Game or not?

Simple poll.


Do you consider Second Life to be a "game", or not.

Where "not" can mean that, to you, it is a social environment, a really really well featured IM program, a business platform, etc.

Oh, and if you vote for it being a game, feel free to reply to the thread that you did, as there are a number of people who would like to add you to their "ignore" lists.

It's both, to me. I really don't care what other people think it is. It's here, and we'd be there if it was up')

I find that SL is a virtual world. The software itself is not a game, but you can use the software to create games.

It's Virtual World, that you play your games in....It's not the game itself

Well of course people know my view. SL is a service than can play games, just the same as the internet is a service that can play games, just the same as my dvd play (nuon enhanced) can play games, just the same as my cellphone can play games, my palm, my father-in-laws IPOD,new CARS (Now have XBOX 360 built in, custom version of Project Gotham Racing and the steering wheel/peddles are used to control the game which you see on the screen), etc.

SL is a service and a platform.

Its a game others can use as a platform.

This is what I've been trying to tell my colleagues in education, as well as my friends in business. The applications for SL have barely been tapped.
There are several circumstances in which I could see those kinds of applications coming to their full potential:
A) A slow process of universities, then big corporations, then large corporations, then K-12 schools, then small businesses finding and supporting new applications, taking several years.
B) A killer app kind of development to deliver instruction and meeting software within SL.
C) A national crisis (i.e. bird flu) that kept a lot of people indoors and away from others.

*looks around for NPCs and monsters* if its a game it sure isnt a MMORPG. O.o And i don't see a health bar unless i go into a combat zone.

So no

Its a giant rpg to me. Must just be differing perceptions.

And heres the pre-emptive quote.

Philip Linden : 'We will have havok 2 shortly'

Yes []
No []
Other [X]

Whether Second Life, or ANYTHING for that matter, is a game or not, depends on whose playing

Haha...bird flu.

ROFL!


Huh? The question doesn't really make sense, or at least the answer choices don't. Where's "all of the above"? It's all of these things, and more...

Hes trying to prove a point, that he isnt going to prove unless he pulls in all the alts he can muster. He wants people to say its a game. But really yes, its everything. Thats the point. Its whatever YOU want, whatever YOU make it. Just like the inet....

Its a game. Its a platform. Its what you make of it.

Have fun and let others have theirs

Well said! Why should others be able to decide what someone can draw from SL? If some people play SL as a game, why can't they? As long as they're doing anyone any harm they can do as they please in my books.

That is a good philosophy, but an outsider reading some of the active threads right now would not get that impression, especially from those who are getting livid and red faced about those of use who consider Second Life to be a social and or economic environment with a lot of potential.

I recognize that Second Life offers the ability to play games within itself. At the very least, it is a game platform. An X-Box is not a game. It is a platfom to play games. However, I think that the next generation of hardware platforms that come out, we are going to see more and more features in them that could be used to do things other than games.
Given, Sony will have a hell of a time trying to turn the PS3 into an Instant Message system (unless they hook up with Yahoo).

What I find disturbing is the verbal assault that is launched at anyone who dares to mention the very thought that they might use SL to make real $ on the side.
One word and all of a sudden they are instantly branded by the "it's a game" group as overweight losers who live under a rock and get no sunlight. Which is damn near the same category that people put the grid attackers in.

Orion Waves: *ahem* are you sure it's "he" and "his"?

If only others could live by that

It's a "game" for lack of a better word. I find it silly that some get so bent out of shape about SL being referred to as a game. We play. There are rules. There is strategy. You say "platform" to a new resident and their eyes glaze over.

I say call it what you want, because it is many different things to many different people. One thing is for certain. SL is extremely unique.

lol, No im not... Just a reference, sorry if it was wrong...

OMG not Bird Flu but by the time it mutates and becomes a worldwide pandemic where we all cant move outside our houses maybe LL's will have fixed the grid downtimes

That's a whole other subject. Second Life, or any MMORPG, all have that mask. Even meeting a person IRL merely verifies they are telling the truth about having a pulse. hair can be colored, colored contacts, etc. Second Life just takes that really far.

I chose a somewhat non-gender name because I figure that if I had gone with something like "Jennifer" it would be difficult to appear ominous in a big dragon AV.

"behold, the might and ferocity of... Jenny!" lol

In my opinion its a game. Game definition..... An activity providing entertainment or amusement. For me Second Life does just that. I could also see where some would think ok its a world. But heck the world is providing entertainment. Doesnt matter really its entertainment. Im up to accept every ones terms on what it is. It is what it is.

Reading news articles on the internet gives me "entertainment or amusement". Does that qualify it as a game? No. Just because something can entertain and amuse, doesnt dismiss its many many other uses or purposes. And as such having many said uses, it then becomes a platform and service that is accessed via a client, not a "game".

EDIT - And on a side note, the reason it is up for debate and people want to call it a "game", is if it is a "game" it supposedly makes it more ok to ruin others fun (instead of businesses, money, work, communications, etc), to cheat, to lie, etc. Its just "a game". The difference is, you can play games on SL, SL itself isnt a game. And the definition of what is and is not a game, is apparently what is being questioned here, along with what is and is not acceptable behavior. This all came about because people basically told others not to get their panties in a bunch, and to visit "the outside" because they were angered by the grid getting attacked again, and that they shouldnt be angry because "its just a game".

It's not a game, it's a thingie.

Also, this is thread #54938548 on the subject.

Also, you'll never have a precise answer, because the English language doesn't have the right word for what SL is. Therefore, it's a game, a dessert topping, and a floor wax.

And a platform.

And a sex palace.

And a sweatshop.

And an economic simulator.

And a BDSM haven.

And a Gor hideout.

And a furry convention.

And a thingie.

kthx