May I speculate that you are an ex-WoW player, and a “never tried it but have read about it in the news” SL user?

(1) is probably right as to numbers; there are more regular WoW players than SL users. But as to who they are…

(2) The people I run into on WoW are (with some exceptions) preteen boys with the interests and manners and tendency to yell “DeathDeelar is gay!!” that you’d expect of preteen boys. The people I run into in SL are (with some exceptions) interesting and intelligent adults, many with jobs in IT, or the arts, or other creative fields.

(3) If you don’t think Second Life can be just as addictive (and fun and compelling) as WoW, you *really* haven’t been doing your research.

(4) It’s true there’s a built-in set of goals in WoW, whereas in SL you have to make your own reasons. But what’s really more interesting: finally killing the second boss in Kharazan, or building an art gallery (or jet-ski, or space station) with someone from Brazil, because you both thought of it?

(5) Again you must never have used Second Life. It is all *about* community, and not just for “a bit of online chat”. There are groups that host live music, that create art, that build buildings that go shopping together, that play roleplaying games (sort of like WoW!), and that just hang out intensely together. If you don’t know that SL has communities what *do* you think the 70,000 people logged in at any time are doing?

(6) You’re right on this one. But to be fair, Linden Labs has a much harder problem to solve, given that Second Life is user-created, and all the content is dynamic. Also they don’t shard.

(7) Where did you get that first sentence? Do you have any evidence at all? I’ve talked to just as many people in SL as in WoW (i.e. a few) who were inworld from adjacent computers. I remember one undead couple in WoW doing RFC together, I remember one couple talking to friends and dancing at a party in Second Life; both couples were together in real life, at computers next to each other. Why do you think it’s any rarer in SL?

(8) Completly backwards. WoW grows only when Blizzard makes new content and releases a patch. Second Life grows every time a resident makes something new in the world, which is probably at least once a second.

(9) As a player or a user, the only reason I care how much the company that owns the world makes is that I want them, and therefore the world, to grow and prosper. As far as I know, both Blizzard and Linden Lab are doing fine. Why would I care a about more than that, unless I was looking for a stock investment rather than a world to play in?

(10) And your evidence that Second Life users don’t love Second Life with a passion is…?

Really, when comparing X and Y, it’s good to know *something* about Y other than what you’ve read on fishwrap…

[…] on 19 November 2008 by daleinnis but hereafter find my scathing comment (first post!) to another clueless ‘ten reasons WoW is better than Second Life’ sort of post by someone who can’t have spent more than an hour in […]

I’ll try not to be biased, but most of the reasons you state are simply wrong.

2) I don’t know what is this statement based on. Not all people are interested in chasing orcs around. SL simply offers more things to do, so the probability that one will find own fun there is higher.

3) Sure that SL is fun. Do you really think that all those people are logging-in to be bored?

4) There is point in SL. It’s just not the same for every user. You choose what you’re going to do with your second life. And that is a good thing. Many people are actually doing something in SL, creating, learning, socializing, having fun as they like it. There is not much point in WOW beside having fun.

5) Community of second life is huge and dispersed not only on the grid but all over the web. Check Flickr, Plurk, Twitter… even FaceBook. Actually, without friends, SL usually gets pointless.

6) I agree that WOW is more stable and reliable. But let’s mention that, unlike WOW, SL is not stored on DVD. All the content of SL is stored on-line, due to the nature of the world that is really user-generated. That has it’s price.

7) I really don’t understand why one could not play SL with RL friends? This simply makes no sense.

SL grows too. And it’s not expansion packs that come out from time to time. Due to it’s nature, SL grows constantly, all the time. At every moment somebody is building something.

9) I really don’t know how much money Blizzard and Linden Lab make, but I wouldn’t say that company’s profit makes it’s product better. It should be other way round, right?

10) SL user base loves second life. We have love and hate relationship with Linden Lab, that is true, but both love and hate are inspired by loving the product.

