(hoax) easyGroup will pay residents and be “easier” virtual world Q2 2007

Update 1/29/2007 7:37am PST: I guess the joke is on me as this is a phony story. Warning to VTOR authors and readers, doublecheck anything written by Rik Riel at rikomatic.com. You’ll find the link to the real story in the comments entry. My apologies for making this post appear as real news. My comments still stand, however, if somebody is actually, seriously thinking of making an easier version of Second Life — don’t bother.

A good domain, easy.com, run by the easyGroup, announced at the World Economic conference (AKA Davos) that they will be launching a virtual world in the second quarter 2007. How will they compete with sites like Second Life which are already ‘free’ prompted the following response from Stelios Haji-Ioannou, CEO of the easyGroup:

“Each resident gets a weekly allowance of easyEuros, virtual currency that can be used both to purchase goods in-world but also to pay for real products offered by easyGroup in the real world. So you could get an easyPizza, rent an easyCar, fly on easyJet or sail away on an easyCruise, all paid with easyEuros,” said Haji-Ioannou with a satisfied smirk.

According to the same article, Hank Hoodoo termed virtual world as easyLife, but not sure if that’s what the actual name will be. easyLife doesn’t sound very virtual to me, but since they put the word ‘easy’ in front of everything they do this would fit.

The idea of having a simpler virtual world might appeal to some, but there are some advanced builders and scripters in SL that I don’t see jumping to something simpler. These folks want more advanced tools. Then again, easier doesn’t necessarily indicate less advanced. Although two of the changes mentioned in Rikomatic’s article is the use of only two prims instead of eight and not allowing all types of streaming. I don’t see either of these as improvements over Second Life.

And the easy.com site, pictured above, looks a bit too orange to me. If they keep the same color scheme, maybe they will call it orangeLife? Instead of the Lindens, maybe easy residents will defer to the almighty Oranges?