Those of you who knew me in-world as Vincent Shore may have noticed my absence from the metaverse as of late; and some of you who know me as the developer of Squawk, the social network integration tool for Second Life, may have questioned why I decided to sell my project. I thought now would be a good time to go over my reasoning behind my departure, if only to straighten the thoughts in my own mind.
For those unfamiliar with the platform, Second Life is an Internet-connected 3D virtual world. You might think of it like a massively multiplayer online game like World of Warcraft, minus the game. Second Life is a world where you exist as a infinitely customizable avatar, where the citizens of the world set the rules (for the most part) and define the shape the world takes. You can build anything your imagination can conceive by using primitives or molding it’s shape in an external 3D program and importing it, and then you can give it “life” by scripting it’s invisible intelligence. Users can then give away these creations, or even sell them for Linden Dollars; the inworld currency that can be traded back and forth for real cash using PayPal.
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