Last year you’d read a lot about Second Life online - from various trusted media sources such as this site, the BBC, TheRegister etc.     Now I don’t know if its just me, but the Media appears to have stopped reporting about the famed Virtual World environment from Linden Labs..

It was a result of this media attention that I downloaded and started playing with the client as the avatar Dan Ramona.     My initial impressions at the time were not good, the client was slow, bandwidth intensive, and walking and flying around the environments was sometimes like pulling teeth.      Not only that, it was an assault to the senses - some environments would have music in them, and simply getting in the area would result in an assult of the eardrums.

However there were good things.   Players could build, script, and design their own items in game.  They could also own their own land, and build their own houses.     It was like the sims but for your own avatar.   There were a few games created by the players which were fun, in a very basic fashion - they weren’t brilliant though or interesting enough for long-term play.

The sandbox like creationism did lead to a somewhat strange situation - there was quite a sexual focus to many of the items being created (probably down to most of them being created by 15-21 year old male teenagers if I’m playing the stereotypes card).   Second life to me basically did not appear very child friendly.      Creating items also required you to pay for credits and funds to allow you to upload textures etc.    This was the income stream for the game - as someone viewing content didn’t really need to pay a monthly fee.

Overall after a few days of playtime I was done with SecondLife.    I don’t think I’ll revisit the environment as quite simply I can’t see the point of it all..   And I can’t honestly believe our government thinks spending money in the envioronment can really be a valid use of public funds.     They of course are claiming it saves money by preventing staff travel to see technology (I do wonder why our  goverment hasn’t discovered video conferencing!)  - my view is simple - maybe our ministers and civil servants enjoy the alternative lifestyles Second Life offers….   I’m sure its safer from the prying eyes of the press with their long lenses at least!

How was your Second life experience?   Have you binned it like me?

I thought I should mention this - as  one thing I love is “Free Stuff”.

Basically Eurogamer/Codemasters are giving away 2000 free copies of their MMO “Lord of the Rings online” - or LOTRO as its more commonly known on this Friday, including all expansions up to date, and 30 days of free play time.    Thats quite a saving from the shop price -  which via play.com at least is currently retailing at £14.99.

Look at this link for details of the offer, which starts Friday - if you have been interested in playing LOTRO in the past, its a chance to do so free.