Reuters pulls out of Second Life |
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BY Antonio Hernandez November 30th, 2008 |
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Fun fact: Reuters had an embedded reporter within the virtual world, Second Life.
New fact: Reuters reporter thinks Second Life is boring as all hell.
Now, you would think that it didn’t take a month to figure that out, but apparently it took the reporter that long to have it dawn on him. And now he is speaking out about his experiences. In a article for Silicon Alley Insider, Eric Krangel, one of the on-the-spot reporters, talked of his experience as part of the virtual press. That experience is apparently extremely tedious and horrible. Who would have thought?
“As part of walking my ‘beat’, I’d get invited by sources to virtual nightclubs, where I’d right-click the dancefloor to send my avatar gyrating as I sat at home at my computer. It was about as fun as watching paint dry,” Krangel writes in his article. Sounds like a jolly good time if you ask me. So could Reuters pull out be a bad sign for Second Life? In a statement released to The Register, Reuters pledged to continue their coverage, but it would be filed under their normal technology news. Krangel also gives a few tips to the creators of Second Life, you know, so they can fix that whole “fun as watching paint dry” thing.
November 30th, 2008
at 7:42 pm
I hate to point out the obvious - again - but what we see here is ONE person’s experience of Second Life being treated as if it were the Voice of God. Furthermore, Krangel’ “suggestions” have been made before by many Second Life residents and, yet again, are HIS ideas. The Reuters’ “pull-out” is partly due to the obvious fact that Krangel - who was the only Reuters person covering the beat - has actually changed job and now works for Silicon Alley insider, and that if you look at the paucity of coverage that he has produced for Reuters Second Life, it is hardly surprising they have decided not to re-appoint. That’s a reflection of return-on-investment, not an indicator of the death of Second Life.
News of Reuters pulling out seems to have caught media attention, but that’s because Reuters has a much larger platform than other news organizations. The Second Life Herald celebrated its fifth anniversary last month yet THAT piece of news never made the mass media. Why? Because it is focused on SL and virtual worlds so doesn’t have the “pull” of a Reuters. Nevertheless, it continues to provide comments and observations on items of interest to Second Life residents. The “SL Enquirer” is four years old and the “SL-Newspaper” has been publishing since 2005. None of these long-lasting publications have been touted as successful - we simply hear about Reuters, as if Reuters ALONE was the SL Press.