I had tried Second Life while investigating things this month. I sort of bounced off, because getting started seemed like a big enough annoyance that I wouldn’t be able to onboard all my friends into it. It also had an overall vibe that felt offputting to me (the whole thing felt sort of scammy, in a way that felt designed to appeal to people who weren’t averse to scamminess?)
I didn’t know it had proximity chat, which might make it worth another look.
Doublechecking: Sansar is not available on Mac, correct?
Yes, Sansar is PC only, and there are no plans to change that.
BTW, I assume that by “proximity chat” you mean that when you speak, everyone within some distance around you can hear (or “speak” and “hear” for text chat). That is what SL and Sansar have, for both text and voice. They also have private text messaging, and I believe SL has some sort of voice conferencing (i.e. only the people in the conference hear the others), but I’ve never been in one of those.
I don’t know what the onboarding experience for Second Life is like these days. In the past there have been some quite large efforts by existing residents, not officially sponsored by Linden Lab, to assist new users, but I’m not in touch with that. If you can get past whatever it is like, there are serious philosophical discussion groups, book clubs, a great deal of art, music performances, wonderful landscapes to roam through, and more. There is also a lot of sexual stuff, although that’s mostly confined to its own continent.
Thanks!
I had tried Second Life while investigating things this month. I sort of bounced off, because getting started seemed like a big enough annoyance that I wouldn’t be able to onboard all my friends into it. It also had an overall vibe that felt offputting to me (the whole thing felt sort of scammy, in a way that felt designed to appeal to people who weren’t averse to scamminess?)
I didn’t know it had proximity chat, which might make it worth another look.
Doublechecking: Sansar is not available on Mac, correct?
Yes, Sansar is PC only, and there are no plans to change that.
BTW, I assume that by “proximity chat” you mean that when you speak, everyone within some distance around you can hear (or “speak” and “hear” for text chat). That is what SL and Sansar have, for both text and voice. They also have private text messaging, and I believe SL has some sort of voice conferencing (i.e. only the people in the conference hear the others), but I’ve never been in one of those.
I don’t know what the onboarding experience for Second Life is like these days. In the past there have been some quite large efforts by existing residents, not officially sponsored by Linden Lab, to assist new users, but I’m not in touch with that. If you can get past whatever it is like, there are serious philosophical discussion groups, book clubs, a great deal of art, music performances, wonderful landscapes to roam through, and more. There is also a lot of sexual stuff, although that’s mostly confined to its own continent.