Starr-ving Artist: Challenge #4 – Not-A-MeMe – SL Circa 2009

Dixie posted the next challenge, "What will be Second Life's biggest positive change and biggest negative change in two years (circa 2009)?".

This is a toughie.  I tend to side with Dolmere on this with the "I don't know or I don't care" bit.  I also expect SL to go off in a direction we don't quite expect.  What I do think we'll see are more businesses moving their presence into SL, much like they did on the Web.  That trend is already happening, so that's an easy one, really.  I think people will find new uses for SL outside of what we're currently seeing.  My *very* first idea prior to even knowing SL existed was to make a world very SL-like that could be sold to companies.  Workers could then do their work within this alternate world, from any place in the physical world.  It would be a true virtual office, but in a more work-focused environment.  I considered it more of a visual IM.  But my plan was to be able to embed work type things within this world so that folks could easily wander the halls, interact with each other, view each other's computer screens to provide the same level of support as we do physically, etc.  I think SL will become the basis for this sort of thing in the future.  Or it ought to.

For bad stuff?  Who knows.  I know griefing will increase, but that's just the nature of the beast.  Open world = abuse the world.  I can live with it (means BanLink will need more work, but yay!)  I imagine LL will throw a few other wrinkles into the mix that will piss off the loud majority (typically the minority).  Mostly I'm in it for the ride.  I've not found LL to do many things that I've really disagreed with on a large scale.  I'm a pretty big supporter, so what can I do?  I imagine the integration of voice into SL is what will kill it mostly for me.  Not because I don't want to talk to my friends, but because in text, your thoughts aren't lost in the mix by being talked over by someone that's more excited or louder.  That's why I liked SL from the start, and I've said it plenty of times, "In SL, my 'voice' is heard."  Adding voice, while fun, will also hinder many good people from showing their true potential.

Oh yeah, we'll get Mono by 2009.