Swedish Social Network Launches in Second Life
Hard to believe it was way back in May that we reported that Swedish social networking site PlayAhead was being brought into the virtual world of Second Life by VW services company Rivers Run Red. At long last, the project has launched, according to this Michael Parsons column in CNet UK. It’s a good read, describing the launch “as though the flat profiles of the community’s members have risen up off the page like a pop-up book and suddenly starting walking around with independent life.” Parsons also contemplates “what would happen if other larger social-networking sites made the leap into the third dimension,” and echoes one of our favorite sentiments here at 3pointD: “Current online social spaces like PlayAhead and MySpace are building a two-dimensional path that leads directly to the heart of the metaverse, and once people have started to invest a lot of time and energy into their social-networking accounts, they’re going to be a lot more open to the next step — taking that first, awkward walk as a newly born avatar, stumbling around in three-dimensional space and trying to find someone cute to have a virtual drink with.” We couldn’t have put it better ourselves.
Feeds
Wow, that’s freakin exciting! I’ve long held the view that the near-term added value of VW was going to be in the social networking side, not the immersive 3D game-play, which is probably 5-10 years away from broad availability.
Yes, good point, Rik, and you wonder if our Linden friends are going to stop marketing in a sense to first-person shooters on AOL accounts and such and stop pretending to be a war game, and stop catering to all these teenage and 20-something males who want to shoot and grief and torment others, and find ways to re-direct their marketing/media work/outreach to these social sites with their slightly older and more sociable demographics and have them displace the griefing by sheer numbers.
Swedish Social Network Launches in Second Life…
Virtual world builders Rivers Run Red have built the Swedish social network PlayAhead inside SecondLife. I’ve been spending more time in SL and it appears that the 3D internet is slowing coming to fruition. c|net’s Michael Parsons has a……