Consistent Message: SL is/isn't a game

I don't think there is a contest built into the levellin and loot aspects of the game. In fact most roleplpaying games are very open-ended and cannot be won, and are not one, the purpose of the game is participation. Also there is nothing anywhere that says you cannot make money at a game. The fact that some people play the game professsionaly does not alter the nature of basketball as a game. The fact that someone can make $100,000 US dollars a year doesn't alter the nature of second life as a game. Its a closed controlled environment, yes it has far reaching possibilities as to how it is played, and the goals of play can be set by the players. But prims work the same for everyone, as to the mechanics of play, and money and property in world are not liquid-they need to undergoe a conversion step.

Secondly the professional applications of the platform are limited, and interconnectivity with other systems is no existent. Yes there may be applications developed in the furture that assist people in engaging in real world commerce, but the so called meta verse is far from being a force in the international data exchange market. SL is not the internet. In its current configuration it is not likely to replace the internet. I have not yet seen a direct prototyping applications as most prototyping can be done faster and more easily with CAD.

The products and services in SL are by and large of limted use to anyone outside the SL community. Yes, at least one game developer has taken a game out of SL, but that can happen with any hobby (again look at the spin offs to DnD inspired by the OGL). I am not sure that the Dev.s at Valve or Sony are losing sleep because the next generation of Games might be developed on SL.

So I am waiting to here what this "platform" does apart from make a lot of money for people who participate in its closed enviroment, or provide a very sophisticated method of playing virtual house or Barbie. I don't call it a game to belittle anyone's accomplishments, but to suggest that this "platform" is ready to be considered a very serious application for doing anything but playing it, is just way off base.

Well in Sl the competion is to amass linden from players.

Also, I find it amusing that everyone who resents that SL is not a game latches on so seethingly to the "monetize their efforts" business when socializing and networking are also given such prominant billing.

Ah, but without something to bitch about, what would we ever discuss here?

But you're completely and utterly wrong if you think you can speak for everyone.

So go argue with Philip, Cory, and Robin. Tell them they are wrong. You just don't get it, and wish to project your view, which is counter to the plan for SL, onto the rest of us. That is fine, but don't tell me I am wrong for saying I don't think it is a game, when the damned developers say it isn't. The very fact that they don't call it a game says you are wrong in no uncertain terms. But you are so much smarter and wiser than LL and the rest of us right?

It's like telling Ford that they are selling toys.

When was the last time a college used EQ, WoW, or UO as a base to conduct advanced sociological studies from?

When was the last time a bank invested 10's of 1000's of dollars in those same GAMES to set up a economics training workshop?

The conspicuous presumption displayed in your post is mind-blowing. When you place quotation marks around 'platform', you spit right in LL's eye.

I would flip your argument back against you. Why are you so upset when I say it is a game. Why do you get to define my LL experience? The core of this thread is that people are being attacked for claiming it isa game.

It is absolutely essential to preserve the rights of individuals on this board to speak for everyone! If that means that individuals can't speak for themselves, oh well.

Now we're taking the short bus back to the happy land of rhetorical obliquity. Time for me to bow out.

And I don't mean within the context of this thread. I mean the people who chastise me in coversations in world they overhear.

So then deal with THEM. Why you folks have to harp on US for shit we didn't, don't and won't say, is just weird.

What is your issue? Is it us who say it's not a game, or those who "chastise" you for saying it is?

Not one of us - Cris, Weedy, Enabran, Ardith, myself, and on and on has ridiculed you for calling it a game!

In fact, most of us have stated MULTIPLE times that we are not bothered in the least if you do so!

The "mantra" seems to be emanating from those who are so dead set on proving it is NOT a game. For god's sake Jake, the Lindens, who made and run the place say it isn't!


You're really barking up the wrong tree here, which makes me wonder how genuine you are being...

/me hurls a wad of paper, shrieking "Lightning bolt!"

I would flip your argument back against you. Why are you so upset when I say it is a game. Why do you get to define my LL experience? The core of this thread is that people are being attacked for claiming it isa game.

And educators and businesses used role-playing simulations for education and training long before SL was created. Also there is whole science of mathematics called games theory which is used in forumlating economic and other models to facilitate study and prediction. There is nothing wrong with something being a game.

Every time you do that, you help run off a new player.*

Oh leaving so soon, and you just used the term"rhetorical obliquity" so things were just getting interesting. I thin a well reasoned, salient point that did not to to marginalize my position might have been more persuasive. There are coherent points against my position, and you touched on one of them. Alas it seems the tempation to an emotional response got the better of you. Thanks for the argument though. It was interesting. ( and I do mean that sincerely).

Obviously Jeska doesn't think so, as she just popped her head in here, most likely because some extremely self righteous and unfathomably thin skinned individuals reported Enabran. Guess what? Enabran is still here, and his posts weren't edited, and rightfully so. Some of you need to understand that constantly claiming that when someone disagrees with you that does not make it a personal attack. The vigor you see that mounts over time is directly attributable to the CONSTANT claims thereof.

The important thing is that players not be chastised by the Lindens for calling it a game.

How do you know he hasn't received a warning?

And if it is true, that no one ever receives warnings when they make clear and unwarranted personal attacks and character assasinations against other posters, then I will lose faith entirely in the Lindens, and consider that perhaps we might be better off with legal assistance.

I defy you to prove that anyone has ever been chastised by any Linden for calling SL a game.

1. Lindens should not correct players for using any phrase that contains the word "game" in reference to SL.

2. Posters should be careful not to run off new posters (or players, ingame) by insisting it's not the game the new poster thinks it is.