And yes, this is somewhat self-indulgent.
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First, a thesis. Simple enough:
Second Life is a world that lacks some basic concepts of implied value. As a direct result, the main grid is quickly becoming a pretty boring place.
This is going to be a long one, so bear with me here. I'm going to use big words and may even link to external sites to build my argument. I spare no expense.
- Value Defined
According to Wikipedia, value is "a term that expresses the concept of worth in general, and [is] thought to be connected to reasons for certain practices, policies, or actions."
This value is what drives our everyday actions in life. When we go to the store, we value what it is we purchase more than the money we exchange for it. In the same sense, the clerk values the money more than what he's selling. This basic premise has been the root of cognitive thinking for several millennia now.
Now, this sort of "value" exists in Second Life. Naturally, to have such a widespread consumer culture, we must value this exchange that takes place every day by residents. Indeed, we see roughly $50,000 of USD in transactions daily.
- Implicit Value
We take these exchanges for granted, in a big way. Similar to the outcries of "FIC," or "Feted Inner Core," these exchanges are highly valued by the resident base, arguably too much so. Money is, after all, the ultimate measure of value. Right?
This could not be further from the truth.
In a simple business sense, there are some things valued more highly than profit margins. Any simple course in business will pound one thing into your skull: image is everything. To have money is to not actually have money in the bank, but instead to appear that you do. Similarly, factors like market share are often more highly valued than profits by some startup businesses. Knowing how to manage value is the crux of good business sense. I should know: it's been part of my major in college.
And this is where we run into our first problem.
Second Life is a world that is currently devoid of these concepts as we know them. In their stead, we see a climate not unlike the early dot.com era, where consumers are inundated with startup ventures that have only half found their niche.
Seeing the irony yet?
Instead of playing the doomsayer, this story does not end with a bust. Instead, it ends with a transition. Unlike the dot.com era, value in Second Life does last - but it's too easily met with its own share of problems.
- Competition
Competition in Second Life is extremely paradoxical. On the one hand, everyone has the means of creating value out of whole cloth. Tomorrow I could decide that I'd like to create a sports car, brand it the "J.G. Ultra," bring it to market, and get a decent return.
Yet, entrenched concepts last. We all cry fowl at how Tringo has shackled the Events Browser, due in no small part to events hosts taking the path of least resistance. This phenomena is the thesis of one of Second Life's and these forums' great comedies, the Feted Inner Core.
What we have created is a market in which all competition moves as if through molasses.
At the lower end of the food chain, builders are met with fierce competition when designing a new object from two fronts. The first of these is existing value from the world around us. While this may serve as the ultimate well for creativity, too often we seek to emulate it, sometimes stealing from the real world wholesale. There have been far, far too many rants in these forums for me to elaborate there.
As if this is not enough, startup creators must then face cutthroat competition as everyone scurries to jump on the bandwagon. Because we may all create objects in Second Life, these creators face the hardships of someone just "ripping off their idea" and taking it to market, leading to what I will coin "The Second Life Fish Markets." Here we see economies very sensitive to market price, and a changing trend will typically affect all involved.
This largely applies to the price of apparel, simple scripts, and any given appliance that we may find in the real world. People have even complained that the market is obliterated when the status quo reaches zero, and this argument does have some merit.
- Branding
Yet, some residents seem to have found an answer. Like Chiquita did with their famous "Chiquita Bananas," branding has become the sure-fire way to success in Second Life.
Surely this is the implied value we're looking for, right?
Hardly. Yet it is an improvement. Branding offers the Second Life resident their first tastes of that image that they so desperately desire. By creating a name for themselves, suddenly residents create value. They have something to market. Something that makes their items Different in a sea of Derivatives.
Strangely, the few residents that understand this basic concept enjoy a stranglehold over their niche and glorious economies of scale. We have our Anshe Chungs, our Cubey Terras, and our Aimee Webers, but really we just have Anshe, Cubey, and Aimee, where all others seem to blend into the background.
This is a very strange concept, and one that was quickly coined the "Feted Inner Core" for its supposed hypnotic power over the Lindens. Yet, this is in some ways the direct result of branded thinking. Why buy land when you can buy some of Dreamland? Why buy other vehicles when you can have a "Cubey Terra?" Why buy other avatar products when you can PREEN?
And branding works. Just as it did for the Chiquitas, and Microsofts, and Walmarts of the world, so has it worked for the Francis Chungs and Kermitt Quirks and Foxy Xeviouses of Second Life. This must be the image we are all seeking.
Yet, it is not.
- The Grand Dilemma
So, after citing the problems and explaining the current solution, having created some implied value, this discussion should be over. Yet somehow it is just beginning.
Branding is only the beginning of value for Second Life to achieve. For, in all the prims of the world, we still have not reached one thing: meaning. For all these really great objects, we've designed things that have no meaning beyond their face value.
And so we reach a second paradox. In seeking an image, we have reached a point where the image is all that Second Life is, and nothing more! While we squander over who has the greatest market share and appeal to the masses, we forget to imbue our very actions with that which gives them meaning.
Where are the incredible backstories? Where are the elaborate events that brought these new and intriguing things to Second Life in the first place? Oddly, they are completely absent, leaving nothing more than shallow husks and media appeal in their place. Even the profile space we are given with which to list our trials and toils is woefully too small.
