It's a game, right?

As I prepare to be blasted from the fading forums and prebanned from blogs... I have a question.

Isn't Second Life a game?

I understand that many people make money from the game and I applaud that. There are those that need an escape from reality and I appreciate that. Those that just need to experience fantasies not necessarily legal or moral... well, I understand it happens. But to spend hours on end searching through the forums to blast a game and its creators doesn't make sense to me. If certain individuals are so entirely put off and despise Linden Lab then why not just stop participating?

I know there is a select group of megaposters who will claim to be trying to improve the world for everyone. Please. When LL goes under, as many of you are hoping happens soon, what then? Will you be vindicated? Personally, I am not a fan of Dr. Phil. That means I DON'T watch him on television, I DON'T buy his books and I DON'T spend my hours on his forums telling anyone willing to listen how I feel about him.

The complaints that the forums were never used by LL to improve gameplay are closely followed with an outcry that the forums are being done away with because people complained. I ask again, isn't it a game? A game OWNED by Linden Lab?

JD
(Braced for the onslaught)

-1 Flamebait

Ha! I'm not touching this one.


It's a horribly long and pointless debate.

*backs away slowly*

+1 Naive

It's a floor wax *and* a dessert topping!

You call it a game.

I call it a ham sandwich.

He calls it a metaverse thingamajig.

She calls it a business.

The fact that we all think of it as different things only proves that no one is right and its all things.

~No!~

But others have there veiw

Its all things to all people. To me, its a game.

I'm just not so sure anymore.... when I started last month I thought it was "just a game". Now I wonder. There are definately rl people and feelings involved. Whether your in it to make money, explore all there is, or just make friends, it is most definately more than "just a game" at this point for me. Alot of people feel very passionate about sl and I totally "get it" now. Just my 2 cents.

To me it's a mechanism through which I can act out my deviant fantasy of being a submissive female asian land owner with ties to all the sims in Second Life and a vast amount of L$. In this fantasy I like caucasian males to slap me in the face with dildos and call me "Baby Chung." Furthermore I sit in Gor sims and ask Mighty Strong Warriors to defecate on my outstretched, rosy face.

Oh, wait.

Like LL says, it's a "platform".

My take? It isn't a game but it would be awesome if it was.

That's all well and good, just be more cautious of what you shout in Hard Alley, you wouldn't want to offend such delicate sensibilities.

::runs away crying.::

14 Responses in less than an hour.

Thank you to those who have responded with intelligence and thought. And.. thank you to others as well... Any relevant (ish?) input is invited.

JD

Where you goin' city boy?

To me, Second Life is not a 'Game'. It is a 'Place'. Just like London, or Germany. It happens to be a place I can only travel to by using a computer, a keyboard, and a mouse. But then again, for me, so are Germany or London, as I could never hope to afford to travel to such distant places in person.

Second Life is a place where I can meet with friends from all over the world, and interact with them in ways similar to real world interactions. It is a community where I have friends, most of whom live so far from me that I could never hope to meet them in Real Life.

It is a place where I do business, trading my creative efforts for real money that helps me pay my real world bills.

It is also a roleplaying environment - a place where fantasies like being an anthro fox or a winged dragon are possibilities. To some extent that is a game, but more to the point that is just another way of interacting with the community.

So no - It's not a game. It is a community, and a place where that community exists.

I would agree that the people who only seem to rant about how terrible SL is seem odd to me. Rather like someone who lives in a country, yet always has nothing positive to say about their homeland, and never offers any positive force for change. If they hate it that much, why not leave? But since it IS a community, I can quite understand why people who enjoy the community will vehimently defend that community against changes that they percieve as a threat to its existance.

If the RL community you live in was beset by gang warfare, you would, if civic minded and responsible, want to do something to eliminate that threat to the community. Organize a neighborhood watch, lobby for better law enforcement. Become politically active and hope to effect a positive change.

It's no different in SL's community. People percieve griefers and other issues as a threat to the community they care about. They percieve ill thought out changes to the SL client as problems that make the community less stable, or less viable. And so they get vocal in their complaints, in hopes to effect a positive change.

Git back heeer wit' dem pearly white teef!!!

Second Life can be anything you wan't. My vision of SL is a fantasy world where you can do almost anything (Creating, roleplaying, dancing, running a business, or even a land barron)... >.> Your choices of what you can be are only limited to what you can imagine/create. If you wan't to be a robot, be a robot. If you wan't to be a Furry, be that. If your wanting to be a vampire, then you might wan't to have a castle to go with those teeth.

However forcing ones beliefs on others might give them some negative feedback. If i chose to be a Kitty and went to a gorean place, it would offend them and i would be thrown out. If i chose to be a shooting/anoying griefer, everyone would hate me. If i was openly religius, i would be openly attacked for it. What some people don't understand is we all have just as much right to be in a public place as the next person.

Ok heres a first:


IT NOT WORTH ARGUING OVER.

Mr. Pierterson,

I would tend to agree. And without seeming confrontational, I would like to ask if your 3600+ posts have all been non-argumentative or is this a proverbial "new leaf" idea your suggesting?

Oh. You are looking for an answer. Well, it's about the people, silly. You can certainly visit with them elsewhere but, just like any of life's changes which causes a change in circumstance, it won't be the same should SL close. Shutting down the forums will scatter the participants amongst the various 3rd party sites; connections will be broken and lost. The demise of SL will be all that and much more. Some friendships will survive; most won't, like when switching jobs or leaving school. You may think that if the relationship is strong it will survive but in reality most of our communications, our connections with others, occur between people with insignificant status in our lives. Think on who you spoke with today; chances are most such occurences are with people you would not see again if your job or whatever circumstance you are in changed.

As an example, all the cafeteria employees know me by my name. Kathy likes my short, funky hair cut and is working up the nerve to go for it. I never place an order with Tammy; she knows what's best on any given day and I trust her to pick for me. She saves special cuts of meat for me and gives me sauce to take home and try out for her. I'll miss her when she moves on next week and the easy banter we have as she cooks up my lunch. It all makes for a pleasant part of my day.

It's small things that make up most of our days. It will be like that when SL is gone.

Your question has already been answered.

Please use the Forum Search feature and pick an which ever answer floats your boat.

=)

I don't have to be objectified by either of you! Unless you call me Baby Chung, that is.