SL Is A Game - Because!

Maybe it's a toy to the development team as well as the customers. They get to play with the part they like instead of being expected to work on a part of an overall coherent design.

When these people you mention get ruthlessly cruel, do they begin to share any other traits in common with

oh phooh someone's at the door.

Which riles me.

Second Life is a toy. A grown-up's toy.

I don't think this invalidates any other purpose or use of Second Life, but I think a "toy" is a better descriptor of Second Life; a game implies a purpose and goal and rules; a toy simply is.

if i can "log out" then its just a game. one cannot "log out" of rl.

You can get "disconnected" though

You can log out of your online bank web site, and AOL Instant Messenger.

damn you mean the money in the bank is real? hot damn i got some shopping to do!

Yep, I have always believed this too. Everything is a game, and at the same time, nothing is a game. Anything you say about a game can be used to prove that RL is a game too.

SL is a game because I have fought the end boss and won.

Social circles are groups of important people that are nice to me when I'm docile and supportive but ostracize me when I don't. And yes Suez, they do. And no you didn't Eggy, I'm still here BWAHAHA!

Why does not anyone suspect that your real life is a game?
hmm... I've not read this book.

SL is a game, rl is a dream.

Row row row your boat, gently down the stream.
merrily merrily meriily merrily life is but a dream.

L$ can be converted into rl$ BUT they are not rl$ thereforL$ are only monopoly money until they are cashed in. last time I checked monopoly was also a game.

One cannot log out of rl.

RL does not have leaderboards or development bonuses.

No one in rl is giving me a weekly stippend just to come see their shop/play/or building.

I had to set up an account and give my rl credit card information.

I have a screen name.

Im a rl woman who plays a man who plays a woman (wrap your head around that one lol)

Some of my friends are furries, robots, and little animals, elfs, and vampires.

in rl I put a cd or dvd into a player and listen to or watch my movies. In sl I must set it up so I can stream these things from a web or my web.

In rl I cannot increase my bust size with a slider (even tho somedays I wish I could lol)

and finaly...

No where in rl can I ... "rez a cube"

Mar

L$ can be converted into rl$ BUT they are not rl$ thereforL$ are only monopoly money until they are cashed in. last time I checked monopoly was also a game. Stocks are monopoly money until you sell them.

One cannot log out of rl. Death or coma are pretty much logging out.

RL does not have leaderboards or development bonuses. Employee of the month, playmate of the month, Fortune's richest People list, 50 most beautiful people, etc etc. Most people with decent jobs get bonuses, and my credit cards and ATM/Debit cards give me cash back just for spend money.

No one in rl is giving me a weekly stippend just to come see their shop/play/or building. In RL thses are called sales, and promotions.

I had to set up an account and give my rl credit card information. You have setup several accounts in RL and with bad credit or no credit life sucks.

I have a screen name. Everyone has a name, and most people have nicknames. Wow. Trippy.

Im a rl woman who plays a man who plays a woman (wrap your head around that one lol)
Well that happens more in everyday life than most people want to know about...

Some of my friends are furries, robots, and little animals, elfs, and vampires.
Most people run in diverse circles.

in rl I put a cd or dvd into a player and listen to or watch my movies. In sl I must set it up so I can stream these things from a web or my web.
I watch movies over the internet,buy and listen to music online, streaming.

You cannot convert Monopoly money into USD.

You can log out of real life. See: Suicide.
There's just no game saving mechanism.

Leaderbords. See: Fortune 500, People's 50 Most Beautiful People, Movers & Shakers' List, #1 Employee of the Month....
Development Bonuses. See: Tax incentives.

Weelky stipend. See: Market Research bonuses, Welfare, Consulations prizes for just 'showing up' to events.

RL Account: Name & Proof of Citizenship

I have a screen name. - I have a nick name.

RL gender. See: Transgender, Transvestite, Intersexed, & Androgynous

"Some of my friends are furries, robots, and little animals, elfs, and vampires."
Yeah, so are some of mine, IRL.

"in rl I put a cd or dvd into a player and listen to or watch my movies. In sl I must set it up so I can stream these things from a web or my web."
In RL someone had to 'set up' a CD / DVD so that you could buy it and stream in it your home.

"In rl I cannot increase my bust size with a slider (even tho somedays I wish I could lol) "
See: Plastic Surgery, push up bras, and other "Avatar Attachments" sold in lingerie shops.

and finaly...

No where in rl can I ... "rez a cube"

See: Magic, Hallucinagens.


....

Even with all that said. SL, game or not?
*shrugs*

SL = Fun.

That's the only classification that matters to me.

backat this. lol

my thought is simple. SL stops being game when I can write off my monthly tier as a business expense.

Of course it's a game. I've explored the whole area now, and I have managed to reach Iris, which gave me extra combat strength. I then defeated the Prokofy monster with no trouble at all. All I have to do now is win a political argument with Ulrika and I will be through to the next level.

Why can't you? I can write off hosting fees for a website as a business expense. If you are a running a business in SL and paying taxes on the RL income created from SL you should be able to write off SL related business expenses on your taxes. And if you write everything off, the business would probably run at a loss and that could be a tax benefit.

try getting it by an irs agent. a best, on a good day, it would be a hobby. Sometimes its not the nature that counts be the perception.

Using that justification almost every small business would qualify as a hobby the first 2-5 years.

My best friend is a CPA. He said it would work.

I think if a business loses money for thre years running it is a hobby. Sure you could try to write it off, call it computer expenses and internet based business. As long as you weren;t audited, it would fly. But I don't think the world is yet sophisticated enough for SL to be seen as a platform or toy. Even we are divideded in here. Try describing it to a non gamer freind. Or to a non gamer IRS agent (who are not known for fostering vivid imaginations). Your accountant is in theory right, i have only seen the back end of tax issues, in bankruptcy court.

How to make it a legit business.

Create a business name, get a business license in your local state/country, obtain a Tax ID, get a bank account for said business. If someone were to keep detailed records of transactions in-world, cash out transactions, fees, etc. It would not be an issue, the problem is most people would half ass it and that is how you get in trouble.

Using your logic when I was selling hosting in the 90s, the IRS would own my first born right now. the IRS understands dollars and cents and good record keeping, where and how you conduct your business as long as it is not illegal is not their concern.

because because because because becaaaaaaaaaause

because of the wonderful things it does...

One of the criteria used to distinguish a game from a sport is the use of equipment. Second Life requires a computer to participate in, thus it is a sport.

Second Life users should be referred to as athletes.

Big names in Second Life should be on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

Second Life should be have big stadiums in the real world for the users to play in. People should pay good money to see us play, and we should have salaries for playing so big we could buy Bill Gates.

From Wikipedia's entry on Toys

"Some things usually thought to be games are actually toys, such as the computer game Sim City and its spinoffs, which are called software toys. As a rule, if something game-like lacks an explicit end state, it is a toy, not a game."

I'm not usually one for the appeal to authority argument, but this sounds like a pretty solid definition.

Coincidentally (or perhaps not), the term "software toy" is thought to have been coined by Maxis to refer to SimCity, for which Robin was marketing lead.

That reminds me, what is the point of the Rizal sim? It never seems to have been used very much.