- Virtual Suburbia
In their stead, we have seeked to emulate who we are and what we know. We have created a thriving landscape that, strangely, resembles the sprawling cityscapes and suburbs of the real world more and more every day. We've gone and created amazing things that appeal to every walk of life, yet forgot to add why they do so.
And here we return to my thesis. Second Life still lacks implicit value. Instead, we have drawn this from the world around us, and created a world that fails to define itself.
Quite like much of the 21st Century, for that matter.
Instead, we come to Second Life and see it as though a thousand artists owned the canvas, yet forgot to stick around. In a world so defined by our experiences, why does it lack meaning?
The answer is: We just haven't added it yet.
- Second Life as MMO
This sense of meaning forms the very core of what Second Life is grown from. A distant cousin of the MUDs and closer relative to the MMOG, it is humbling to realize that this basic concept has been around for years without ever truly being understood in Second Life.
As an MMOG, Second Life escapes definition. Rather than a classic tale of classes, epic stories, and experience treadmills, Second Life pipes to a different tune. Instead focusing on how best to enable its residents with tools, this "game that is not a game" gives us the pen and lets us write it as we choose. Certainly it can be better, but as it is now, simply being able to hold the pen is a huge step forward, even for those familiar with Active Worlds and There.
And, in writing, we opted to draw a picture.
They say pictures are worth a thousand words, yet something is forgotten in this age-old cliché. Pictures, indeed moving, vibrant animations that play out in our world daily, still require explanation to be fully appreciated. What is the Mona Lisa if not for her famous history, and the centuries-old questions, "Who is she?" and, "Is she actually smiling?"
It is precisely this clout that is somehow absent in Second Life. In the endless pursuit of profit margins and remaking our world the way we perceive it, we are left without these experiences.
Now, the creators of MUDs, MMOGs, and even Dungeons and Dragons understood this concept. In these, a new kind of image takes precedence. Instead of drawing a picture, users with vivid imaginations took up the pen to write.
They continue their story, to present day. Yet no one has really questioned why it is these things "work."
The reason is very simple. When we indulge ourselves in a work of fiction, one very basic tenant is imagination. To our minds eye, the character is an expression of ourselves, and the world around us appears as tactile or as ephemeral as we wish it to be.
Suddenly to our minds that tree isn't just a bit of code, blurb of text, or graphical display. It is really a tree. And, as tailors of our own mind, we perceive it as any way we see fit.
Yet, with every iteration of graphical prowess, something is lost. With MUDs and even books, the user was forced to stretch their imagination around what it is they're supposed to be seeing. It was a tree because the user took those details and made it real in their mind's eye.
Then we invented worlds where this need was less relevant. Suddenly we did not need to imagine that tree was there - it simply was displayed on our monitors for all to see. Far less imaginative, we were still able to maintain the sense of realism - many MMOs still go to great lengths to make it so.
And now, in Second Life, that realism is somehow... amiss.
- A World Built and Owned by its Users
And so, the paradox comes full circle. We are left with this sprawling, uncertain image precisely because we are the masters of our own story. A world built to let users do anything, we did! Yet in doing so, something was lost.
Consistency. Originality. In searching for a meaning to one's Second Life, we brought thousands - all shallower than our own fickle perceptions. To cite another tired adage, "too many chefs can really spoil the broth."
So strange that in trying to fill our world with life, it lacks substance. For all the incredible content, what we still do not have is a story - something that we, as residents, can all lay claim to.
- Hope
Fortunately, none of the above need last forever. To imbue our world with substance, and value, and meaning, we really don't need to do much.
First, we must write. For all the sims in Second Life chock full of primitive houses, cars, and lavish displays of wealth and power, there exist frighteningly few books and works of fiction using Second Life as their canvas, leaving us to vent our words in idle chat, blogs spread across the internet, or in these forums. Even my own Writing Wiki suffers the stigma of being about Second Life, without really being in Second Life. Only Cory Doctorow has really had success on this front, and that's with Linden support.
And, once we have written, we should strive to give what we own meaning. This goes far beyond simple backstories and branding. To fully give our works meaning, we must speak as any good storyteller would. Instead of talks of how amazingly technical, "pretty," or "proven" these objects are, speak of where they came from, who you are, and why you've created what you have. Or, if you would prefer, spin a complete act of fiction to define what your object really is, hopefully without lying. Good fiction is not about trickery - it's about consistency and imagination.
Finally, we must embrace that to do this, we are in it together. For Second Life to survive and be important to us, we must use it wisely. This includes the Lindens, who are faced with the monumental task of giving the world to its residents in full or leaving the world to become another footnote in history.
This world can be so much, and more. No matter your goal, be it conformist, altruistic, self-actualizing, or just to be able to afford dinner, we will all benefit from a world that has meaning given to it by its residents, instead of that which we draw from elsewhere.
For, if we are to be masters of our own story, we must first pick up the pen.
next week: the .5m torus of "I ate a yummy sandwich and I'm sleepy now"
). Brand is important because barriers to competition are so low and because there are few viable distribution methods within SL. But brand is not a lock by any means. Neph's success did not stop Aimee from creating a success, and Aimee's brand has not stopped countless of other designers from creating successful businesses.
