What The Sandbox & Snoop Dogg Could Learn from Second Life

Anthropologist Tom Boellstorff has a new thought-provoking essay on The Conversation, pointing out the importance of learning from metaverse/virtual world history. For instance, what Second Life's real estate management policies can teach new metaverse platforms like The Sandbox:

Second Life originally had “point-to-point teleportation” (P2P). You could arrive anywhere in an instant. But in 2003 Linden Lab, the company that owns Second Life, disabled P2P. Residents trying to reach a destination would appear at the nearest “telehub.”

This had implications for real estate. Valuable for businesses and entertainment, plots of land near telehubs sold for top dollar — until 2005, when Linden Lab suddenly announced the end of telehubs and the return of P2P.

Land near former telehubs no longer had special value; some people lost thousands of dollars. The most powerful landlord can’t change the laws of physics, but Linden Lab could literally recode scarcity out of existence.

Fast-forward almost 20 years. Land next to Snoop Dogg’s virtual mansion is scarce: A plot could cost $450,000 because The Sandbox doesn’t have P2P. But were the company to suddenly add P2P, that $450,000 investment could become nearly worthless. 

The thing is, The Sandbox's actual user growth is tiny, so the value of Snoop's Sandbox property is negligible. By implementing P2P, Linden Lab created universal inherent value in Second Life real estate, no matter the specific location in Second Life. Partly for that reason, unsurprisingly, there are far more active users in SL than in The Sandbox.

Anyway, much more here from Tom here, including a story of the first cyber-romance. It's way older than you might guess. And if you haven't read it already, Tom's classic Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human is a must-read for anyone trying to understand the Metaverse. Including Snoop.

Comments

[Joey1058]

This is another reason that metaverse interoperability won't happen anytime soon. It requires P2P. The web3 peeps talk a good bit, but once they achieve it, values are going to plummet. Why buy next to celebrities when you can teleport into the middle of their party? The only digital real estate I can possibly see as having any kind of value is a digital twin of the default world.

[Osiris]

In SL, owners of property can restrict teleportation to specific landing zones, such as the front door of a mall or other shopping venue. This adds value in my opinion. They can also supply and support other means of teleportation between sections or floors of a mall that are not accessible from the Map.

[Tom Boellstorff]

Thanks for the shoutout! And though you're too modest to mention it, I'll note that I give *you* a shoutout—you've been one of the important voices reminding people to cut through the hype. A lot of what's going on is new and exciting, but by no means all of it is new and learning from the history (which very much still influences what's happening) is so important...