Second life
I am assuming that most people have heard of second life the virtual world. Does anyone know how something like this is created and how much such a system could cost? What sort of people would i contact to build such as system?
Any help or ideas are appreciated.
Abhishek Reddy posted this at 14:09 — 30th December 2007.
He has: 3,348 posts
Joined: Jul 2001
It's essentially a MMORPG with a fancier world. The architecture must be something like a network of servers and a client application. The servers maintain the state of the world and the client renders it for the player. They'll communicate using some efficient, low latency protocol.
It will cost you surprisingly little to build just working software for the client and server. It will be significantly harder and costlier to make it practicable and polished. And it will be yet another order of magnitude harder and costlier to raise a community of users and maintain a network.
You would contact developers to build the software, artists to create the visuals, and network suppliers to host the infrastructure. Most importantly though, you would have to market it to users and grow the game and community incrementally.
I'm not sure that's terribly helpful information. Ultimately, it's a big and difficult affair.
JeevesBond posted this at 21:42 — 30th December 2007.
He has: 3,956 posts
Joined: Jun 2002
Good proof of this is that the Second Life client software is available under an open source license. You are able to download and study how the software works, I believe the makers are also toying with the idea of releasing the server software too.
The hardest part is not writing the software, it's finding people to use it and building the infrastructure to support them. The makers of Second Life are aware of this, which is why they're not worried about releasing the code.
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caffinephil posted this at 10:18 — 15th February 2008.
They have: 99 posts
Joined: Feb 2008
I have heard of second life, has anyone ever played?
JeevesBond posted this at 13:02 — 15th February 2008.
He has: 3,956 posts
Joined: Jun 2002
I had a look, just out of interest, not really my cup of tea. Think you can sign up and explore the world for free, there are some interesting aspects to it: like being able to make and sell your own scripted objects. Or you can just hang around and talk to people, fly about the place.
What turned me off is: why spend lots of time trying to be sucessful and getting somewhere in a virtual world. Personally the real world is challenge enough for me.
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greg posted this at 19:59 — 16th February 2008.
He has: 1,581 posts
Joined: Nov 2005
And is the exact reason why I never played The Sims. I enjoy playing my Xbox from time to time as a break, but only racing simulators or shoot-em-ups as they are nothing more than an hour of fun for a break.
Anything that draws you in to allow you to effectively "live a life" that becomes important to you is dangerous in my opinion.
For many people it wont be serious, just a bit of fun and they go about "real" life as they should. But having watched a documentary on how one person lived there whole life in there, met someone and it split up their marriage, the woman didn't even end up happily ever after with the man she met on the game.
Along what JeevesB said, real life is not only challenging enough, but there are "real" rewards when you accomplish something, not a virtual trophy that means noithing when you turn off your PC. And that is why it can be too serious for many people, they don't turn off their PC from the game because it has not become their "second life" but their primary life.
As for making this sort of thing yourself, it's not realistically something you will do without a team of people. Thre is not enough hours in the day for it to be accomplished by one person. Starting could be relatively easy and low cost, but if it does become popular, you will need a large network of servers internationally and that is highly expert dealings.
But by no means impossible if it's what you want as a project. And could certainly be a fun and involving project to do.
demonhale posted this at 05:26 — 16th February 2008.
He has: 3,278 posts
Joined: May 2005
I have to agree with Liam 100% on the last paragraph...
web-creation posted this at 05:04 — 18th April 2008.
They have: 12 posts
Joined: Apr 2008
The only knowledge of Second Life I have is from THE OFFICE.
"My first life was so good, I naturally wanted a second one." - Dwight K. Shrute.
(quote and middle initial could be wrong)
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