Second Life is all about being immersed and feeling that you are inside that virtual world instead ofobserving it from the outside. One major drawback so far was that the only way of communication was to chat. Wouldn’t it be nice to combine Skype’s power of natural talking with Second Life’s strength of visualization? Well, that day seems to have come: Second Talk offers free virtual headsets that Second Lifers can pick up from various locations. Since yesterday, I am the proud owner of such a futuristic device. Now I need to wait for some friends to hook up in order to try it out. I am very curious…
Interestingly, Second Talk’s invention seems to directly challenge Linden Lab’s business model, as the latter version comes with many more constraints. From the Second Talk website:
1. Linden Labs’ integrated voice won’t work everywhere. Second Life landowners determine whether or not voice is enabled on their property, so it’ll be entirely possible to cross from one region where voice works to another where it does not.
2. Linden Labs’ system isn’t free. Second Life landowners must upgrade to the current $295/month land tier in order to use Linden Labs’ system on their regions. Although this is a small investment, we understand that a lot of landowners won’t want to make it.
3. We’ve been asked to continue support. Even in light of Linden Labs’ announcement, many Second Talk users have asked us to continue support for Second Talk. Many people want a system that simply facilitates connection to an impartial third-party voice system, rather than routing through a captive system.
Let’s see how this dynamic will play out!
Making CommunitySense 