Second Life players wanted...

[Santaduck]

With all the recent forum posts about the MMORPG WoW, it got me thinking about the other massively multiplayer options out there.

Second Life is now apparently gold or shipped for OS X. I'm looking for some players who know this game well and play on a Mac to tell us (me) about it...

there's a free trial, but it involves signing up for a month, then cancelling before the 7 days are up.

[dotnina]

I've played it. I have to admit, I didn't really "get" it. You should probably check out some kind of book or site to learn about the controls, maps, and general idea behind the game. I didn't do a whole lot of this, and I probably should have.

Basic idea: you're a person, and you go around meeting other people. It's kinda like The Sims Online, but without all the household chores. The people have some special powers -- for instance, you can fly. It's very fantasy-like.

The graphics are very good. I didn't do much while I played, just flew around an island. I ended up somewhere where some people were doing tricks -- juggling and the like. I ended up at a vehicle dealership where you could buy a motorcycle, dirt bike, boat, or other things. I'm sure it's a great game -- the graphics definetely rock -- but I didn't find it easy to pick up the way some games are (ie, The Sims Online). I played the beta version; hopefully they've improved usability since then.

[applekid]

I've heard it gets ridiculously choppy. As in 10 FPS, but I heard that from a guy on an eMac. However, I remember hearing someone on a Dual 1 GHz G4 (don't remember what graphics card) getting not much better.

[Converted2Truth]

I sure wish that someone could say that their Mac ran a new game fine. But it seems impossible. Even people who drop 4k on a new powermac are having issues with new games... that's just wrong. It hurts, and i feel the pain.

[broken_keyboard]

I played this about 6 months ago. I just went in and looked around for a few hours. I think the only good thing about it is the opportunity to build buildings and structures that you couldn't do in real life (because of no financing or something). I remember I looked through someone's art gallery - didn't know if I was trespassing or not. Apparently you retain copyright on any intellectual property you create in there. Also, you can make objects with behaviour by using a little scripting language they have devised.

[Santaduck]

Thanks everybody... would any of you be interested in submitting a piece to appear as a game review article? It would appear at Macologist. Either a 'mini review' or a longer one. The topics covered in the review are largely up to you (in other words don't just average a 1-10 score for a dozen parameters) and can be informal, just as long as the reader ends up with some clue about what they would get from Second Life.

[applekid]

Ask around the IMG forums. There's where I learned of the low FPSes in the early versions.