It is the Icon Serpentine’s post that pushed my mind more on the subject of possible Linden’s monopoly on virtual worlds, oneness of metaverse and open source.
Secondlife isn’t the promised-land of some post-human immersive reality. It isn’t going to become the replacement for the Internet. There are many reasons, but I’m going to examine just one –
The Internet is open. Not closed. Croquet, IMO, is the future.
It will be though again…. Can you imagine Phillip Linden as Bill Gates? On one hand there is nice, easy to use and polished (ok, I’ll reconsider this one for both windows and second life) on the other is open and promising system without media buzz and hype.
Lindens know that there is no place for hermetically closed systems in the future. Hence the opening of client’s code and integrating flatworld pages. But, hopefully, future will ask for even more. It is on users not to ask for less.
It is a close race. All the beauty and usability and opportunities that one open system like croquet can offer can be easily neglected just for the sake of popularity and all the things already made in second life. Just remember SL from two years ago. Comparing to present, land was unpopulated. And it is not that system was poor and buggy. It was in much better condition than it is now. It’s the content of the world that attracts new residents.
And thus any virtual world grows by geometrical progression. And second life already broke its inertia momentum. Croquet is still to make a critical mass of residents who will provide content which will attract new creative residents.
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