Time Ranks Second Life as Worst Website

Time magazine mentions Second Life as one of the worst of the web.

In a list of the top “Five Worst Websites,” Time magazine has placed virtual world Second Life among other internet plagues, including MySpace, Meez, Evite and eHarmony. The story cites many of the criteria critics have used against the site in the past, such as clunky controls and the mass marketers trying to stake some sort of digital claim to a small customer base.

The Time excerpt reads:

We’re sure that somebody out there is enjoying Second Life, but why? Visually, this vast virtual world can be quite impressive, but it’s notoriously slow to load (it runs on free software you have to download) and difficult to navigate, even with a broadband connection. You interact in the space through an avatar, but creating and personalizing this animated representation of yourself is tedious. Movements feel clunky and there can be a terrible lag. As on many sites, there’s a learning curve for novices, but Second Life’s is simply too steep. And there are crazy people around every corner – disruptive types that spread graffiti and get in your way and throw you off your groove. Fans praise Second Life as a virtual hangout where you can meet and chat and buy sneakers and real estate (that’s fake stuff for real money) and dance and go bowling and have sex – suggesting that “virtual humans” doing “human things” online in Second Life is somehow less pathetic than, say, cooking Kaldorei spider kabobs or making magic pantaloons in World of Warcraft. The corporate world’s embrace of the place as a venue for staff meetings and training sessions does seem to lend Second Life a layer of legitimacy. But maybe it’s a case of some CEOs trying too hard to be hip.