Is this a game? or.. if it isn’t what is it?
Aug 20th, 2006 by ShaunO
Second Life (SL) is, according to Linden Lab, about ‘the world’, ‘the creations’ and ‘the market place’ - no mention of a game. It has been reported as a ‘game’ by mainstream media, however, being compared to the likes of The Sims Online or World of Warcraft.
I have already posted my views that I think a large component is about community. With pretty well zero personal gaming experience (does a ‘go’ at ‘Colin McRae Rally’ about 3 years ago count? :-)), and from my experience of SL to date, I can fairly confidently say I don’t believe this is a ‘game’.
Certainly more recent media postings (and there has been a bit of a frenzy in the last few months) are leaning towards describing it as a ‘virtual world’ (e.g. The Guardian) and even more are simply about various high-profile, what I would term, ‘marketing exercises’ from real life (RL) organisations promoting the likes of American Baseball, Suzanne Vega, Duran Duran, BBC etc.
At the risk of making this a big list of links there is also ’serious stuff’ going on in Second Life, for example, the following organisations have a presence:
- Australian Film Television and Radio School
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
- The New Media Consortium
The number of marketing and communications commentators watching SL is also interesting (e.g. CC Chapman, Lee Hopkins and you’ll find plenty of other people referenced by reading through thier posts).
So the point of all that is to give some demonstration of the ‘breadth of interest’ - which is very wide indeed (even if the ‘real’ number of people using SL isn’t).
If, as I have alluded to in earlier posts, this is the front of a new wave then I think most would agree we are looking at very early days. But promising early days?
Recent research in the UK by OFCOM suggests that there is a solid trend towards online (away from ‘traditional’ media) by the “networked generation”.
The estimated user numbers presented at ‘2S. Current Conditions - Social, Legal and Other’ (start here and scroll down a bit) for internet ‘products’ are staggering. They are from the Roadmap Inputs for the ‘Metaverse Roadmap: pathways to the 3D web‘ which is a ‘must read’ if you are interested in the topic (keeping an eye on the fact that this is a largely commercially funded think-tank).
Other research about behavioural aspects of virtual worlds has been taking place for sometime and I am sure there is plenty of other related stuff I have missed in my ‘trawling’.
I can be pretty sure this is something ‘real’, not a ‘game’ - but I have to confess I have to leave my title question open - If this is not a game then what is it?
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It’s just an extension of the real world. No asks if the telephone is a game, yet it’s just as unreal and “virtual” as SL. The problem is that people have a hard time getting past the bias of appearance (because it *looks* like a videogame) and are unable to make the imaginative leap beyond the intangible (e.g. the computer monitor you’re using exists in a virtual state right now as part of someone’s manufacturing CAD).
SL is the first stage of what will eventually become a new communication medium; one which goes beyond anything we have now and includes the ability to bridge the gap between tangible and intangible.
Hi csven, thanks for dropping by.. I generally agree that this is likely to be (one of) the \”new mediums\” that is developing for the Internet; with plenty of its own unique issues which I see you are talking about in your blog.
I tend to agree with your statement about \”looks like a videogame bias\” too; and wonder if this will this slow adoption/investment..
I dont buy the analogy with the telephone though.
If you don’t buy the telephone analogy, then I guess you’re not a fan of William Gibson. I lifted it from him, the person who coined the term “cyberspace”.
If you’ve not read his work, I’d highly recommend it.
That’s uncanny… I, just (late last week), bought both snowcrash and the gibson neuromancer trilogy.. I guess I’ll get the reference after that :-)
Was aware of the attribution of ‘cyberspace’ to him already - http://www.cybergate9.net/about/thissite.html#cg
Actually, I highly recommend starting off with his short stories in “Burning Chrome”. That’s where things come together. There’s a few killer stories in there. “Johnny Mnemonic” (much, much better than the movie), “New Rose Hotel” (brilliant story and horrendous movie), “Winter Market” (think it’s been optioned; probably my favorite story of the book even though NRH is amazing), and “Burning Chrome” (which is like an intro to “Neuromancer”).
The phone analogy isn’t in the books. It’s from a Gibson interview from way back. You may see reference to it on occasion though.
“Snow Crash” is good. His endings don’t work for me though. “Cryptonomicon” is amazing should you ever get around to reading another one of his (though I still don’t like the ending).
“What is it?” is the question for sure. I like the analogy of the 3D web browser or the next evolution in the user interface. Is it the right evolution? I don’t know.
Like you said, it’s VERY much the early days right now. We are going to look back at these days and laugh like we do when we remember the first release of Mozilla.
It’s going to be a lot of fun to watch Second Life and virtual worlds in general evolve.