Not sure about this one... I'll let you click through to the Auction Bytes article and decide for yourselves.
That said... let me know what you think in the comments! What would happen if eBay were to pursue this?
Showing posts with label registered users. Show all posts
Showing posts with label registered users. Show all posts
Monday, February 19, 2007
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Second Life May Not Work On Your Shiny New Computer
This is interesting news. It sounds as though some Second Life users may have issues with Microsoft's new Vista operating system. I seem to recall that there was an event in Second Life for the Vista release... good thing they had it BEFORE the release rather than once the machines had shipped!
Now, given the complexity of any Microsoft OS, and what I assume to be the complexity of Second Life and its underpinnings it doesn't surprise me that there were some kinks to work out, but it sounds like the issues are a bit more severe than 'kinks.' In this case it seems to be issues with graphics drivers, which is pretty odd. As the blog linked below points out you'd think that some of Vista's beta testers would also have been Second Life users... unless Vista's beta program was tiny, or... unless Second Life's user base isn't quite as large as we're lead to believe.
You can read some more on the subject here on the weeseepeople blog as well as over at CNET.
Now, given the complexity of any Microsoft OS, and what I assume to be the complexity of Second Life and its underpinnings it doesn't surprise me that there were some kinks to work out, but it sounds like the issues are a bit more severe than 'kinks.' In this case it seems to be issues with graphics drivers, which is pretty odd. As the blog linked below points out you'd think that some of Vista's beta testers would also have been Second Life users... unless Vista's beta program was tiny, or... unless Second Life's user base isn't quite as large as we're lead to believe.
You can read some more on the subject here on the weeseepeople blog as well as over at CNET.
When You Think Virtual Worlds...
When you think virtual worlds who do you picture spending their time in them? Surprisingly Second Life doesn't map to the photo below.
Make of that what you will.
The rest of the report can be found here.
The average age of users is 32, and the median age of users is 36.
Median age is 36.
43% of users are female, 50% are female "by use."
Make of that what you will.
The rest of the report can be found here.
Saturday, October 28, 2006
Second Life Registrations, Searches, Visits Spike
Ah, the joys of word-of-mouth referrals and frequent press mentions.
Hitwise writes that:
On the surface this sounds pretty positive for the future prospects of SL, but the blog goes on to quote anectodal mention that there seem to be more business and newbies prospecting for business opportunities. If this is true, I wonder whether the added interest might not serve to upset the existing Second Life community.
The blog also mentions that the age of new users has moved upward in recent weeks. While this seems to agree with the statements in the previous paragraph I'd take it with a grain of salt as one of the benefits of these 'virtual worlds' is that users can be whoever they care to be. As there is no identify verification of registrants there is nothing to stop a 20-something user from declaring an age of 67 while registering... not to mention the older users who in the past may have pretended to be younger than they are (for innocent or not-so-innocent purposes)... a practice that may be changing as the media recognize and publicize the abuses carried out by some of these individuals in communities like Second Life and MySpace.
As mentioned in a previous post, I wouldn't get too hung up in registration numbers for a free community like this one. Curiosity and active participation are two very different things... with the second being the measure more interesting to me as a guage of the product's present and future prospects. Let me also slip in a quick note of concern around accounts potentially being created in this high growth period for later malicious purpose... there, I'll end my conspiracy talk now :)
Hitwise writes that:
last week the share of US Internet searches for 'second life' shot up 73% compared to the previous week (week ending 10/21/06 vs. week ending 10/14/06), and visits to the Second Life website more than doubled in the two weeks between the weeks ending 10/7/06 and 10/21/06.
On the surface this sounds pretty positive for the future prospects of SL, but the blog goes on to quote anectodal mention that there seem to be more business and newbies prospecting for business opportunities. If this is true, I wonder whether the added interest might not serve to upset the existing Second Life community.
The blog also mentions that the age of new users has moved upward in recent weeks. While this seems to agree with the statements in the previous paragraph I'd take it with a grain of salt as one of the benefits of these 'virtual worlds' is that users can be whoever they care to be. As there is no identify verification of registrants there is nothing to stop a 20-something user from declaring an age of 67 while registering... not to mention the older users who in the past may have pretended to be younger than they are (for innocent or not-so-innocent purposes)... a practice that may be changing as the media recognize and publicize the abuses carried out by some of these individuals in communities like Second Life and MySpace.
As mentioned in a previous post, I wouldn't get too hung up in registration numbers for a free community like this one. Curiosity and active participation are two very different things... with the second being the measure more interesting to me as a guage of the product's present and future prospects. Let me also slip in a quick note of concern around accounts potentially being created in this high growth period for later malicious purpose... there, I'll end my conspiracy talk now :)
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