I think the majority of Second Life users don’t really care too much about creating content. In the early days of Second Life most users were also creators but, after the massive growth of SL (yes — despite the bad press of 2008 which inevitably followed the good press of 2007, Second Life is very much alive and growing) most users are just users. But a subset of very creative and energetic users is and will continue to be attracted of the unlimited, informal and casual creativity permitted by SL. These users will stay in Second Life and continue to create compelling attractions, which will also keep casual users in. Also, the social community of frequent SL users is very strong, with personal and group bonds which are hard to break and will tend to keep everyone in. Blue Mars is one of the most exciting new developments in the metaverse, but it is not a Second Life killer. I expect both platforms will flourish.

At the same time Blue Mars can and probably will be more appealing to corporate and public sector operators. Dusan has concisely stated why: “For a consumer brand - a Red Bull or a Coke or whatever, the ability to tightly control the user experience will be a godsend after the flying phallus days of SL. The ability to track users, their time in a space, and to provide AI ’shop keepers’ - all big pluses.”. The flying phallus comment refers to the unrestricted user creativity in Second Life has resulted in some bad press: most articles about Second Life in the non specialized press are about virtual sex, scandals, financial scams and gambling — even though the last two things are history after Linden Lab has banned SL gambling and unregulated banking, and VR sex may soon follow. When I talk to new clients about Second Life, this is the kind of questions I get most. As a result of the bad press Second Life has been considered as an image problem by the most conservative operators, and I expect they will prefer the more controlled environment, and of course the superior performance, of Blue Mars.

I am especially interested in the the applications of online VR to education. The Cry Engine 2 platform upon which Blue Mars is based is more and more frequently used for education and professional training. Though there are no examples at this moment, I assume that the system components and educational material used for classes in Second Life, Power Point, video, voice, streaming video, Moodle integration etc., will be implemented by Blue Mars developers. But I expect the most popular edicational applications in Blue Mars will be those that require highly realistic VR environments with state-of-the-art visuals, illumination, physics and AI. Architecture of course, engineering, professional training for the industrial machinery, space, but also history and the visual arts. I expect historic events to be faithfully recreated in Blue Mars, and the platform to become a favorite of machinima producers.

that statement is very true from a creative service industries POV of the last 10 years….

but its also exactly WHY…windows only, or mac only web3d/ vr WORLDS online have failed for a decade.:)

in SL, both 2d and 3d combine, with some scripts, and hopefully some business accumen, to create a “new media” type.. REALTIME 3D.. rt3d. media.. which is what Im talking about, its what all these blue mars want to facilitate and transform into microcomerce trade profits…..

that IS the real world, one ive been in for a decade waiting for you all to show up at;) and since the 2006 SL/blog break through of hype:) many(millions of you..lol?) are now here:)

staying is the trick;)

I think youll find that the “amatuers” that fill up and “created” things Like Second LIFE, from the creative side hype, are mainly mac folks, clothing textures(2d) and all.

YOull also find that creative media agencies are all mac dominant still, and thus didnt “believe” in 3d on the web until SL was on a mac in 2006.

And believe it or not, 3d game pros, using max and maya STILL dont really care about virtual worlds like Blue Mars, unless they are paid to work on/for them.:) Just as 2d pros in animation cared nothing for flash on a mac in 1996:)

in 2009 i do believe that cross platform has finally made a dent in the creative cgi users market.

how large a dent again, will be seen by the adoption of any of the windows only “virtual service worlds platforms”

where I am in the world dosent matter hypatia, where the rest of the world IS, will to the many who are spending tons of time and money in web3d content plays again.

Bleh, fanbois.

3d media pros are often on PCs, or even more obscure platforms like SGI workstations.

Cube, I think you’re not in the real world… 2d and 3d are different worlds. When I transitioned from 2d to 3d, I had to give up the mac. Most 3d pros are not on macs. It’s just a fact of life, not a judgement.

I like macs, don’t get me wrong, but the 3d world is mostly PC, and so your argument is lacking. You’re just acting like a fanboi, while missing the point that the virtual world biz will probably hold a lot of different platforms by the time its all through. Just because one isn’t working for your platform doesn’t mean none of them will, nor will the lack of Mac mean disaster for a Windows based world, nor will the lack of a mac client even prevent Mac users from entering it via bootcamp and similar.

Wake up Bettina:)– mac vs PC.. not just you..lol, but the NPIRL galz and boyz….the list on the pages rt side:) Macs or PCs?

Flash 2d animation /art exploded a decade ago from the MAC side…

The question is “have” enough creators working in 3d moved onto ownership of PCs as well…3DMAX.etc… or on they all on Macs still in the creative studios from NY to LA…

IF yes, web3d worlds may grow faster, if still NO, then as its been for 10 years, the wait will continue. But flash 3d -paperlike stuff- will grow- as it did in 2001-3 again. Erain stuff. but not worlds, really.. more metaplace tiles at best.

SL - was because of internal 3dtools/prims/PLUS IP rights , a lucky accident;) for many amatures to 3d media.. Thats as its obvious now, has been both good and bad for many who responded to the blog hype-press;)

These may have a preponderance of Unix operating systems, but content creation on these systems is a moot point, you won’t be able to run the apps necessary to create it, unless they are also “virtualised” in the cloud - which I doubt will happen with most of the graphics apps anytime soon. You’ll be a “viewer” on these platforms in the main. Welcome back TV I suppose.

For once it will be a joy to watch a world get up and running that doesn’t cater to Macs and geek early adapter sandbox types who crash sims, but to more refined creators who go through the strainer of an application system.

But as I’ve noted on my blog, and as you can see from the discussion there, a world where you can’t jump in and create at an amateur level is very dichotomized and a gulf between “talented” and “not talented” enlarges.

Be careful what you wish for, you might get it.

As for sex, I’m betting that they will figure out how to allow this by saying it’s up to developers to label their worlds.

As for this Vista stuff, I saw it and checked it out. Vista, like it or not, is on every single computer sold in every mainstream normal computer store now, i.e. not all those geeky sites with names like Eggz4U or whatever but ordinary Best Buy stores. Furthermore, the graphics card that can play SL better, and play Blue Mars, is now in a lot of the Vista machines in the ordinary stores. So the time has come, and Blue Mars is ready for it, that’s not going to be an issue, from what I can tell.