Nov 17, 2006
If People Could Fly What Would Buildings Look Like?
After wandering around the eerily quiet “Dell Island” on SecondLife it struck me that most of the buildings in SecondLife are built to mirror buildings in the real world, with stairs, and impenetrable walls, windows etc. But I can fly in SecondLife and walls and stairs are just annoying. I hate landing on the roof of a building only to have to jump off it, to go an find the frikin door. C’mon, it’s the future folks, lets start designing for the environment (no weather to protect folks from) and the users capabilities (we can fly and we don’t get cold). Maybe then we can get on with some real innovative features and environments.
As for Dell Island, it was deserted and pretty uninteresting.
5 Comments, Comment or Ping
Nobody Fugazi
I tend to agree on both points. But what do I know?
Nov 18th, 2006
catia
It’s an interesting starting point.If we can fly, we don’t need stairs and lift for example, but what’s about walls? Walls are usually imagined like a protection. Are we ready to live without protection?
Nov 20th, 2006
Nobody Fugazi
Catia - that’s a brilliant thought right there. ‘Are we ready to live without protection’. Hmm…
Nov 20th, 2006
Giff Constable
in my opinion, all buildings should have phantom windows you can fly through and roof access. However, some people really do like to plant their avatar on the ground — they feel too unstable in the air zooming around. We did build a flying-centric sim for Text 100 and it is interesting to see how some people really get into it, and some have a great deal of trouble, falling off and having to fly back up. There is an optimal middle ground there, as usual.
I agree with Catia — architecture is more than practicalities and aesthetics, it is an emotional comfort zone as well.
Nov 20th, 2006
karl long
I agree that emotional comfort is important, and i’m all for psudo walls/windows etc. but I think that the designs are trying too hard to replicate the real world, they are taking the real world metaphor too far, and not trying hard enough to design for the actual context of use.
I know it’s going to take time, it seems that every new technology goes through a phase of replicating the use of a previous technology. TV shows were initially just radio plays televised. Web sites used to slavishly try and replicate magazines, catalogs, and computer interfaces often tried to look too much like office desks.
Great conversation, i’m sorry I took so long to respond.
BTW is there a link to the text 100 sim?
Thanks,
karl
Nov 22nd, 2006
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