Kami Harbinger

So yes, there's a lot of hype about Second Life these days. Ooh, Ben Folds, ooh, Reuters, ooh, Nissan, whatever. Taken individually, these events aren't that significant. There are concerts in SL all the time, and Suzanne Vega is certainly more important than Ben Folds.

There are in-world news agencies already: New World Notes, the Second Life Herald, , and In the Grid.

The Dominus Shadow and the Cubey Terra Ornithopter 2 are more interesting than a Nissan Sentra.

So, yes, there's a lot of hype. Yes, there's a lot of newbies who don't know what they're doing. Yes, there are a ton of marketers looking for new ways to reach your eyeballs...

But what is interesting is the awareness this brings to Second Life. There's new people who will be enthusiastic Residents, who will create fascinating new things. There's more money for Linden Labs, so they can scale up.

Some people find hype deeply offensive, and I feel sorry for them, but they need to get over their disorder. Hype is vital at the start of a new thing. Hype was good for the Web. It's shining a light on SL, and bringing more energy to the world. Don't attack the hype. The hype brings good things to the world.

So last night I felt sociable, and went out to the Ahern Welcome Area to see if I could help out some newbies... Of course the constant refrain is, "What is there to do? Where should I go? Is it true I can trade Linden $ for US $? How do I get Linden $ without buying them?"

This is something Linden Labs needs to address, immediately if not yesterday, with the exponentially growing population. MORE ORIENTATION. I'm going to be talking about this some more in the days and weeks to come, and there are things Residents can do even without LL's help, but LL's obviously in the best position to be working on it.

I gave a few newbies some advice and some landmarks to interesting stuff, and told them how to find the stuff that's already in their inventory, but I left feeling a little less than superhuman, because there just isn't a really solid answer for them. I know what I do: I make stuff (sometimes for sale, sometimes just as architecture for my land), I explore the world and sightsee the things other people have made, I shop, and I hang around and chat. But that's my answer. Like "The World" of .HACK//SIGN, everyone has to come up with their own reason and way to play.

I went to see if the Free State Project group was up to anything interesting, and coincidentally the subject under discussion was jobs for the newbies. One suggestion was high-speed pizza delivery, which is certainly very Snow Crash, but doesn't make a lot of sense in SL terms; Why would anyone order a pizza? What does high-speed delivery mean in a world with point-to-point teleportation?

Cubey Terra has an airtaxi, which you could use to take fares around the grid. While teleportation and the elimination of the telehubs makes this pointless as a practical means of transportation, it's a good sightseeing method. But the tour guide needs to know a fair amount about the world, and vehicles are always trouble.

I think I have an idea that'd work: Door-to-door salesmen, hot dog carts, and cigarette girls. You attach the sample case, cart, or cigarette tray (for advertising that you offer this service), then go find customers. Now you're forced to socialize with people, explain your service, and run a line of patter. You need to wander around the grid, learning what SL has to offer. The actual service is simply delivering a product from your case, or customizing a hot dog and having it pop out of the cart, or putting a cigarette in the customer's mouth, curling around the customer and lighting it... The customer's really paying more for the patter or flirtation than for the product. No real experience is needed for any newbie to run this business, and unless the market becomes completely saturated, it's certain to be more profitable than camping chairs, and far less pathetic.

I'm too busy right now (too much work in FL, too little time in SL for the things I want to accomplish) to start one of these up myself, so I'm offering this up as an opportunity for someone who wants to help themselves and help the newbies. Message me in-world if you're interested and want to talk about it.