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It Second Life F2P or Monthly fee?
MMOExposed
Member RarePosts: 7,387
in Second Life
I am confused by the info on MMORPG. and a friend of mine say you have to pay to pay. so which is it?
I want something free to do. Even if its a sandbox chat room game.
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
Comments
First of all it's not a game. It's primary intention was to be virtual meeting software for businessmen but the ability to create and sell your own items, clothing, and areas has made it a RPer's paradise.
Second of all, anybody can log into it free with a very basic (ugly) avatar and you can go anywhere and see everything that way, but if you want to look good, you have to buy Linden Dollars with Real Money so you can buy clothing, hair, and an animation replacer. There is a pretty large selection of free items out there and if you look hard enough, you can find everything you need for free and customize your avatar into something that looks pretty cool from there. Or you might even try your hand at making your own items and clothing through the toolsets although it takes years to learn the 3D modeling and scripting necessary.
The only combat in this game is through a very buggy but ingeniously scripted combat system (made by players) that you can buy and only works on other people using the same system in the zone that they were designed to work in.
Otherwise, this is nothing but virtual meeting software. It's not even an RPG.
free to login and walk/fly/run around but you start with $0 so you either have to sub, buy lindens, or spend a month camping or doing boring work provided you can find someone nice enough to give you a decent job that doesn't require you to do something perverted... and if you want land, a house, etc. you have to sub.
What everyone else said, You can also hit one of the many sandboxes in there and build stuff and play around. Once you devised something that somebody might be willing to pay for you can find many ways to sell it, like renting vendor space, etc.
I had my own store selling furniture, buildings, and other items that made pretty good lindens. Wasn't famous or anything but it paid for anything i wanted to get. I also used Gimp (PS for those that don't mind stealing, or crazy enough to buy it) to design clothing and sold those as well.
Archlinux ftw
Hey I have the free basic account. I tried to explore. the game worlds all seem empty. 3 people at most. whats going on? and how do I build stuff?
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
I don't think you quite get the concept of this at all. This is not a sandbox game, this is not an MMORPG, this isn't even a game at all, this is virtual chat software with moddable avatars and surroundings. It takes experience in 3D modeling and scripting to make anything at all and is not suitable for beginners in the very least.
The false notion that this is some sort of MMO game is the only reason why it's on this site.
It is truthfully, literally 3D chat software.
It's by far the largest game world out there. I'd say it's about 10 largers than every WoW Server combined. (As far as space goes)
Finding people can be tricky and is something you kinda gotta learn. Start looking into groups that are into things that you like. I know there was one place named Club Zero that was a heavy metal dance hall if you're just looking for chatting. There are also many different RP Sims out there that are pretty good.
http://world.secondlife.com/place/ba3f446e-2156-ef79-fa74-e4dcf25febdf
^ Club Zero
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Lost%20Angels/151/85/53
^ City of Lost Angels (RP Sim)
There are LOTS of people in Second Life. You just have to know where to look. It's a little rough on new players at the beginning and Linden Lab has tried to fix it, but it's never really worked.
Got a Game Idea? Look Here!
THIS!!!
as i hobby i do 3D modeling and basic scripting, i learned the basics with second life.
it is not a game, its a virtual platform where you can do pretty much anything you want
it can be a tool for businessmen to meet and show concepts example to show a model of a new building to investors in Japan for less than the cost of a round trip plane ride, hotels food etc
it can be a tool to learn how to model and the basics of bodeling (like i did) for free
it can be a tool to learn basic scripting, some people have programed (sims, worlds) and made it into a small MMORPG. but the comunity is small i would say 25-50 would be populated sim (world) and there are many many, some are total crap, others i wonder why they have not made it AAA beating the current mmog
it can be a business place, where you create 3D apparel for avaras and sell it. you create. (look up second life modeling in youtube you will understand) you can create houses, buildings, pretty much anything... im serious, don't be surprized if you see giant PENIS flying around you.
you can start a business in real estate, buy server worlds and rent parcels to regular users who just want a place to hang out with their friends and socialize
you can hang and socilalize with your friends, get 5-10 friends to download SL, pool some money buy a house/apartment/building/castles (from SL stores) buy decorations (or make them yourself) and rent a small parcel where you can meet every night and chat like you would in skype or any IMs
but what second life at its base IS NOT A GAME
I found the client to be quite clunky . I've a reasonable PC that can handle the likes of Age of Conan on medium to high setting but with second in some areas all I got was grey blocks that a friend whos been playing it for years saif was lag . I quite like the idea but graphically I found it to be quite horrible .
The game renders differently from your typical video game.
Every sim is its own server and they each load as you go to them, so its like visiting a website. Has to laod all the information and images. Takes some time sometimes. And definitely depends on the graphics you set in the game's Preferences.
Do you have to pay any money? Nope.
I actually earn about $100 a month off of what I make and sell inside Second Life, so the game pays me to play it now.
well that would depend on whats on the sim,
if you have a building with each brick being a prim (block) will lag more than 1 giant block with a brick texture
if you have a very badly written script (not optimized) then it will lagg more than a script written by a professional programmer.
the graphics are the snot that bad, you can mod the skin of your avatar and face and shape, the higher the quality of the texture the more realistic your avatar will look same thing for clothes and hair. (these skins are most of the time expensive, and with good reason)