SL Evolution

I'm Facebook friends with quite a few people I know from Second Life, and I have been amazed to discover that many of them never of seldom log in anymore.

I've asked why, and the reasons are pretty varied. Some grew bored with the virtual world, while others grew tired of the vast amount of in-world drama. Some have become disenchanted with Linden Lab while others dislike how commercial SL has become. But invariably, many of those who came to SL five or six years ago are no longer part of the community.

When I started thinking about why people leave SL, that was going to be the focus of this piece. But something else occurred to me... there seems to be a correlation between evolution in meatspace and that which has occurred in SL.

Dinosaurs were magnificent creatures, yet they no longer exist. They had to die out in order to make way for newer species, some of which were better and some of which were not.

The same could be said for SL, perhaps. People who were in SL in 2004 were used to creating content with the tools available. While many of them adapted very well to the new tools, many others just had no interest in doing so. The old crowd paved the way for newbies, then left to make room for them, yet another parallel between First Life and Second.