So, of 10 reasons you stated, only the first stays. WOW has larger user base. Cool.

as someone who plays both WoW and SL i think you may be a bit off base…

if you go into SL expecting a game like WoW yes you are going to be disappointed, and the same way if you go into WoW expecting the same things you have in SL you will be disappointed.

these two things are not compairable… SL is a platform, a social experience, and a visual chat room in a way. WoW is a structured MMORPG…

number 7 is seriously BS to me…

“7 You can play it with your real friends

It

Interesting post Asavin but as has been pointed out, somewhat inaccurate The alleged pointlessness of Second Life is actually no different from the pointlessness of Real Life! There is, in truth, no point in living, unless you create a point - which may include spending most of it in the World of Warcraft environment.

There is a HUGE sense of community in SL. I exist as a journalist writing for several SL-based magazines and newspapers. I even get paid real money to do that - a feature of SL that can turn “playing” into a Profit Center activity. Yes, my earnings from SL really DO pay all my fees for SL, and leave me money to buy other things in Real Life.

Of course, WoW players and SL residents (yes, not players) are different beasts. Doubtless there are a few people who indulge in both but I would speculate (anyone with any data, please contact me!) that we are talking about two different client groups here. What makes someone join WoW is probably what also makes them NOT want to take part in SL - and vice versa.

Still, kudos for the title: I was expecting a “Letterman-style” humorous list, which, as it didn’t appear, I can now feel free to write myself.

Check out the Second Life Herald (http://www.secondlifeherald.com)over the next few days to see if it appears

[…] Read the rest of this great post here […]

Gaaaah! Firstly, you are comparing two very different things with some very basic similarities but have more differences and thus can’t be compared.

Among the differences:
- The WOW environment is created by the game creators and not by players (textures, scripts, etc). All of Second Life environment are created by residents.
- Second Life is a virtual environment, not a game - though you can participate in various games within that environment. In addition to being used as a gaming environment, it’s also used for art, education, conferences, business and more.
- Second Life does not have point scoring (unless you are participating in an in-world game or competition) but you can set yourself any number of goals. Through participation in Second Life people I know who have also developed skills in scripting, 3D modelling, animation or photoshop in order to create content without have ever having considered these things previously. You need to have a bit of initiative to set your own goals… or to have someone to set them for you.
- Second Life has a very strong community which extends quite beyond the platform. Second Lifers also raise funds for various charaties and do rely a lot on co-operation and team work. To have little or no need to work or communicate with others in second life means you are not really participating. Just do a google search to find strong educational networks that have a common focus or who meet in second life, artistist groups, social rights groups, builders, scripters, film makers… and just people. Second Life is riddled with inspiring people and projects.
- Reliability: the platforms are different as noted previously Blizzard has FULL control of the environment - which means users have less rights to create and change the environment where as the Second Life environment is fully controlled by residents - thus it is bound to be more open to issues (which are frustrating) but most users would not exchange stability for an environment they could not create as they pleased.
- My friends and family are in second life… and sometimes we do projects together. My parents come in to play old fashioned family games that we used to play around a table. Some friends who live overseas are also in Second Life.

I think that both Second Life and War of Worldcraft are useful platforms that can be used for all sorts of endeavors but to compare the two shows true ignorance as, in my opinion, they are so very different they cannot be compared.

One final note, that I forgot to mention (until venturing back to Plurk threads).

Regardless of where in the world you log on to Second Life, you can meet up with any other player - providing you are both logged on to second life at the same time.

In world of warcraft you can only meet up with people on the same server if they are logged on at the same time and there is a fee to change/move servers.

Yet another big difference between these entities.

I couldn’t agree more with Moggs and the rest! Comparing the two is simply rubbish.

I don’t get the reason why one has to diss the other. We at Second Life would never say anything against WoW or say we are better than WoW. Those who do are just as gravely misinformed as you.

Hey there Sarah Palin, would you like your “Dumb Ass” T-shirt in size Large or Extra-Large?

Are you sure you even logged into Second Life? Maybe you should open your eyes and try again.

Actually, Asavin is correct. WoW is better than SL for all the reasons set forth above. Please don’t bother coming into our virtual world as you’ll undoubtedly find it pointless and boring.

niko

There’s nothing to be said that’s better between the two. If you read the comments before us, you will see that there are VAST differences between WoW and SL that it is pointless to compare them. One is unique to the other, and that doesn’t make one better or superior. Just different.

