What do you believe SL is?

VERY nicely put Ceera!

yup! .. what Ceera says!!!

I agree with the idea that SL is a playground rather than a game, or a kitchen rather than a meal!

We are given the place to develop ourselves visually and character-wise and participate in this virtual society. There are games one can play in SL, like land dealing or wars or whatever. But I've come to realise that the greatest asset in SL is knowledge. The more you know about SL and the 'world', the more you can talk meaningfully with others about it.

SL is a toy.

it's not robust enough to be considered a platform. It doesn't have specific goals, so it's not a game. Therefore, toy.

And a broken one, at that.

Floor Wax!!

Some would probably say RL is a game too, heh.

SL is the beginning of something vast, I feel. I'm having trouble imagining what form new technology might take it to in, say, 100 years from now. 1000? Assuming not too many wars and/or other catastrophes.

I'm reminded of a story in the wonderfully philosophical, whimsical and dramatic collection of futuristic robot stories, "Cyberiad," by Stanislaw Lem. In the story a robot-being is born by an accidental coming-together of materials, and lives an entirely internal life full of imaginary people with their epic stories and histories, and never even experiences or sees the outside world at all.

The external-internal dichotomy- I wonder where it's going? A group internal life? Wow. A baby Geia, and we're the organelles in her cells?

It's a communication tool, but also it's a mind-life. A bardo. I love its possibilities, must say.

I use to believe Second Life was a life................Not anymore after LLabs (LLabs workers ) have proven over the past few months is a mind controling bull dog power play for their pure pleasure to hurt and cause stress for those they don`t like.......... I call it @@@@!

SL is a game or toy, no goals needed, don't need goals for playing with Lego either..........

Tastes Great!!

no

Less Filling!!

SL is a place to get crazy with all my friends-having so much fun it should be illegal!! LOL
Love you guys!!

No life

No brains


Only Money is needed

As far as bein a Simulation/Simulator, I would agree...
as far as SL being a competetive game?... I strongly disagree, since I know a lotta users who have no goal but to put some pocket change into it, and "play dress-up" w/ the avatars...then go to concerts.

That don't take much skill, hand-eye coordination, or endurance, like a videogame does. In my mind this is an interactive simulator (in progress)

Seconded!

A game has a single or multiple clearly defined goals that apply to all of it's players.
Where the concept of winning is also defined.

I think that it is helpful to think of SL in it's operational functions. So many people are distracted by the visual trappings that they lose sight of it's hugely important fundamental functions.

For example in it's simplest sense I like to think of SL as a fancy phone. A mode of communication.

Simply viewed in this role it is the most fantastic phone I have ever seen.

I can not only communicate with people anywhere in the Real world within a minute or two of turning on my computer, but I can also show them images of virtual or real people places or things.

I can conduct various very real transactions with this communications tool almost instantly.

Viewed in this manner alone, i.e. I can converse with anyone in the world and I can transact value with those same people, is a Huge function.

Not to mention, that if I choose to, I can do it for Free.

The real world has been permanently changed by far less significant technologies in the past.

Imagine things like salt and sugar used to be extravagant luxuries requiring months of
travel and hardship to obtain.

A simple wire or cable carrying a simple code (morse) changed the way the real world carried on transactions and was vital in global struggles (wars).

Some relatively minor technologies permanently affected the direction of the future of
Humankind.

In its most important sense I believe that Second Life is a communications tool.

In the short time that I have been in it I have met and made friends with people that I know for sure Never would have happened without it.

People from parts of the world whose cultures are vastly different, whose language skills
both theirs and mine made communication difficult. Yet did not prevent us from conducting trade and an exchange of ideas.

A simple gift that I may give without any thought of it having much gravity to me, despite
the fact that I may have spent many hours on it, (artwork for example) can be received by
another to whom it could have a massive impact, emotional or inspirational or not at all.

But the primary value just as all communication tools in the past have been so important
is that it happened at all.

and unlike in the past, with SL it happened easily and quickly.

I think it is dangerous to limit your conception of SL to that of a game. For in most people's
minds games are pretend.

In SL there are very Real People behind those avatars with real emotions and sensibilities.

People that I come across in SL that think of it only as a game tend to think that they
can do anything they want without any reactions or consequences reflecting upon themselves.

I generally avoid these people.

Regarding the design of the real world grid, I believe that a tree does make a sound if it falls in the forest even if there is no one (a human) there to hear it.

