What is second life, is it really social networking or just another game? Second Life is a virtual world in which its inhabitants can roam around and interact with others, lead a different life and even conduct businesses inside it. Second Life uses high end graphics to create a virtual world in which its users can roam around and the users are represented using Avatars, and they trade using the virtual money Linden Dollars. But is it social networking? Well for one thing Second Life gives an alternate reality to its users where they network with other people who are also in their own alternate reality. There can or cannot be a link between this reality and the real world, so that means your friends who you interact with in the alternate reality, you might not even know who that person is. In the recent past there has been news about companies setting up shop inside second life, majorly the apparel manufacturers to sell designer clothes and even IBM who set up a customer support desk. The viability of second life as a business platform is now being questioned; I recently came across an article in the BBC Magazine on 20th November
“What happened to Second Life?”
The author questions the success of businesses in second life, after all the media hype it received 2 years ago, its mention in media has also decreased. Companies which have bought land in the virtual world after paying money are now finding that no one is visiting. Many of the companies like “American Apparel” have already shut down saying that after the initial influx of people barely anyone visits the shop. Even Reuters has withdrawn their correspondent who they had started in Second Life to report on Second Life news. The reasons being cited by the author for all this is the bulky nature of the second life interface which requires high internet speeds and good graphics to be able to operate the avatars. The complexity associated with controlling and learning how to move around is also not helping to really increase the active members of the second life population. Also the author feels that Second Life cannot be integrated with smart phones because of the intense graphics requirements and smart phones are going to be used by the majority of the people to do such social networking activities. Even though the number of people joining second life is still increasing, the number of active members is low due to the difficulty in learning how to control and move the avatars around. Most people just join and get frustrated as it becomes difficult to control and do not become active in the virtual world.
I agree to the author’s argument that second life cannot sustain itself as a business platform because of the difficulties associated with the graphics requirements and the inability to make it compatible to smart phones. Right now in its current phase the only people who can afford to become active in Second Life and lead active lives are those who can dedicate to living mostly in this virtual world. But in this real busy world how many people have the time to dedicate a significant portion to the virtual world. By setting up shop in Second Life businesses hoped to create advertisement for their brand in which new designs can be promoted via their virtual stores. Clothes designers also design clothes for avatars which can be sold to them in the virtual stores. It is true that setting up a store in Second Life can offer an excellent advertisement opportunity, if there are a significant number of people visiting the store to be able to cover up the cost of maintaining the virtual store.
Coming to the other point of contention if Second Life is really a Game or a Social Networking application, well unlike other social networking sites, Second Life can keep itself separate from the real world, that is the people who you interact with in Second Life you will never get to know in real life and they might have an altogether different personality. So it cannot be concluded for sure if it brings people together like Social Networking applications. It just facilitates to create another world where people can interact with others. The biggest complaint about second life is that most of the people in it are “wierdos” and it takes some effort from people to actually make good friends in Second Life.
In my personal opinion Second Life is a next generation type of application, and it will take a lot more technology improvements in our telephone networks and the second life software to make it more user friendly and faster in operation. Until this happens the usage will be hampered by its complexity and the inability for the systems to handle the graphics requirements. Maybe even one day smart phones will be able to handle the Second Life application. But clearly it offers an alternate to the real world we live in, an alternate reality where we can meet different people. With regards to businesses, I think right now with the present technology it was too early for businesses to jump in to be able to make profit, but if the population is ever increasing like Linden Labs is claiming one day it might prove to be the most effective way of advertisement. We could just as well browse through the latest designs in a clothes store in Second Life and run over to the real store to buy the item.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8367957.stm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_life
1 comment:
I'm inclined to agree with you, but what you might have done to strengthen your case was to talk about what made Second Life appealing in the first place. Some of those same factors (e.g. novelty, appeal to fantasy, anonymity but with an 'avatar' identity) may well herald the next phase (Third Life?)
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