A game involves a goal, rules, 2 or more opposing members (often teams) and a conclusion. Second Life (SL), sometimes referred to as one, is definitely not a game.
You can fly around SL for hours and come across very few inhabitants (which can be good sometimes). Many avatars new to this environment ask, “why”, “what do you do here?”. Very good questions, indeed.
In order for anything to happen in SL, you need interaction – with another avatar, an object, a notecard, a SLurl. Just as in RL, YOU have to make it happen. SL is a social networking experience. And keep in mind, you can be anti-social in this environment, but why waste your time here?
Once you recognize and feel comfortable in this virtual world, the next big step is interaction. Some would say building, but I say people. (Sorry, avatars.) And that’s one of the reasons it’s not a game. Avatars are unpredictable. You can never program avatars controlled by people. Ever try herding cats? That’s what makes it so interesting.
In Synthetic Worlds: The Business & Culture of Online Games by Edward Castranova’s (an economist who studied multi-user 3-D games), he never mentions SL as one of the leading online interactive games, although he points out there is a similarity in the reasons people seek out virtual worlds for entertanment, communication and sociability. Why? Because it’s not a game.
In Virtual World, Real Leaders, I have to stop at the title. The only way people learn how to motivate and guide others is to do so in real life. If you can’t do it here, you can’t do it in there. Yes, you can assume leadership roles in a virtual environment, but this doesn’t make you one in the real world where so many hard facts come into the decision making process. You can’t just pick up your business with a single mouse click and move it to a friendlier neighborhood (island), you have to make the product/service, the market, the people, the costs, the unions, the politicians, the economy… a whole host of sometimes uncontrollable factors, work. No virtual game, or virtual social environment can teach you that.
