Saw this report on Tech Crunch just now and well…I couldn’t resist making a comment on it. I nearly split a gut when reading some of this article. Two things that stand out:

• “An update to Second Life’s client server will coincide with a 6 hour outage from 6am-12 noon PST Wednesday and Second Life users are not happy.” Being the gamer that I am, I’ve experienced 24 hour plus outages to World of Warcraft, Ultima Online and Everquest. We’re talking about games that I’ve probably sucked thousands and thousands of dollars into over the last decade. After the downtime, the product was better. Suck it up, enjoy your FIRST LIFE for 6 hours. This is getting into the ‘addiction’ part of this type of ‘tool’. Be warned about what we wish for.
• “The then there is the various police investigations in a number of countries. The FBI recently started investigating Second Life for illegal online gambling. Police in Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands are investigating whether virtual rape in Second Life constitutes an offense, and German Police are investigating pedophilia on a service where virtual “age play” and bestiality are widespread.” And we want to use this as a platform to educate our children on? I don’t think so. Not with such rampant vulgar and obscene places, people and things out there. I’m not trying to be a holier than thou’ist here. I’m firmly of the belief that people have the right to choose where they go on the internet, what they view, and the things they do. Who am I to judge? I’m not. I just choose not to partake in such frivolity. However, without safeguards in place at the client level, we are putting our children/students at a higher risk of the things we strive to protect them from.
  

I will agree that Second Life is a great avenue to get together and have virtual one on one/face to face professional development opportunities. I myself just cannot support going into such a place that allows such things to exist. Again, this is my decision and I don’t judge, nor begrudge those that utilize the service. Until such measures are taken to rid the Second Life world of such things, I think I’m going to take a pass. I know, what a turnaround after blogging about my first Second Life experiences just about a month ago. Opinions change.

As always, I’m…
Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages…

Tom.

Citation:

Riley, Duncan. “Anarchy, Discontent Plague Second Life.” Tech Crunch. 23 May 2007. Tech Crunch. 23 May 2007 <http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/05/23/anarchy-discontent-plague-second-life/>.