Bonus 2: Second Life, Game or Pocket Lint?

Second Life isn’t a game because it doesn’t have any objectives/goals for the player (socially-destitute and major investor in the myopia industry) to achieve – ‘Key components of games are goals, rules, challenge and interactivity (Wikipedia, Games 2007). Although Second Life might have the element of interactivity, it’s still just an environment for people to come together and do as they please; it’s more like a forum or an online community in terms of principle than a game.

Virtual worlds such as Second Life mimic reality as much as technologically possible. The game even has its own currency, which you work to earn or trade for that crosses over the reality boundary and makes it translatable into actual cold hard cash! This seems a lot like life doesn’t it? Especially with the concept of earning real moolah! If so, would you consider life a game? The players also have great fun participating in the ‘game’ where they get to sightsee and discover an entirely new concept: friends.

However, since it’s a virtual world, the players are able to do things beyond their wildest imaginations/physical limitations. Yes, they’d be able to see their own toes! Not only that, when they chat up a stranger, the chances of them replying instead of hurling abuse is greatly reduced! Magnificent, no? But seriously, what attracts people to the game is the fact that they can have a go at a ‘second life’ and try their hand at professions they always wished they could be involved in (a thin person with no geeky glasses) or a drastic lifestyle change like having friends. Players can even build their own furniture and put them up for sale for real money (how this transaction works I haven’t any idea, probably credit cards and such involved)! Why stop at furniture? They can even erect buildings (unless they chance upon a someone exciting, which ‘buildings’ will then just be a euphemism for something else)!

In another similar but more game-ish game, World of Warcraft, a WOW player quoted ‘Warcraft is the new golf… I actually clinched a deal with a company I met through WOW.’ Although being associated to a proper game and sport like golf, all this ‘game’ is doing is being an alternative to life. True, interactivity is crucial in such games but that’s all they have to offer in essence. As stated earlier, a game has to have goals, rules, challenge and interactivity. Second Life only has interactivity as its corner stone and nothing more. Would you conclude that just because Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew has opposable thumbs similar to a primate’s then he must be a chimpanzee (even though he has the uncanny resemblance to one)?

Second Life may be coined a ‘game’ but is in fact nothing more than a glorified online community/forum with better graphics and a higher level of interactivity.



References:

Wikipedia. ‘Game’. (2007). Retrieved April 6, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game

Levy, Steven. (2006). ‘World of Warcraft: Is it a Game?’ Retrieved April 6, 2007 from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14757769/site/newsweek/page/3/print/1/displaymode/1098/


Clarren, Rebecca. (2006). ‘Virtually dead in Iraq’. Retrieved April 6, 2007 from http://www.salon.com/ent/feature/2006/09/16/americasarmy/

QotW10: Second Life is a major Number Two!

like a polaroid picture...
GOT MILK?


Wow, never in my life have I been so thrilled to exit a game. Second Life really was a chore to both set up and play. I don’t understand why people get so hooked on the game; well maybe it’s because I’m a more outdoorsy person and believe in sports and REALITY. Nonetheless, I did complete the orientation island bit with its atrocious lag.

My avatar, Suiluj (Julius backwards) Allen, was the only character that had itself clad in black and seeing how black’s my favorite color, I chose it to represent me. Throughout the game, I, through the avatar, scolded people for joining the community mainly because I was irritated and wanted to annoy people. See, I don’t believe in the whole two-faced approach that individuals have when they live their lives online and in reality. It’s another form of fraud, which in essence makes them no better than the executives at Enron, only they got rich lying to people.

I picked this really retro disco area, which I’m sure no one else picked as my most favorite place in the game (really because I was developing a headache by the time I found the disco floor). Although it might not seem suitable – a cyber goth dancing – I felt the sight of my avatar ‘shaking it’ on a pretty rad-out retro disco floor was refreshing and awkward (much like myself, only I’m not down with the dancing). The fact that the disco area was really out of place made me like it even more and choosing it as my favorite destination portrays my queerness (being odd, not the type who’d hang around Market Street in Frisco a lot) and how I stick out like a sore thumb.

Eventually, I still feel that nothing beats doing something for real. Why feed your character in World of Warcraft when you could order a pizza? Why play football with fellow avatars when you could go to the park? I like donuts.

cheers all!