going back to IRC and VMS Phone and Unix Talk and doubtless other things I don't know about) without a virtual presence. And, one thing you can do is go to live music concerts; there do tend to be quite a number of them. A Second Life resident will perform, using a live stream which is then piped to your computer.
A couple of hours ago, I went to a concert by Catherine Moody. She's a classical pianist who performs fairly frequently in Second Life, and is, as Second Life residents go, moderately well known. She's given four concerts in the last week as part of the whole "Second Life Fourth Birthday" celebration. And, she's quite good. As I understand it, the RL ("Real Life") counterpart of Catherine plays on an electric keyboard, whose output is connected directly to the stream. We didn't hear Catherine's voice at all. Sometimes, with live music performances, it's clear that it's a mic or some such connected to the stream, as there is singing, and banter between numbers. Catherine must have had her computer right next to her, because she typed the (brief) banter and told us what she would play next.
This is the first concert of Catherine's that I've made it to, and I hope to make it to more in the future.
For the rest of you, if you get into Second Life and are wondering what to do: check out some live music concerts.
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hmmm a live concert of pre-recorded music piped through a video game? I think I will just put a Rubinstein CD on.
It's not pre-recorded-- she's playing it right then and there.
So basically it's a proto-Metaverse?
Yes -- and, indeed, to some degree the original creators were inspired by Snow Crash.
-Rob
I was fortunate to hear Cathrine perform and she was wonderful.. I think going to a virtual concert is trueley another gift of the internet... after her concert I went for a sail on my virtual yacht (which uses real Second Life winds). So.. try doing all that within an hour and a half in Real Life. :)
Re; #1...she was playing live, i know because I'm another SL Live Musician. I'm with the Virtual Live Band... a one of a kind band in SL. We are 5 people from 3 countrys and with thousands of miles between us we practice every day and play concerts most weekends. We use ninjam to send each of our streams to Germany where they are synced into one stream and sent back to SL in seconds. I'm having the time of my life there doing things i could never do in real life...like Delinda said "try doing all that within an hour and a half in Real Life. :)" Catch you all later...jams start in 2 hours...gotta warm up :)
Jokker