In this interview for www.allthingsd.com Palmer Luckey and Nate Mitchell, the co-founders of virtual-reality gaming company Oculus VR, mention Second Life.
After discussing Google Glass, they continue;
Luckey: It’s about being inside the virtual world, not caring about the real one.
Mitchell: You could put your Glass on in the virtual space.
Luckey: We could do that! We could simulate Glass… It’s not that hard. You just have a tiny heads-up display floating there. A really tiny one.
Mitchell: I like it.“OK, Rift, take a picture. OK, Rift, record a video…”
Luckey: There’s actually Second Life mods like that. People sell heads-up displays that you can buy.
Mitchell: Really?
Luckey: And they put information in there like distance to waypoints and stuff.
Mitchell: Oh, that’s cool!
Luckey: Yeah, they overlay it on the screen when your character’s wearing it.I never really “got” Second Life. Minecraft, I can wrap my head around quickly. But Second Life…
Luckey: It’s very difficult to get into. There’s a steep learning curve. The last time I went into Second Life was to buy bitcoins from a crazy guy who was selling them below market value, but you had to go into Second Life to meet with him.
Mitchell: The underbelly of the Internet.
Luckey: They’re actually working on Oculus Rift support, though. The kind of people who make games like Second Life definitely see the potential for virtual reality — being able to step into your virtual life.
It is of course a shame that the interviewer does not get Second Life, that Palmer Luckey hasn’t used it since he bought some bitcoins and that Nate Mitchell calls it “The underbelly of the internet’.
It is great that they know that Linden Lab is working on Rift support.
But it seems that most of the participants in the interview still only know about the adult and weird side of Second Life.
And that is of course sad!
Second Life is all about creating worlds, virtual surroundings and immersion!
To me it seems even more suitable to the Oculus Rift then any shoot-em-up game out there.
What could be more fun then exploring a virtual location… exploring a virtual location you’ve created yourself!
Hereby I invite both Luckey Palmer and Nate Mitchell to give Second Life another try and join me for a special tour of 1920s Berlin, the city I build.
I hope this will make them realise the huge potential Second Life has, especially for the Oculus Rift.
Drax Files about me and 1920s Berlin, to give you a taste of what Second Life has to offer besides all the icky stuff the press always seems to be obsessed with;
Jo Yardley's Second Life 
Pingback: Oculus Rift and SL Client - Page 3 - SLUniverse Forums
I’ve decided that, simply because of the unprofessional and borderline idiotic behaviour or Mr. Luckey and Mr. Mitchell, Oculus Rift does not deserve my endorsement (not that I planned to buy one anyway – my RL obligations and distractions would easily force me to put it on the shelf forever). In fact, if the community of Second Life has any self-respect, they had better shun this product and this company, for the sheer and utter disrespect they show to the users of what could be the killer app for their hardware.
LikeLike
It would be nice if those at Oculus had more experience with and respect for SL. On the other hand, I have little experience with or respect for the first-person shooter games that they are more focused on, so maybe we are even.
What does that have to do with us using the same hardware? I have been waiting since 1994 for a headset like this to be inexpensive enough for people to buy and I don’t really care what games the hardware developers are most interested in. I have a feeling that most of the things their hardware will be used for will happen without their personal interest and that is fine. A piano maker also doesn’t need to have the same level of interest in classical and jazz music.
LikeLike
Fact is, they have every reason to be careful regarding how they talk about SL, because their headset causes motion sickness in FPS games, whereas in slower-paced, immersive worlds like SL this isn’t a problem.
LikeLike
I disagree.
They just think about SL as many other people do, maybe even most people do.
We just need to make them realise SL is more then what the media thinks it is.
It is up to us and LL to fix SL’s reputation.
We can’t blame others for thinking badly of it if they have not used it for ever and have seen the nonsense the media has written about it.
LikeLike
There’s no excuse for them; they’re supposed to be tech-savvy. Instead, they show all the ignorance we could expect from a /b/tard. If they choose to get “informed” by sensationalist media or from Encyclopedia Dramatica, that’s their problem.
LikeLike
Furthermore, let me play along with Mr. Mitchell – let me agree with him that indeed, Second Life is the underbelly of the internet, simply because his partner found someone to sell him Bitcoins in a transaction that could be considered as borderline black market. Mr. Luckey willingly sought to engage in this sort of dubious transaction. It takes two to tango – if Second Life is the underbelly of the internet because such traders can be found there (as they can be found everywhere on the internet, but let me entertain Mr. Mitchell’s irrational point), how exactly is Mr. Luckey, who willingly sought to engage in activities befitting the underbelly of the internet, above it? And how is Mr. Mitchell, who works with someone engaging in dubious financial transactions, above this underbelly of the internet?
If Second Life is the pot, the Luckey-Mitchell duo is the kettle.
LikeLike