Other World Notes: Can Second Life Grow Like YoVille?

Over on GigaOM, I have a new story up on YoVille, the virtual world based in Facebook and MySpace, which has gained over 5 million users in under a year. That's monthly active users, not just registrations. (While Second Life has attracted millions of sign-ups, only a fraction of them log in on a monthly basis.) YoVille's a very casual, free-to-play web-based world somewhat akin to Habbo, but the developers tell me there's still been emergent user-created content too: Some YoVille players, for example, use an in-game whiteboard object to create works of art-- which they then sell to other other users for YoVille cash.  The secret to its growth rate?  Being largely based in Facebook, so players can easily invite their FB friends to follow them in-game.  (And with 150 million+ Facebook users, that's a lot of people to draw from.)  Imagine if Second Life had a web-based version which also ran in Facebook-- say a scaled-down, 2.5D "portal" that linked avatars, their apartments, and items to their friends in the full 3D version.  Were it done right, my guess is the user growth and retention rate would be substantial too.

Comments

[Jovin]

Wow...and imagine if we got rid of all the prims, the landscapes, the sky, the sea and those little animated people things...and just had like messages we could send to each other, in an instant kinda way. Wouldn't that be cool?

Uhm, wood...trees... :-)

[Rob Danton]

What you are suggesting, Hamlet, is a very different prospect from the way that I and most people I know use SL. Facebook connects users specifically through people they already know and the way Second Life is set up with avatar names and not real ones somehow encourages the opposite.

I have a few friends in RL who have got SL avatars and I very very rarely have seen them in world. I think it would cause a cause a huge cultural upheaval to link Second Life directly into Facebook

Without rehearsing the whole immersionist vs augmentationalist debate (actually a false dichotomy I think), part of the magic of SL is the tabula rasa with which we all start.

[CyFishy Traveler]

There are a few avies out there who already have Facebook pages. Not as their operators, but as their avatars.

[Hamlet Au]

True that, CyFishy. I also have a lot of Facebook friends who list their SL avatar names along with their RL info.

[Mark Young]

My guess is that 2D + 3D SL would get a lot more registered users but the proportion that would regularly use fullblown 3D SL would be rather small, just because its more demanding and not casual/quick/easy enough for most websurfers. Still worth doing IMO.

[Skinkie Winkler]

Have you ever tried Yoville? Mini-SL is it NOT. Not even close.

[Nebulosus Severine]

Yoville is really boring. :P

[Hamlet Au]

Yeah, I've checked it out, I don't quite get the appeal myself, but then again, that's true of pretty much 99% of the Facebook apps I've tried.

[Nexus Burbclave]

I wonder if this isn't a bit like trying to introduce people to apples from the tree by feeding them apple sauce. Sure its made from apples, but the mush and the apple off the tree aren't very similar experiences.

2.5d and 3d worlds are necessarily very different. I don't know that a 2.5d version of SL could really convey the things that make the 3d experience what it is. I worry that a 2.5d SL could potentially turn off some people that would be wowed if their first experience was the 3d version. On the other hand, if the 2.5d version is still compelling that might make it work. Whoever does this would pretty much have to knock it out of the park, or they risk doing more harm than good. I think one of the key learnings from Lively is that you can't count on a second chance to get things right.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

Frankly I think the OnLive model is much more promising than a 2.5 client. I'm not familiar with Facebook, but if they have streaming media capability, then they could theoretically get the full-flavored SL experience rather than some watered-down version.

The bigger question in my mind is if SL goes mainstream at YoVille levels, what happens to the culture? My suspicion is that the 'adult' apartheid being forcibly shoved down our throats is indicative of Linden ambitions to flow into the mainstream, and that bodes ill for any of our sub-communities that could be profitably sensationalized by the corporate state media.