Because indeed there are other creatures and life forms there to be affected by this action.

Yet despite this objective observation...Perception is the defining factor in any one person's
reality.

The Internet caused massive changes in the global scenario both geo-politically and economically.

This was at least in part due to the freeing up the flow of information.

The citizens of many countries were left to wonder what the actual truth was beyond their own borders.

Real time communication especially in multi sensory formats creates bonds among
so many points of sentience and relay (people) across the globe that none of us has any idea what the far reaching impact of these actions will ultimately be.

Getting back to the idea of "perception being reality" the free flow of information between cultures gives all of us potentially a much clearer comprehension of what the actual reality
of the real world is.

SL is far more than a game!

Fenleab,

You haven't met me yet. If you had, you would know that it wasn't just a game. I have met so many new people, their first day or two in. After an hour or two with me, they know it isn't just a game. I am real and so are you. If it was the computer giving you words then maybe, but it is not.


Thank God if it is just a game than I won too. I have met the most wonderful man in my life. He doesn't think it is just a game either. One of the most intelligent men that I have ever met in my life. Look at it this way EMAIL, YIM, AIM, Skype or webcam with little minature people acting out the words you send back and forth to each other. Do you see my point.

Just a game, no I don't think so!!! It is a life.

Kira

The internet will change modern civilisation even more radically than the printing press did in its' time. Things like Second Life are a part of that process of change.

I have a pumpkin avatar...is that close enough?

Call it a game, environment, protocol, platform, toy, whatever...

SL is what you think it is and what you make it.

To me personally, so far it's a game or toy... as I have it listed under Games->Simulator in my Start menu.

So did I offend you in some way to deserve this personal insult?

I choose to say SL is a game for lack of better words. It is just easier to say game. But besides that it is a game to me anyways dispite all the super analitical views on what it is or isn't. Game is simple and to the point.
"Hey want to play a game?"
"Sure!!"
"Ok lets play SL."
"Ok sounds fun!!"

See how simple!

SL in a game for me.........or maybe a hobby. Something fun to "play" when it works reasonably. There are educuational aspects to it but I don't think you can earn any degrees in SL. I suppose it could be a platform as some have said.........but, actually, that platform exists for the sole purpose of delivering the game. An experiment is quite accurate in my view. Some say it's a metaverse.........but I guess I don't know what a metaverse is other than some generalized comparison to a universe. That just doesn't make any sense to me. With the micro economy created by Linden Labs it can be a source of income for some.........though it has a rather low rate of return in my opinion. A social network is probably accurate too.......but so are the old chat rooms and Yahoo. A community is a stretch in my mind.......but we can be "community" minded and play at being neighbors. And to call it a life...........well, I guess some might but it's an imaginary life.

Simply put SL is not real. It's what we image it to be. We all get our benefits be it sheer fun or a little money or true love or education or whatever it is we get. But in the end it's a game.

Believe it or not, if SL vanished tonight, tomorrow we would all still be around. Only thing we would lose is what we made SL to be in our imaginations.

You're bating.

A better question possibly - Is what will SL be?

It seems theres two paths for a virtual 3D world to take as it expands.

One would be a completely open source 3d modeling scheme where people are free to build their own server and hook into the grid and offer virtual "land" Much like a 3d version of the internet. Servers would be self regulating. This system leads to huge freedoms., If only becuase its impossible to control. Much like the internet is in a 2d sense.

Second would be a more controlled Virtual space where a large company provides over -sight. This world would have a lof of company controlled regulation. Performance and to some extent , content could be monitored. It would probably work better for the average user but would lack the freedom of the other system.

Which will Second Life be? It shows traits of maybe wanting to do both right now. Almost like they are trying to decide.

Right now they are a small , growing company - providing the over sight and all the virtual land on the grid.

However they have also expressed intrest in being open source more and more

From the fairly short time I've been reading these forums, he/she has insulted many people, myself included (a few times already). In other words, try not to take it personally, it's the way he/she is sometimes.

EDIT - sorry, I am not sure of the gender

What i imagined SL to be when i first came to it, would have to be a virtual world where you can be/do anything your imagination could think of. However, almost 3 years later i realize i was only partially correct. To me it's more like a open canvas where people from all over the real world come in to goof off, grief, scam, gain/abuse power, or run a business. It still has it's freedom to express yourself, but only to a extent of where it begins to piss off other people who don't understand what "your world, your imagination" truly means.

Entertainment - and I can "play" as little or as much as I choose.