Merc C Class launched into Second Life

Last Friday (16th) Mercedes launched their new 'C' Class car in RL and SL, and it seems to be something of a hit with the virtual petrolheads of SL. I popped along for a look earlier today, when there were about 20 such afficianados lining up to grab a car and zoom around the newly re-configured track, which now features a jump and a slalom to add a bit of zesty excitement to proceedings.

Given the hullabaloo, it is a surprise that the official blog has not been updated to reflect this. But I guess the RL version is a bit more important to Merc than its virtual sibling. Oddly, even the normally reliable SLNN has not got a piece on this.

I have to confess, as I'm not a petrolhead - and the lag was terrible, even with only 20 people on the sim - I did not go for a spin myself. However, I spoke with a friend who had given it a try, and he found it a difficult drive, mainly on account of the lag. Though from what I could see, it was quite responsive - and fast. No doubt like its RL counterpart.

If I were you - I'd wait until the numbers dropped a bit before giving it a whirl. But then, I'm not you :-)

UPDATE: Tonight (Tues. 20th) the island was quiet, so I took a test drive and found it lived up to my expectations - namely, the car was too twitchy to drive well. Maybe it's just me (I did see far bettter exponents of the art of driving in SL), but the experience wouldn't sell me on a Merc!

UPDATE 2: I was chatting with someone who'd spent some time with the SL car - and they were of the view that it was...if I have word correct... "awesome". It is a simple matter of getting used to the gears, apparently. Having watched a few spectacular laps, I would agree. That said, another friend who'd mastered the gearbox still thought it sucked. I guess you'll have to make your own mind up!

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In other news, I spotted a new island under construction (well, I've spotted a lot - but I thought I'd mention this one today) from a company called Maastrek Selection. Never heard of 'em? Neither had I. They are a promotions company specialising in promotional merchandising. You know the sort of thing I mean: mousemats, CDs, mugs, pens, clocks, cameras... the list is seemingly endless. I thought it interesting that they are coming to Second Life. In fact, now I know they exist, it seems like stating the bleedin' obvious. SL strikes me as an ideal location to widen their market (they are based in Germany) both in terms of promoting their RL products, but also (and I'm guessing wildly here) by introducing new lines of SL products for the many companies now in Second Life. As I have mentioned on innumerable occasions - SLers are, at heart, a bunch of freeloaders who like their freebies. This could be your one-stop-shop for all your virtual branded goods needs. I will be interested to see how this plays out.

(No piccies today)