Open Life

I visited the Open Life Grid for a few hours the other evening. My understanding, thus far, is that it being developed by company called 3DX using the open source version of Second Life. This isn't much to go on, but I have just begun to look at it. Open Life has its own down loadable client which is very similar to the Second Life client. I haven't yet tried to log in using the SL Client. There are some small differences, but if you are familiar with Second Life you come up to speed very quickly. Although one cannot help but see the similarities between Second Life and Open Life, there are three glaring differences.

First, the software still needs quite a bit of work. Many of the little glitches that seem to have been fixed in Second Life are still glitches in Open Life. The search does not work well. Your avatar will experience numerous agonies from ruthing to yoga. You will experience hard crashes. And simple things like joining groups or adding friends still seems to be in development.

Second, there do not seem to be nearly so many dedicated residents. When I first went to Second Life in the Fall of 2006, there was a fully developed world with much to see, much to do and much to buy. Open Life offers a few token freebies. Some additional freebies are available from a vendor who gave it a try and is letting the lease run out. But, finding places to go and items for your avatar is a challenge.

And third, their business model does not seem to be fully thought out as yet. My avatar did not have any money and it was unclear how I might get some. On the other hand there was not a great deal to buy. I am not sure what the business model is for Open Life, and it appears as thought they do not know either.

I am glad to see some competition for Second Life as it has always been my contention that they fail to exploit their potential. And yet, this competitor makes me appreciate what Linden Labs has done. They clearly have some good technical people under girding their abundant social people. If only they would get some business people in there.

I realize that it is early in the development and don't want to be too harsh too soon. But, I have to admit that for all my complaining about Second Life, I do appreciate it a bit more now that I have seen what a not ready for prime time version looks like.