Lively First Impressions

Well, after months of waiting, wondering if it was a mere rumor....Google has finally launched their long-awaited "Second Life killer" - Lively. Perhaps my expectations were too great....maybe it will improve or morph into something more substantial in the future. At the moment I find it to be uninspiring and lacking in a number of major ways. To be fair, it is still in beta - and it obviously wasn't really ever intended to be a "Second Life killer" as the press proclaimed. In a nutshell, my biggest, most-immediate dislikes:

• Limited looks, wardrobes and objects in general (no user-created content) - to be fair, this will keep the place from becoming a gaudy hodge-podge of user-contributed crap like much of SL is, but it really takes a lot away from self-expression and the feeling of immersion, imho. As much as I hate fugly, amateurish builds in SL they do make me feel like there is a person behind it, an owner... so far Lively feels more like pre-packaged software, or maybe some small Flash-based game that you can burn 15 minutes on before getting bored. I just expected something much bigger, more grandiose from Google I guess.
• Cartoonish avatars - I don't think avatar sex is going to be a problem to keep at bay with these avatars.
• Not a "world"... just lots of rooms - when I first started SL, the thing I found captivating was exploring, and the feeling of being in a huge environment that was really inhabited (although most of the places I visited were empty in those days), and the possibility of stumbling upon some thing incredible or unexpected was always there. I don't get that feeling at all with Lively.
• Poor profile tools - since Lively really works best imho as a 3D chat application, then chatting with people is the main objective I would assume. But when I look at another user in Lively, I don't get much information at all, nothign to tell me who that person is (which is important since the ability to self-express via clothing/skin/shape is limited at best). Granted, a link to a Myspace page or another website could yield the most fabulous, creative profile information imaginable - but it is still nice to have a profile within the app itself. The more you depend on outside services/sites, the less cohesive the virtual world seems. I don't suppose this is a problem if 3D chat is really the ultimate goal however. I think integrating with external services is great, and if its done in a way that keeps the focus and mind in the 3D world, it can be a tremendous addition. Since this is Google - those who brought Ajax to the unwashed masses - I fully expect them to bring more things into the Lively world down the road via API's and web services, etc. Lots of potential value there if done right.

Ultimately, Lively really seems like a 3D chat application to me - not a virtual world. As a 3D chat app I think it is probably outstanding, and the ability to embed rooms in various third-party social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, etc. is sure to mean widespread adoption. In the end, however, I just can't imagine people developing the the kind of emotional attachment to Lively that occurs for SL - an attachment that, despite all its shortcomings (and they are many) keeps people logged in for hours on end investing insane amounts of time and effort cultivating a space for themselves in another world.

I created a room in Lively to try out the tools, and in the hopes that eventually I will find it more appealing: http://www.lively.com/dr?rid=-8735996158816019028