What do you believe SL is?

Mmm I believe it's a game...it's got all the same requirements as 1, creativity, thinking, life, a computer that can run it >.> :p. 1 of the definitions of the word "game" is, "a competitive activity involving skill, chance, or endurance on the part of two or more persons who play according to a set of rules, usually for their own amusement or for that of spectators."

And! Because I thought this might pertain to the subject, the definition of a simulation is, "the representation of the behavior or characteristics of one system through the use of another system, esp. a computer program designed for the purpose." - Amazing that fits Sl so well...but a simulation can be considered a game too.

I have no real idea what else to add, I just wanted opinions, real ones too. I'll add more when I see the opinions. But I believe SecondLife is nothing more than a game, or experience, but I'll point out, it's what I believe and not what you do, unless you also believe its a game and you know what I mean. It's a virtual world, but so is any other game you can play.

My opinion stands, SL is a game :p, plus it has currency too

Second Life, in my opinion, can't in any way be considered a game. There are games within it, and there are some aspects of it that are competitive, but there are no rules beyond those governing conduct and there are no set goals. Second Life is a place, a venue, a communication medium, and a platform. While a bar may have pool tables, dart boards, gambling, and social brinksmanship within it, you wouldn't consider a bar to be a game. Second Life is no more a game than your back yard, or a playground, or the telephone, or a town. It doesn't meet the definition of game in any meaningful sense.

No set goals, but everyone has a goal

The games IN Sl are minigames

And the TOS is technically a set of rules that we must all abide by or be booted out ...Not that anyone remembers it anyway. XD

Everyone has goals in life. Is life a game in any way but metaphorically?



Laws are technically a set of rules that we must all abide by or be booted out. Does that make the country or city you live in a game?

I just choose to believe it's a game I don't see any other way for it. If it weren't a game it'd probably keep my attention longer, but that's all my opinion as i stated before ^^

SL is a toy. Some people make games within it. But SL itself has no defined goals except what you yourself choose.

Many words have been written on the question of whether SL is a game, none of them worth reading, but for those with a penchant for self-abuse, you could try looking in the archives of these forums using the advanced search page.

Second Life is a communication tool that employs a virtual environment simulation system which allows users to interact with one another by operating representives of themselves called avatars, that has as distinguishing characteristics the ability for users to build virtual objects in realtime with the viewing program, to control the behavior of the virtual objects so created with a moderately powerful scripting language, and to engage in trade with other users using a micro-currency system.

Second Life can also be viewed as a protocol, a set of rules for exchanging information, an information exchange protocol tailored to allow the exchange of information needed to operate a realtime multi-user virtual environment simulation.

Second Life can also be viewed as the persons using the simulation, the machines they use to run the viewers, the data transmission system that links them together and to the servers, the servers and other hardware that operate the physics, asset storage, and other services needed to make the simulation work, and the employees of Linden Research that write the software, purchase keep the servers running, operate and provide the content for the secondlife.com website, and the investors that provide capital and operating funds.

--- addenda ---

I used the term environment above, but I think it might be more accurate to say that SL attempts to produce a virtual sensorium, not a virtual environment. The concern is with making something that looks good to humans, not to actually trying to accurately model a physical environment. Accurately modeling the environment would mean modeling electrostatic, magnetic, gravitational, nuclear, and other forces; if you looked inside an avatar you'd need to see internal organs and tissues, if you zoomed in enough you'd need to see cells, and the whole system would need to accurately model physical reality to the limits of human knowledge, which would be a pretty daunting task, beyond the powers of humans, silicon, software, etc.

Second life is not a game, E-bay has said it is not a game. it is a protocol, a slightly strict one who's servers happen to be owned by one company. If LL get past trying to make a livening at running the servers. It will expand beyond it's current limits. How IRC, Webpages, telnet, SSH and FTP have. Keep the main view open sourced, open source a base server. Sell addons, hosting to those who want it.
I see most of the current issues in SL and think they might be able to be solved or at least relaxed if some of this happened. When I first joined SL that is what the dream seemed to be. now we are worried about laws, money, and moral obligations. yes you might lose some sims and people off the grid, but that just allows for reorganization to improve the profit margin, reduce fees,, and let the legal and moral complications fall to someone else.

