Due to a missed deadline, the following press interview will never see the light of the day in the fine paper(s) it was originally intended to be published within! Thanx to the magic of copy-'n'-paste, I bring you the answers. And I've emphasized some selected passages. There's only one catch: you have to figure out what the questions are!
As always, remember these are merely a reflection on how much I love being in Second Life. Goodspeed.
- You can be yourself, just more of you. One reason I came in here was to indulge in childhood obsessions. I love watermelons, and splash watermelon colors everywhere. I think some people grew up with LEGOs and, so, as a great extension, they build skyscrapers and wonder-towers in here. There's some Philip K. Dickian magic in which we ask, "What is real?"
- Yes, just like people make money from the World Wide Web, this is really — like the game Spore — a gradual evolution through phases of communication. Once we're over whatever novelty humps lie, I hope Second Life becomes increasingly ubiquitous and a constant grounds to make money, make love, make happy — all kinds of things that matter to human beings.
- Big question. There's the usual human emotions, jealousy and drama between some popular content creators. It hasn't gotten as far as killing, I hope it doesn't because that is dumbass and a waste of human life. Those of us who are really fortunate to have computers and broadband connections at all, that places us way above a lot of the Earth's population. It's a good thing to remember when pursuing $$$.
I'm a humanist (of sorts) so seeing people better themselves in Second Life is really rewarding. It sounds like such a cliche, but when it comes back down to it, I think of what Michio Kaku said about us advancing towards a Type 1 civilization. In some lateral visionary way, I'd like to believe Linden Lab and Second Life are a facilitating part of that process.
P.S. I consider Second Life an "online world with games within it" — the whole of it isn't a game, much as how an umbrella has parts of metal but that isn't its entire chemical composition.
P.P.S. I'm also optimistic in the future, we'll say things like "offline life" instead of "real life" because that's more accurate. Kinda like how people don't call a car a "horseless carriage" anymore. - Yes, we get unscrupulous people trying to exploit us with "money hacks" and whatnot — we have a special squad for catching those exploits fast. Brent Linden's on the direct line about that, you can email him… brent@lindenlab.com for more details.
- There was a beautiful statement by Steve Jobs in a recent interview, about the things he loves. He made a comparison to Levi's jeans that fade into the background. I'd like that for SL. Always around, but not intrusive. A vital part of your whole life.
Right now during explosive growth, there's all this blasted "hypey" stuff about SL, but for the longterm, I see Second Life… subsequent versions and descendants of it (much as we're preceded by Habitat)… just being *everywhere*. Because that is where the future is, in ubiquity. People won't think it's so strange to be in an online world, and the immersion and augmentation process should be a lot more seamless. Again, Philip K. Dick's Ubik has thematic revelations.
(5b) Hmmm I have no opinion on that, it just doesn't exist in my brain. I think we'll see more 3D commonplace — not necessarily eclipsing, but just more of it. Just like how there are so many more 3D computer games nowadays, but we still have 2D platformers abound. MySpace is great on the "Hey, I can get into this so easily" front. We're working to make SL openly accessible too.
- Hasn't it already? Aside from that, and as much as some think of Second Life as "its own country", the longterm effects will show it expanding — like a fine, tasty side dish — to the meat of our offline reality. There's a reason why wedding cakes have layers, and there's a reason why Second Life does too.
- Severely yes. I have this long checklist of things I wanna see in Second Life but haven't yet. So much creativity — so many promising people who haven't joined us as Residents yet, or as I like to call 'em for short, Resis. Every culture has its own language.
- TONS OF STUFF. You can get many analogs of offline goods: vehicles, watches, weapons, clothes, purses, dwellings (houses and such), furniture, and insane art that can't possibly exist in physical dimensions etc. etc. etc. Particle poofers (fireworks, light fx) are a lotta fun and an SL mainstay. Even sex toys (sex in SL is present but more there's a lot left to explore therapeutically, to heal and have healthier sexuality). In some cases, if you can't find it, you can make it yourself. If you want a quick look, check out http://www.slexchange.com and http://www.slboutique.com
- Hot issues like bugs that are a pain in the ass, I'm like this empirical explorer: while we improve the usability and overall performance of SL, it's important that we closely, deeply, resonatingly feel what pains are experienced by the community. So when things don't work as expected, I'm often on-the-scene, communicating what needs to be righted.
ALSO
— patterns and gems which are underdiscovered. A key example is FollowCam, which adds *really kewl cinematic camera effects* to Second Life. Largely an unknown feature, so I wanna see more people using it. I also make demo videos like this: - Torley Wong. I mostly go by first-name basis, it's just easier.