Scoble points to a new virtual world that is yet to launch “Outback Online“. The main developer is apparently in Texas, with the rest of the team residing in Australia. From Scoble’s account, they’ll kick Second Life’s you know what with better graphics and the ability to host up to 10,000 people in a single space/ server. As an Australian I’m naturally inclined to say lots of good things about the project, particularly a start up with a strong Australian presence. But there is just one, very small problem. The Outback sucks.
This isn’t the fault exclusively of the developers. The romanticism in relation to the Outback goes back many, many years, to the writings of Banjo Paterson and Henry Lawson, and the poetry of Dorothea Mackellar (I love a Sunburnt Country). But the developers are stating that their graphics and capacity will be far greater then that of Second Life. Let me share a secret with anyone who has never visited the interior of Australia, which is the real reason why “Outback Australia” can and will be far superior to Second Life.
The outback consists of red dirt and scrub…did I mention red dirt already? According to Wikipedia, red dirt is iron-rich soil, which the “outback” shares with Hawaii, Africa and Afghanistan. Short version: there is hardly anything to render, so of course Outback Online will work a whole lot better. Compare and contrast the extremely rich environment of Second Life to red dirt and scrub. There is no comparison.
Unlike many Australians, I’ve actually visited the outback…once. I hail from Sydney, literally the US equivalent of New York. Like 90% of all Australians I lived on the coast, and as much as I’ve traveled the East Coast extensively, those trips never managed to get further inland than Armidale, Dubbo and the Hume Highway to Melbourne. Not long after I first moved to Western Australia, to live with my very shortly there after wife, she who must be obeyed took us on a trip to stay with friends who owned a “sheep station” outside of Mount Magnet. Being from the East Coast I naturally took “sheep station” to mean rolling green hills and sheep grazing on them. What I found out, after a roughly 5 hour trip from Perth that at the speed limit should have taken 7 hours, was that “sheep station” meant 1 million square kms (386,000 sq miles) of red dirt, scrub and a few thousand sheep, that to feed involved mustering (moving) 50 km’s (31 miles) in a different direction every second day through red dirt and scrub. And that was the extent of the adventure. As far as the eye could see: red dirt and scrub. This is the Australian outback, land that stretches nearly as far as the entirety of the United States that consists of red dirt, and scrub…but mostly red dirt.
The red dirt itself is difficult to describe. It’s not like normal dirt. Red dirt clings to you. It gets in everything and is hard to wash off…and it’s everywhere….but I probably said that already :-)
Outback Online is going to represent the outback…which consists of red dirt and scrub. Let’s hope they get a decent user base, because the scenery won’t excite :-)
Tags: Outback Online
Originally posted on February 20, 2007 @ 1:26 am
Most folks around the world think the “Outback” is this awesome, tough country kind of place – a “must see”.
Balony! As a city boy myself, I’ve spent some time in the “Outback” and trust me … there’s not much to write home about: endless dirt, dry, hot and … ’tis about it. It’s a wasteland of (red) dirt that goes on and on and on…
I’ll stick to the East Coast any day as the far majority of us Aussies do.
Sorry to spoil the “outback” dream, folks. :-)
Martin
you and I agree. Outback=red dirt :-) People who dream differently have NEVER been there :-)
Not all of the outback is red dirt and scrub. Some of it is brown dirt and scrub. A very small bit of it doesn’t have any scrub either. But yes, I agree with your point.
I’m really looking forward to the stories of all the virtual tourists lost in the virtual outback with a compact hire car and a small bottle of water. You forgot to mention the wonderful wildlife of the outback. I would be disappointed if virtual users didn’t frequently drop dead from spider and snake bite or get attacked by crocodiles when they go swimming.
That reminds me that Survivor – Outback was the lamest series so far as contestants complained about the heat, the flies, the lack of food, the flies, the mossies and the flies.
You could include “the bush” which is rocks and trees and shrubs and the tropical rain forests of North QLD and the old growth forests of Tasmania. It’s not all red dirt!
I think it’s perfectly appropriate that the main developer of this project is from Texas.
With all due respect to my Aussie friends, who as a group, I hold in high esteem–the Outback ain’t got nothin’ on West Texas for sheer emptiness and desolation, except that there’s more of it.
If Outback Online is populated by plenty of Aussies, I’m sure their outsized, colorful personalities will more than compensate for the lack of content in the environment.
And there’s got to be an Australian Beach Online subculture to accommodate all those surfers.;-)
Sorry Vince,
The outback is the size of Western Europe, Texas is about the size of Spain isn’t it?
I think you misunderstood me, Duncan, I was acknowledging that they are similar, but that there is more of the Outback.
I do know my geography, unlike so many of my countrymen, including our president, who is not a true Texan, by the way.;-)
You Aussies really get around. I travel a good bit around the world, and wherever I go, I’m sure to meet an Aussie. It’s always a pleasure.
lol – interesting how everyone assumes that outback online is going to be set in the outback or be about outback as a single territory..