There are many people that play Second Life, and this huge market is largely fuelled by the virtual economy system created by the makers of Second Life, so much so that people have made small personal fortunes out of selling, buying, and renting property on Second Life. This Second Life money is a big draw, and shows just how “real,” these virtual games have become.
Unbeknownst to many, Google recently, quietly launched their own version of Second Life, calling it Lively. Using their resources and know how, Lively appears to be quite playable at this stage, although it’s technically still a Beta, and there are some bugs that are quite annoying. Notwithstanding the bugs and slowness, Lively appears to have a lot more going for it in the future, rather than now.
The prospect of introducing a virtual economy is probably not lost on Google, and they could actually make this game into another ad platform for their advertising programs, assuming that Lively continues to be developed with vigor. However Google also has this habit of dropping many of its test projects, so it is anyone’s guess how Lively will turn out in the coming months. Lively is as of now, probably Google testing the waters in the virtual gaming world. Here’s a take on Lively.
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Tags: Games, People, Online, World Wide Web