First, What Did They Get Right?

When I first entered Second Life in November of 2006 I was completely unaware of the state of the art in virtual world technology. Hence, I was completely blown away by the 3D world with little avatars running around and chatting with each other. It wasn't until I read Edward Castronova's book Synthetic Worlds that I realize that there were other virtual worlds - largely massively multi-player online games. In fact, Castronova barely mentions Second Life. After reading his book, I decided to become more familiar with video game virtual worlds and took the plunge into World of Warcraft. Since then, I have tried a number of other, similar, games which have provided some useful data points for comparison.

To understand what Linden Labs got right, we can compare Second Life with a MMO video game. In a MMO video game the primary purpose for users to join the game is to go on quests. A secondary goal is to socialize and that is usually for the purposes of engaging the help of others on more complicated quests. A third goal is to customize your character. This can be done initially by making some character design choices and later by acquiring better clothing. Forth, vastly more sophisticated players can create custom objects which can be used or sold to other players.

Second Life can be most easily understood in the way it treats these basic goals. First, there are no quests in Second Life. People enter the world and can do pretty much as they please. Since users are not focused on satisfying quests, the environment opens up enormous possibilities for creativity and personal exploration. Not having quests has its downsides. But, this is really the distinguishing feature of Second Life. Linden Labs got this right and only later dropped the ball.

Socializing is improved as well in Second Life. Granted IM, voice chat, and groups are not unique to Second Life. But with nothing to do but hang out and be creative, the social aspects of the virtual world move to the foreground. Whereas users come to a video game to complete quests, people come to Second Life to hang out and socialize. This leads some people to claim that Second Life is just a 3D chat room. While this may be true at some level, the impact of a customizable 3D should not be underestimated. Bringing virtual world technology to the world of social interaction was another thing the Linden Labs got right. But, it is hard to appreciate these accomplishments with the sound of all those balls dropping in the background.

Second Life truly excels in the extent to which you can customize both your avatar and the environment. And it is unequaled in the extent to which users can create in world content. These final goals and how they were handled or mishandled will be taken up next.

The Staggering Ineptitude of Linden Labs

Albert Einstein once said "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe." I think the staggering ineptitude of Linden Labs is giving human stupidity a run for its money. Yes, I am beginning a rant, if you haven't figured that out already. To paraphrase another quote that I have no idea who to attribute to, Second Life has enormous potential and always will. That is to say, that the prospects of Linden Labs actually exploiting the potential of Second Light grow dimmer every day. It will remain, forever, a promising technology with unexploited potential. Why? Because of the staggering ineptitude of Linden Labs.

If I sound a little angry, I suppose I am. I came to Second Life just a little over two years ago and was astonished, as many people were, with the future potential of this amazing technology. Over the past two years I have invested an enormous amount of time believing that when this technology catches on, playing catch up would not be an option. And now it looks like this technology might never catch on the way I thought it would. And that is because Linden Labs has just dropped the ball. They simply do not know what they were doing. They created a gold mine and had no idea how to mine the gold.

In my early days on Second Life, I added some pages to my website to discuss my experiences. Way back then, I wrote "I am fully aware of the fact that by the time this technology becomes mainstream the name of Second Life might be little more than a historical footnote like the name of the first PC operating system (CP/M) or the first electronic spreadsheet (Visicalc)." As I was writing that, I had no idea how prophetic that might become. So, I thought it might be worth while to digress on a new thread to explore just how they managed to screw up so badly. What did they get right? What did the do wrong? What should they have done instead? Stay tuned.

The Mall vs the Red Light District

In real life we have a wide variety people pursuing a wide variety of interests. And, in general, this is a good thing. Within reason, people should be able to find socially acceptable vehicles for their self expression and need fulfillment. But, we also realize, in real life, that one person's pursuit of well being might conflict with another person's pursuit of well being. So, we segregate interests. You would not expect to find, for example, an adult book store next to a church, nor a half way house for pedophiles next to a high school.

These are extreme examples but more subtle examples are not hard to find. Most cities and towns have zoning restrictions. So you cannot place commercial establishments in residential neighborhoods. People need to live and people need to shop so both are legitimate needs. But, most municipalities feel that orderly development is preferable to letting anyone do whatever they wish where ever they wish. In fact, a town or city who followed that philosophy would deteriorate and become unlivable in very short order. And that is exactly the problem that has occurred in Second Life.

Linden labs makes a faint and almost perfunctory effort at segmentation by marking islands as PG or Mature. However, this is grossly inadequate for the variety of activities found in Second Life. The answer, somewhat glibly, is that Second Life needs zoning. Actually, the answer, somewhat more seriously is that Second Life needs to develop a segmentation scheme so that conflicting interests do not collide. Using very broad strokes their needs to be areas in Second Life where you go for business or education, and other places you go to explore personal expression and needs. I would characterize these broad strokes as The Mall vs the Red Light District. And over the next few posts we will explore the possibilities and pitfalls of segmentation.

What ARE These People?

Imagine, for a moment, that you are a socially alienated individual. For some reason, life has not gone well. Perhaps, you were mercilessly bullied in Junior High School. Perhaps, you have a physical limitation that prevents you from fitting in as well as you would like. Perhaps you grew up in a majorly dysfunctional family. Perhaps you are driven by compulsions that you cannot fully control and do not fully understand. Most people grow up with some sort of adversity and overwhelmingly most adjust. However, some don't. Some just become increasingly more alienated and increasingly more angry. In real life there are behavior traits that might tip us off to be wary of such a person. They may avoid eye contact. They may have very limited social interaction or poor interaction skills. They may dress or behave in ways that reveal their underlying rage. We cannot totally avoid such people in real life, but we do get warning signs.

What is such a person comes into a virtual world? What if they purchase a very normal looking avatar and dress is in a moderate and acceptable way? What if their entire purpose for being in a virtual world is to get you to lower your guard so they can punish you for all the insults that they have suffered in their life? Or worse, what if they wish to make you miserable just because it is fun?

I was told a story once, by someone who was visiting my Academy. They had gotten to be friends with someone they met in a chat room long before the days of Second Life. At one point the friend appeared to be becoming despondent and talked about committing suicide. Then, the person simply stopped appearing in the chat room. The person who was relating the story was frantic and contacted the chat room administrator. As it turns out, this person 'faked' a suicide to disturb (or 'mess with') the person who was relating the story. And this person, from the chat room, had done this a number of times before.

I don't know whether or not the anecdote is fully true, partially true or made of whole cloth since I did not investigate the incident myself. However, it rings true based upon experiences that I have had. And it certainly represents, if only anecdotally, a malicious form of griefing.

Why would somebody do a thing like this? How could they enjoy such a thing? The problem, of course, is that when you are dealing with anonymous people in a virtual world, you never know, for sure, who is at the keyboard and what there motives might be. And all you need is one bad experience with this sort of thing to put you off of virtual worlds for a long time.

So, anonymity has some major benefit and some major drawbacks. If you prevent anonymity you limit the ability of basically good people to explore who they are and express themselves in ways that they may not be able to express themselves in real life. On the other hand, anonymity can be a hiding place for psychopaths, sociopaths, and all manner of maladjusted individuals. Is there a solution? Yes, there is. And that will be the topic of the next post.