If you find it pointless and boring, maybe it’s you. Maybe you need to branch out, spread your wings in the virtual world. Get out of that place you are in, use SEARCH and get to know the SHOWCASE tab. Try learning a skill or use your RL skill inside SL.

Umm… Isadora, Niko was being ironic.

In the same way as I, horribly enough, must confess I have been ironic a couple of times in the past. (But not too many!)

What I think Niko meant was in the vein of “Nothing for you to do in SL, wow-gamer, move on, nothing to see, no need to log in and get sim toppling avatars with laggy weapons. Go play wow now.”

[…] Pro recently wrote about the Ten reasons why World of Warcraft is better than Second Life by Asavin Wattanajantra. He did a pretty good job but I am going to disagree and offer up […]

Ten Reasons Why Second Life is Better than World of Warcraft

http://www.secondlifeupdate.com/rants-and-ramblings/ten-reasons-why-second-life-is-better-than-world-of-warcraft/

Wow, you are the master of flame bate. I just can’t resist:

http://daleinnis.wordpress.com/2008/11/19/i-dont-really-know-why-i-bother/#comment-305

By the way, my 6 year old and 8 year old enjoy terraforming and building our OpenSim world MORE than WoW and their other games. They are constantly learning new things including real 3D modeling skills they can make money with while you and other Warcrafters are still in school.

Laughing hard @Sin comments. I try to stay rational and openminded to all virtual worlds, but your ‘Go play WoW now’ sentiment really nails it. The one big concession I will give the author is that SL is generally not available to the very young crowd that is growning up on WoW, that is, until OpenSim, and it’s many independent grids including some that are educational based, takes more mainstream hold, like after they bring them into kids schools. You won’t see WoW in schools, but you will see OpenSim and Second Life viewers where kids build out their own school projects.

To the idiot named dandelion. WoW is not stored on a disc, it to is online.

[…] could be gaming universes like World of Warcraft, or more social reality-based worlds like Second Life, where stolen virtual goods could be sold for […]

ok i have know clue were some of you get your WoW data from but its is a proven fact that 90% of the users out of that 11 mil. are nonactive i know this because at these ten poeple with multiple accounts that haven’t played in years yet they can all still log ing at any time.

Simple put THERE REALLY ISN”T 11MILLION PEOPLE THAT PLAY WoW REGULARE!!!!

[…] I don’t know whether it was just boredom or an example of how dead my life has become, but I started playing it recently. I thought it was cute - I don’t have a games system so maybe I was trying to replace it with something. (I was in a past-life a World of Warcrafter). […]

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1. It already is.. you need to study your subject carefully before criticizing. You can interact with SL via irc, IM, cell phones, whatever. Been there done that long ‘time ago.

2. Snapzilla. In fact, it could be said this is one of the greatest reasons to go long on SL. Your logic here is completely baffling.

3. LL has been moving towards open source / open standards since day one. Again, study your subject.

4. It’s a business so you shouldn’t go long? Huh? AdSense? EBay? PayPal? These are all web 2.0 and they’re changing the world.

5. This has nothing to do with SL or it’s success, just how some people have foolishly tried to use it.

6. Uhh. I’m in SL in my store right now as I post this and answering customer queries. Again, study your subject.

7. Lack of context? I loved this point, because it shows how lack of thought your list has.

8. Again, study your subject. You clearly have no idea what the business models are.

9. Reach - yes! Finally, a point that is worthy of debate. I agree this is a big weakness and a reason to ‘go short’ on SecondLife. Even better, would be say CPU / Gigabyte per capita. SL is very very intensive on resources per person ‘reached’. It’s a problem, but, with all problems are really oppourtunities, and hey any virtual world is going to have that problem. But, yeah, good point.

10. Good point if it were true. Again, study your subject. Though I agree, the name could have been better chosen, but hey, in brings in the chicks.

Wonderful site, where did you come up with the info in this write-up? I’m happy I found it though, ill be checking back soon to see what other articles you have.