OK .. a game .. the players:

One person comes into SL with no preconceptions. They buy land, play with building, realise they have an artististic eye for creating clothes and starts making in-world money by selling their creations having the time of their lives doing this.
Another person, reads the media hype about making a fortune, comes in, immediately gets bowled over by the social interactivity of it, creates a huge list of friends, creates a group and spend their entire online time talking/dancing/partying with their chums and have the time of their life.
A third person, disabled, talks with people, finds they can pay their tier on their fancy house with swimming pool by writing animation scripts. Also have the time of their life.
A fourth person, confused with scripting, bewildered with building, hampered with lag and a low spec computer, resorts to clubbing and dancing, meets someone and makes good friends. Discovers they actually live nearby. They meet and marry having the time of their lives.

A game? ... OK ... who won?

its both and its one and the other and its what you make it cause its second life

there did i cover all the bases?

I agree, if you want it to be a game then it's a game. I want to earn money so to me it's not a game, simply a platform to support my cash cow.

How very limiting. Why not choose to believe it's a food? Much more original.

Incidentally, I read a very thought-provoking piece in a newspaper arguing that SL is actually the beginning of what will replace the internet, and the current technical limitations of SL can be compared to the first web sites that were all in Times Roman on grey backgrounds.

It's a social engineering experiment gone wrong.

Second Life is an environment.

In this environment, one can do whatever they want (within reason). They can build, create, chat, meet, play, explore, roleplay, fly....

Thats my vew and I'm sticking to it.

I'll pay you L$1000 if you say it's a pumpkin.

IT'S A PUMPKIN!!! *bounce*

When I first entered SL, it felt like nothing more then a game to me. My avatar looked and resembled nothing like me..........so I felt it was fantasy. To me that spoke 'game'.

But then I got an idea............and that transformed it into something so much more for me. I got the idea to help people. To help them with weight loss, now that doesn't same GAME!!!

When I start teaching classes on attachments to food, and people are sitting there listening and learning, how can that be a game? Its a new, innovative appraoach to reaching others.

I've changed my Avator to now feel more like "ME". I'm not fake when I'm in SL. What you hear in SL is what you would hear from me in RL. That is how I keep it REAL.

Of course its modeled in some way after games, there are games within the world................BUT its HOW you make SL to be.

You can spend you time inside doing something that touches the REAL heart of people..........or you can play games, pretend...

If you are looking to make it real. Then find something to do that touches the REAL you. Something that stirs your heart. Where you find you are making a difference in peoples lives. I promise you-GAME will leave your mindset.

That is my 2 cents

Platform.

Dessert Topping!

I know the offer is meant for me but i just had to say it:


SL is a PUMPKIN!!!!!!!

Life!

If a game, definitely not a zero-sum game. I've done a bit of all of what your described players did. But most importantly, I met the person I've been looking for all my life, so I've won big time - except our relationship has never been a game.

Does this mean everyone else lost? As you imply, certainly not. We can all be winners in SL.

But I'm THE winner (does victory dance), as far as I'm concerned

SL is the first step toward creation of the Metaverse--whatever THAT ends up being is anyone's guess.

I like to think of SL as a grand experiment in the creation of an alternate, but virtual, reality--in that sense, Second Life is a platform and the client is a browser.

Kam

EDIT: And isn't it odd that no one's said "Your World, your imagination?" I find that telling.

Welcome to the Matrix!

Second Life is a place. Not a game.

It is a virtual "country" that one can visit electronicly, via a networked interface. It's citizens are the "Players" who maintain accounts and content in that world. It's government is almost nonexistant, but would be Linden Lab when it enforces TOS and community standards.

Visiting SL is like visiting a frontier world. People come there from other places that have a more well-defined system of governments and laws and social expectations. They arrive here and find they are freed from most of the physical, social and legal constraints that their home reality imposes on them. Some can handle that freedom. Some expolit it. Some can't grasp the concept at all.

The result can be anarchy, or can be a creative wonderland. It is what you make it.

But a game? No. Games have clear rules, a goal to achieve that allows you to "win" and others to "lose".

SL is a life - the only goals and the only 'way to win' are what you impose on it for yourself, by your own free will.