I watched Life 2.0 on Netflix a couple of nights ago. I wouldn't say that it is a good movie, but it was quite interesting. The movie follows people who have completely given their lives over to the Second Life virtual reality website. Below, the movie trailer:
What is Second Life?
It is a virtual reality world built and inhabited by users. I do have a login and I've tried to get involved, but it didn't work for me. Too clunky and too slow to render. Perhaps the pairing of Oculus Rift goggles and the website will improve the experience. I simply did not find the Second Life experience a compelling full immersion 3D environment.
The users portrayed in Life 2.0 didn't share my view. A couple who met online destroyed their marriages to other people through their romantic dalliance in the virtual world. A young man engaged to be married lost himself in Second Life, ignored his fiancé and lost her as a result.
As I said, I wouldn't call this a great movie, but an interesting movie. The people portrayed in the movie... well, they're losers. They've retreated into the virtual world for a reason. And, they're spending 12 to 14 hours a day in front of their computers living in a fantasy world. They are boring whiners.
That's not very appealing.
The one positive and interesting Second Life user portrayed in the flick is a very heavyset black woman who makes her living by designing clothing, skins and shoes to be worn by user avatars. She claims to be making a six figure income with this business, although I don't know whether she's referring to six figures in dollars or in "Lindens" the currency unit of the virtual world.
She's beset by a thief who steals all her designs and sells them for much cheaper prices. One of the odder sub stories of the flick is her lawsuit against the infringer. It takes this woman a year to redesign and protect her intellectual property.
I might go back to Second Life and give it another try. I'd like to try out the Oculus Rift headset, but that would require a new computer since the headset doesn't work on my iMac platform. Dell is bundling a number of its computers with the Oculus headset with a total price of $1,500.
If I were still working in the multimedia biz, I'd focus my efforts on virtual reality, 3D printing and artificial intelligence. A lot of money to be made in these fields. And intellectual excitement, too.
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