Comments on: Decatur Looks to Go Virtual…Yes, Like "Second Life" Virtual

By: mistercrayfish

mistercrayfish — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 15:33:04 +0000

lumpintheroad – I’m quick to criticize this proposed project because, based on the fairly self-explanatory three-paragraph description above, this sounds (to me) like an unnecessary waste of tax money on an overblown, poorly-conceived, “gee whiz” technology. We already pay the highest per capita taxes of any city in the state of Georgia. My property taxes in Decatur are already so high that my wife and I have had serious discussions about whether we can afford to live her after we retire.

People have created lots of rich, interactive social communities on the web without three-dimensional virtual environments, and these all work just fine (this blog, Facebook, MySpace, online forums, etc.) The development of a realistic three-dimensional graphic “environment” therefore seems to me like an egregious waste of money.

My existing frustration with having to transfer so much money from my bank account to the City of Decatur, coupled with what sounds to me like an expensive, unnecessary “gimmick” in the City’s proposal, causes me to react very negatively, even when the only description I have of the project appears in the three paragraphs above.

I’m with Flaka on this one — any money already spent considering this nonsense is too much.

By: Decatur mulls Second Life-esque ‘virtual world’ | Fresh Loaf

Decatur mulls Second Life-esque ‘virtual world’ | Fresh Loaf — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 15:23:17 +0000

[...] tip of the viking helmet to both Decatur Metro and Brandon Sheats’ Twitter updates for this interesting bit of news. Game Politics and [...]

By: lumpintheroad

lumpintheroad — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 21:29:20 +0000

I’m with Steve. People freaked out over the supposed cost of the CSD “Save Our Schools” thing and now they’re getting all huffy over this, but neither endeavor strikes me as something that would be all that expensive or time-consuming, and both could be beneficial. Why so quick to criticize with so little information?

By: Flaka

Flaka — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 19:29:45 +0000

Personal opinion is that paying the committee to review the RFP is already overpaying for the concept, but OK, will wait and see!

By: Steve

Steve — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 19:14:07 +0000

It’s sort of hard to complain about the cost of something when you don’t know the cost of something. To all the folks here who made comments along those lines – why don’t you wait and see?