(Intro in the About post above)

Greetings all and welcome to Wayfinder’s Blog.  Thought I’d start off by discussing the general state of the virtual world today.  There will be those who agree with my posts– and those who disagree.  If there is any defined goal in my posts, it would be to get people to really think about what is going on around them, and to help people make wise decisions when approaching virtual society for the first time. 

Without a doubt, VR is the future of the internet.  Within the next 2 to 5 years (given current society remains intact), the entire internet will move more and more from a 2-D text based system to a 3-D immersive society.  Many are calling VR the “new internet”. 

But like the internet in general, VR is not without its perils, not the least of which is addiction.  Anyone involved in VR knows of this.  People become so immersed in their virtual life, they start ignoring their real life.  The addiction is real, it’s recognized, and it can be dangerous.  It has cost people jobs, mates, families.  Perhaps worst of all, it has cost them their personal identity, as they abandon any RL accomplishments they may have gained for whatever questionable accomplishments may be made in virtual society.

At this time, the unquestionably dominant VR world is Second Life, where I began my role as Wayfinder Wishbringer.  Second Life is without a doubt an amazing, incredible and yes, addictive world.  People can take on any character they wish, can build homes and autos and entire worlds, can “script” (write in-world programs), play music, socialize and dance.  There is truly almost no limit as to what can be accomplished there.  It is a very versatile system. 

There is simply nothing else like Second Life on the planet– currently.  Unfortunately for Second Life and its residents, the host company Linden Lab leaves much to be desired.  The company has a long, established history of poor customer support, an extremely shaky and bug-ridden platform, arbitrary knee-jerk decisions quite often detrimental to their customers, and less-than-truthful PR announcements and communications.   This has created a very dissatisfied user base akin to that common of Micro$oft and its Windows system.  In addition to this, Linden Lab has charged ludicrous prices that many believe have prevented thousands of users from enjoying the VR world to its full potential, and prevented Second Life from growing beyond its current levels.  The company has often focused on eye-candy projects while ignoring serious bugs that last for months and even years.  These issues are common knowledge among the system’s users. 

I don’t intend to spend all my time blasting Linden Lab, but neither will I sidestep issues in these blogs.  Where they do well, I will state so clearly and with full applause.  Where they mess up I will not only point out the problem, but also try to present a solution.

Why?  Because as I have already stated, Second Life is one of the most incredible VR systems on the market today.  I would love to see Linden Lab wake up to the needs of its users, stop focusing so much on their stockholders and bottom-line profits, and allow the system to reach its full potential.  They can only do that if they listen to their customers.  If they don’t, sure as griefers grief, they will lose their market to a company more savvy and user-friendly.