'Second Life' enters the world of mobile phones

[Clowns]

I don't normally start threads anymore and I don't know if someone else was quicker to post this but I thought this was kind of interesting. Will mobile phone gaming, i.e. WoW, be in our future if second life can do this? Is this even a viable platform for these kind of games?

'Second Life' enters the world of mobile phones | Software news, tips, and opinions from Download.com editors - Download.com

Quote from the link:

Demanding a better-than-average processor, a 1024x768 screen resolution, a boatload of RAM, and a strong video card just to take part, it's hard to believe that Second Life, the virtual world developed by Linden Lab (download for Windows and Mac), could ever survive on a mobile phone.

Yet on Tuesday, Vollee, a 3G streaming services provider, began offering the free, open beta version of Second Life for 40 Wi-Fi-enabled and 3G cell phones with more handset compatibility coming soon. That means you, iPhone.


'Second Life' avatars can fly and teleport from 40 mobile phones.

(Credit: Vollee)In Second Life Mobile, users will be able to fly and teleport all over the virtual world, and chat when other friends are online.

Talk about porting Second Life to cell phones began in February, and a private beta program of Second Life Mobile appeared shortly after.

How does Vollee accomplish the gargantuan, scoffed-at task of hosting a huge, graphics-hungry PC game on such compact devices? They won't spill much, except to say that Second Life Mobile is a thin client downloaded to the high-end cell phone that communicates with the full, unmodified game that's hosted on Vollee's servers. All the adaptation happens on Vollee's end, with the mobile-friendly results streaming to each individual handset.

We haven't had a chance to try it out yet, but we will soon. Watch this space for our first take of gameplay

[Zehn - Vhex]

Wasn't EQ going to have a mobile client just for chat or something? I seem to recall something similar being done before, but I may be wrong.

Either way, you won't be playing the game. It'll most likely be a stripped down chat interface. These devices typically don't have much memory once you account for the OS.

[Elerion]

EQ had an out of game chat service. That could easily run on the mobile phones of today, if anyone cared.

[Jabberwhacky]

I thought it was EVE that was going for a mobile-phone route, I think with regards to skill training?

[Aamina]

You could play EVE entirely on a mobile phone. Just keep putting skills in the queue and when its time for a space "battle" just tell everyone in your corp you lagged out--along with all of them who are actually trying to fight.

[PerritoBites]

Originally Posted by Zehn - Vhex

Wasn't EQ going to have a mobile client just for chat or something? I seem to recall something similar being done before, but I may be wrong.

Either way, you won't be playing the game. It'll most likely be a stripped down chat interface. These devices typically don't have much memory once you account for the OS.

In Second Life Mobile, users will be able to fly and teleport all over the virtual world, and chat when other friends are online.

Well, the important part is the bolded section. If it was just a chat, I don't think this would be worth mentioning.

[Lyrical]

I am so sick of hearing about Second Life. Every time you open up a BusinessWeek (or any other mainstream business article), they are talking about MMO's. And Second Life is used as the poster child for MMO's. The mainstream media acts like Second Life is the only MMO in existence. How it garners so much media attention, I don't know.

In short, Second Life, I never want to hear about you again.

[Wilfan]

Originally Posted by Lyrical

How it garners so much media attention, I don't know.

1) They sell it to the media as "a virtual world". That's a far easier concept to understand and write stories about than 200 hours of bear killing or raiding.

2) They somehow manage to keep furries, pedos and flying penises out of the spotlight.

[Nakilos]

I just do not know who are these people who play this game. I've talked to people in game stores and on other forums and I've yet to meet someone who ACTUALLY plays Second Life, let alone played it even for a brief period of time. There has to be enough people playing it to get any attention. Even CSI:NY had an episode about it and managed to not have shitting dicknipples in it.

[PerritoBites]

I've talked to people in game stores and on other forums

The reason you can't find people in gaming stores or gamin forums is because this is not a game. Second Life is not a appealing to the gaming crowd simply because Second Life is just a virtual world for chatting, not playing a game. I tried second life once since I had no idea what to expect out of it. It is free, so if you are curious about it, you might as well try it. Basically all you do in this "game" is you try to make money make friends... and then spend your money and show off to your friends. That is all there is to it... Imagine WoW a huge house, but you can't fight/kill any mobs. Then make gold buying an integral part of the economy and the only way to make money being selling your own items or working for other people. Well there is always camping money chairs, but that just gives you pocket money.

Now the part that drew me into the game is the "sandbox" aspect of the game. You can build just about anything in this world. You have a menu for creating items that lets you make circles, squares, etc... color them, shape em, give them properties (ei flexible) and then put scripts in them for them to animate or interact. So different people use these things in different ways... People build cities out of themes that can range from the resemblance of a real city, an imaginary city (anime city for example), dancing places, bars, etc...

Having said that... I got bored of this program pretty quick... I guess since I didn't know anyone from RL who used it. (Think of it as using Facebook even though none of your friends use it) So the only things I found interesting were the dancing locations, which usually meant there is a DJ streaming music and there is people dancing to it. Also I liked visiting cities and looking around the stuff that people made. I also tried taking classes for building objects but got bored of it after a couple of days.

So yeah... there you have it... you found someone in a forum that plays the "game".

[Nakilos]

I only mentioned my own frame of reference, because I can't assert no one plays it purely on my own limited experience. That being said, I've randomly met people who have played pretty much every MMO in existence - obviously the WoW players being more common, and the EQ players a bit less common, some who played DAoC and so one. I would've thought, given it's claimed to be a "game", one might run into someone who plays it.

So I suppose you would be the first I've seen admit they have played it. Clearly it has to make money to stay alive though. Second Life seems to fit a niche of a niche of a niche in gaming.

[Exploit]

My friend told me you can have sex with a unicorn in second life...a unicorn...

[SlyyDaugg]

What second life needs is the ability to have virtual objects impact other virtual objects, like say a player-fashioned hammer impacting a player-fashioned window of a player-fashioned salon.

I'd join that world, and so would about 4 people I know.

In fact, the first thing we'd fashion is something like this:

New life!

[Mist]

Originally Posted by Exploit

My friend told me you can have sex with a unicorn in second life...a unicorn...

That's not a horn!

[Mist]

Originally Posted by Nakilos

I only mentioned my own frame of reference, because I can't assert no one plays it purely on my own limited experience. That being said, I've randomly met people who have played pretty much every MMO in existence - obviously the WoW players being more common, and the EQ players a bit less common, some who played DAoC and so one. I would've thought, given it's claimed to be a "game", one might run into someone who plays it.

So I suppose you would be the first I've seen admit they have played it. Clearly it has to make money to stay alive though. Second Life seems to fit a niche of a niche of a niche in gaming.

It's mostly played by young adult/middle aged women of above average intelligence (at least, so they like to think.) And fags. So probably no one you know.