1. I think, presently, SL is mostly Chat + 3D. It's unquestionable that the 3D adds to the chat experience. What is debatable (and very dependent on the people involved) is if it add enough to be compelling.
I've blogged about integration potential between Second Life and my company's instant messaging product. Those who get a lot out of the 3D would say this misses the point and is a waste of time. But, for me, there are times when I want an immersive interactive experience with someone, and other times that I just want a quick answer to a simple question. I have a range of ways I communicate with people; face-to-face, telephone, e-mail and instant message. I just want to slide Second Life in with the rest as another choice amongst the others that I select at the appropriate time.
JC

Posted at 2:27PM on Jul 11th 2007 by Jaymin Carthage

2. On a quick look yes someone can say that. But how many people log on to SL without any communication to anyone or even try to? I do it all the time. SL can be a 3D modeling program. I've known many who also like SL because they can explore. Many like because of the shopping experience, some have compared it to like virtual Barbie doll. There are many aspects I'm not covering that don't relate to a chatroom. The closest I think you can call it is 3D Internet. This is because the internet is so many thing to everyone and changing.

Posted at 3:09PM on Jul 11th 2007 by Toneless Tomba

3. It's certainly much more than 3D Chat simply because you cannot express creativity with chat (2D or 3D) in any other way than perhaps artistic writing, whereas in SL that expression of creativity is everywhere.

Posted at 3:11PM on Jul 11th 2007 by Ceeq Laborde

4. Second Life is a 3D world that has absolutely huge potential in a number of areas like business, education, communication, and social.

But!

Because of all the problems with SL, yes, it has been crippled to being well worthy of being called "just a 3D chatroom"

Posted at 3:35PM on Jul 11th 2007 by neural

5. Sl is what you make of it, if all you do is come into SL, buy clothes and chat to friends, then yeh your using it as a glorified IRC.
I think the FAST majority will be like this unless they have the inspiration to go further, find a community, or build a community to be part of and generate engaging experiences to do in SL.
i dont just chat in SL, i hold expeditions via boat across dangerous sims where me and my goonies discover places we've never been before either dieing in a border crash or returning to home to post pictures of the fun on our cork board. I take part in go kart races to win gold Cups. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=jdoLhMu4UHA
I and my friends do more than just chat, we have adventures and we all see and hear the same things. We mention stuff that happend month ago and laugh at what we did. We have memories of events taking place that will last as long as any RW memory.

I dont think half the people in SL really use it to its full potential and get board, and grief and look for things to send AR's about.....

Posted at 3:39PM on Jul 11th 2007 by Loki Eliot

6. considering the creative means and capabilities to change the surroundings as one see fit, and considering the little I know about mu* worlds, I would say SL is like an hyper-mu*, people can build, program, chat, interact, play games, solve puzzles, see sights, wander around, go to all sorts of different environments etc, way more than a chatroom (and talking about that, group IMs have been borked every so often (way more often than desired of course) that unless you're "physicly" next to people, or IMing them individually, the chat aspect is probably one of the most borked things I notice

Posted at 7:44PM on Jul 11th 2007 by TigroSpottystripes Katsu

7. I agree that SL is more than just chat + 3D. I even said so in the original article. I'm not sure if I'd still be here (a few hours shy of my 3rd rezday) if SL was purely chat + 3D, the creative stuff, the shopping etc. adds so much to it for me. The opportunity, hard though it is, to make a RL living in SL certainly adds to the attraction for some.

But, if SL closed tomorrow and I had to go back to just "old chat" I wonder how many people I'd stay in touch with. There are a few special ones, but I have a feeling the numbers would be countable on the fingers, maybe the fingers of one hand. The 3D element of SL adds that much for me.

Posted at 7:03PM on Jul 13th 2007 by Eloise Pasteur

8. I find that '3D chat' is just a mindless way of describing what's really a hard-to-describe sort of 3D -everything- (to the extent of what LL's servers can currently handle, and what people are willing to adopt it for). Even calling SL a '3D chat with user-created architecture' seems worse than calling the World Wide Web a '2D chat with user-created newspapers'. Which come to think of it, becomes a more complicated analogy than I should try to elaborate on right now.

Anyhow, even 3D chat alone introduces various social elements that you don't get in other online environments. The other people don't leave a flat picture of themselves just sitting there; they stand (or sit) there before you, perhaps looking about or pacing about or even editing something. They can give you eye contact, or stare at another person, or back slowly away. Many visual cues can be swiftly given and taken as to who is trying to form a conversation with whom, as engaged people look at each other and group together. And of course, you can also quickly plop down in front of the whole crowd a 3D representation of any imaginable thing you'd like to discuss, helping to keep that audience engaged. Then when you have to leave, you can walk to the door and step slowly out of the room, unlike somewhat more abrupt, less natural departures from the old chat "rooms".

Yes SL is 3D chat, which is a great thing, but it is also more. How -much- more will be determined by how much we put into it.

Posted at 1:27PM on Jul 14th 2007 by Al Sonic

9. This issue came up with MOOs so very long ago, and probably never will. If all you do is chat, then that's all that it is. If you don't write/execute socially emotional scripts. If you don't build. If you don't have more complex social interactions, it is just 3-D chat. Shakti Burks and I play music using hyperflutes. He's now mixing some of his SL work to go on his next album IRL, as well as using it as background music for some video he's producing for me on educational research into parenting family groups (something completely un-related to digital technology). We know that walking in VR stimulates the part of the brain that relates to walking, valuable for people with mobility issues.

It is what we do with a technology and what the technology allows or enables us to do. And if all you can do or want to do is chat... then even as a 3D chat is has a lot of advantages over the IRC-MSN continuum (though I

Posted at 9:21AM on Aug 1st 2007 by ct niven