Re:What happened to Second Life?
by ryanwaggoner on Saturday December 05, 2009 @04:01AM
(#977932)
when in reality it's a moderately successful, extremely niche app
What a testament to the exponential growth of things like Facebook and Twitter that an app that has garnered millions upon millions of users in just a few years can be described as "extremely niche" with a straight face.
And though I used to agree with you, I think SL will be remembered as a somewhat paradigm-shifting social experiment, in that it first introduced many people to the idea of virtual worlds, especially in terms of virtual economies where people make real money.
I think the vitriol directed at SL is somewhat justified - its creators have cast it as some kind of world-changing social experiment, but in reality it's a glorified 3D chat room. We in the tech community generally dislike this sort of unsubstantiated hype.