PC Gamer just listed Second Life among its 50 most important PC games, which I first noticed because Linden Lab shared the link on LinkedIn. Used to be the company steadfastly resisted being put in the game category by the media (back during the hype days when SL didn't lack for media coverage), but if Linden Lab isn't worried about being categorized as a game anymore, I guess that settles that ambiguity. And anticipating the usual angry response, "But Second Life doesn't have set goals or points!"... neither do Minecraft or The Sims, which are also listed among PC Gamers most important games.
Anyway, excerpt of the review below -- featuring a nice mention of Iris Ophelia and a link to this blog!
Second Life
Released: June 2003 | Developer: Linden Lab
Why it's important: Finally, the chance to step into the Metaverse promised by novels like Snow Crash. And oh, the wonders to be seen. Second Life pioneered the idea of a virtual world built by its users, and the freedom to build anything from a fully interactive Neverland to a functional virtual university. It never caught on, but the user generated content revolution did.
Philip Rosedale, founder of Linden Lab, had presumably read Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash when he first conceived of Second Life—a "metaverse," or a 3D virtual space, originally intended to be accessed through a VR headset and glove. (Today Second Life can be accessed through the Oculus Rift, but it's still cumbersome.)
I've spent a lot of time in Second Life. Mostly I've cosplayed as my own real-life self there (although I've also spent time disguised as She-Ra and Ultraman). Even now I'm not sure whether my choice of online identity is because I'm confident enough to "play myself" online or, alternatively, because I'm too anxious to play at being someone else.
"I think the most important aspect of Second Life is just how open-ended it is," says Janine Hawkins, a games writer who moonlights as a sometimes-columnist at New World Notes. "It's sort of a gateway into finding things out about yourself and exploring that in a safe and controlled setting."
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Let me see if I got this straight.
Linden Lab is OK with Second Life being categorized as a game, when Philip Rosedale himself said "Second Life is different than a game, because there isn't any goal."???
Posted by: Vulcan Viper | Friday, January 22, 2016 at 11:25 AM
Philip Rosedale himself also spoke about Second Life at the GAME Developers Conference and often compared SL user growth with Sims Online. :)
Posted by: Wagner James Au | Friday, January 22, 2016 at 01:13 PM
So long as all your examples of Second Life being a game is people calling it a game without citing any actual gameplay features, I dunno what your point is.
You've been put to task before to name your favorite Second Life game feature, and you cited a talking weed plant on your abandoned parcel.
Plus, you're the guy always raging about Linden Lab adding gameplay features to Second Life, which it wouldn't need if it already had 'em.
You could call Second Life Excel if you wanted, it doesn't change what it actually is once you open the viewer. The danger remains of calling Second Life a "game" is mismanaging expectations of people invited to try it, it's a setup for disappointment when a person looking for a game, doesn't find gameplay. Minecraft and the Sims have gameplay.
If you want to be a games blogger, pivot like Iris. Your attempts to be one through Second Life the last decade has only resulted in posts like these.
Posted by: Ezra | Friday, January 22, 2016 at 02:57 PM
I just cannot understand why some peple are still trying to get the game moniker stick on SL, despite overwhelming evidences of it not being a game. What's wrong with people nowadays that they can't properly reflect and define anymore. This is not a willpower over matter question, the old warhorse will never become a contender in the Kentucky Derby, no matter how hard you wish for it. And with LL's history of wrong statement and fasle decisions we all know how much validity is in their latest nonsense statement.
Second Life is a VW, period.
Good day.
I said Good Day!
Posted by: Orca Flotta | Saturday, January 23, 2016 at 01:06 AM
Ezra and Orca right, Hamlet.
Just because some game related website lists SL as a game, or Philip speaking at GDC or whatever, doesn't make SL a game.
It's a virtual world platform. It's like a table, you can eat on a table, but a table isn't food. You can play games on a table, but the table itself isn't a game, it just lets you play games on it.
Posted by: CronoCloud Creeggan | Saturday, January 23, 2016 at 09:00 AM
SL is a video game only to the extent that its functionality allows for the indulgence of whimsy or desire for fun in its ludological or paideic forms. But in the end, instead of screaming at each other about how SL is (isn't) a game, it's probably better if you lot just pipe down and focused on what truly entertains you in SL whether it's going to cosy concerts, poetry slams in remote balconies, or wargames in Jessie, because we are never going to get each other to see the other side's argument barring a massive intelligence capable of putting two juxtaposed and conflicting arguments together without having brain funk.
I'm not calling you dumb, I'm just saying you're not geniuses.
Posted by: patchouli woollahra | Monday, January 25, 2016 at 12:15 AM
:)
Posted by: zz bottom | Monday, January 25, 2016 at 03:18 AM
So LL is ok with being ridiculously reduced to a game, really sad, guess they never cared about it's potential, it is just a money mine
Posted by: Carlos Loff | Monday, January 25, 2016 at 04:27 AM
The fact that not even LL - the creators of SL - are capable of comprehending what they've created and how important it could be to history itself, dumbfounded me. Yes, it is a game in as far as nothing here has consequences. But it is also a computer simulation, virtual sandbox, and mass media service. It can be lots of things - what you get is what you want to get.
In short, it is not a single thing but many things at once. A virtual world if you will. And if they would treat it as a virtual world instead of a B2b program, or a replacement for the World Wide Web, and fix how they treat their customers, maybe they'd have more success.
Call it a game. It has game qualities sure. But it is still much more than that. And the detail that is lost on LL is the reason customers are leaving and not coming back.
Posted by: Shockwave Yareach | Monday, January 25, 2016 at 05:54 AM
Aren't capable. Sorry
Posted by: Shockwave Yareach | Monday, January 25, 2016 at 05:57 AM
The reason they are "OK" with being called a game is because of the popularity of gaming. Ya can't be all things to all people. We degrade as we upgrade. People want instant. It ceases to amaze me that instead of promoting what it is, they would want to be what they're not. *sighsI
Posted by: Kween KleoKatra (@KweenKleoKatra) | Friday, February 12, 2016 at 01:06 PM