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Is this where it’s going?

Jul 30th, 2006 by ShaunO

Some initial observations on Second Life

Second Life is a Internet connected 3D Virtual World. It is privately owned by Linden Lab. If you or I wish to participate (and have the computer hardware and broadband connection necessary to do so) we can sign up on a free, or subscription, basis, download the client software, and ‘jump in’.

This, unlike other Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs - gosh who thought that up!) - in which I have to say I have no experience in as I’m not really a ‘gamer’, is a virtual world build by the participants.

Let me say that again - built by the participants. If you want to go into Second Life, chuck a cube on the ground, colour it purple and poke a hole through the middle of it - you can. Extrapolate this out to virtual houses, cars, clothes and you start to get the idea.. After you have created it you then ‘own’ your ‘holy purple cube’ (sorry - couldn’t resist), or anything else you ‘build’ - this world has a ‘globally’ functioning Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) system built-in. This means you can ‘protect’ & ’sell’ your new creation too. The property rights system extends as far as ‘property’ too - virtual land - and if you don’t own the ‘land’ you have just plonked your latest cube creation on, it will, in all likelihood, get deleted by the owner you have just trespassed on….

Secondly, it has its own internal economy (based on Linden$). Now that wouldn’t be that interesting either - except that Linden$ are exchangeable for US$ and vice-versa (currently at a rate of about 300-1).

So, just taking the two factors I have highlighted, means you can create and sell stuff inside this world… and make enough Linden$ and you can redeem them for US$… starting to sound a little less like a game?

On a completely different level this is ‘interaction’ at the extreme end of what is currently technically available on the Internet. Browse through the Fitzwilliam Museum’s Online Catalogue or ‘fly’ around the virtual replica, or more likely, a completely ‘new’ extended virtual Museum? Then the educational folks dream up all sorts of activities which can be ’scripted as actions’ for the objects (puzzles, games, interactivity, group-work, imagination is the limit) within this virtual space, with virtual objects which are replicas of real ones, and we could be amazed, educated, entertained & intrigued..

The mind boggles.. this is a virtual world - much like that depicted in Tad William’s ‘OtherLand’ - without the virtual reality. Its technical possibilities are very interesting - and, of course, I haven’t even touched on various other possibly interesting subjects it might raise - like the financial or societal aspects..

So, Is this where the Internet is going?

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