The single most impressive feature of Second Life is the capabilities that it provides the user to create their own content within the virtual world. Philosophers of technology claim that technology can always be viewed, in some way, as an extension of the person. In the case of Second Life technology, it can be viewed as a technological extension of the imagination. This is no small claim and the thing that Linden Labs did get right was the power that they put in the hands of their users to create their own worlds in Second Life.
This power to create is referred to as 'building' in Second Life. The user begins by creating a primitive object, called a 'prim' and then by modifying the shape, location of the prim and the images displayed on that prim, all of the content that you see in Second Life is created. There are some minor exceptions to this rather sweeping statement. For example, land is modified through a different editor in a process known as terraforming. And avatar looks are modified in an 'Appearance Editor' which will be discussed in the next post. But, for the most part, the vast majority of what you see in Second Life was created through building.
Building in Second Life is far from perfect. Its major drawback is that it is difficult to learn. All of the in-world tutorials are basically the same. The few available books are basically color glossy repeats of the in-world tutorials. And the in-world classes focus on how to achieve a specific result rather than on understanding building so that you can figure out how to achieve that result on your own. However, my experience with out-of-world graphics editors isn't a great deal better. So, I will give them a pass on that. If you want to learn how to build; you can. It may not be as easy as it could or should be. But any person of moderate intelligence and persistence can learn. And once you learn, what you can do is astonishing. So let's focus on that instead.
People with active imaginations are always picturing things in their minds. In fact, the definition of imagination is to be able to picture something in your mind that was not directly derived from experience. You can picture a unicorn in your mind, for example, even though you have never actually seen a unicorn. The beauty of building in Second Life is that if you can imagine it, you can probably build it. So instead of relying on those fuzzy pictures in your head, you can actually see what your ideas look like when represented in a virtual world. The net result of this is that your imagination and creativity come alive. In the classic movie - The Wizard of Oz - the film switches from black and white to technicolor when Dorothy leaves Kansas and enters the Land of Oz. The analogy is apt. Entering Second Life is like entering the magical World of Oz. It is a realm of the imagination, a place where all things are possible. If you can see it in your head, you can see it on the screen. And, if this were all that building in Second Life allowed you to do, it would be impressive enough. But it is not all.
When you create something in Second Life it is out there for everyone to see. So instead of those pictures being in your head, they are out there in a shared virtual world. You can display the products of your imagination and see the products of other people's imaginations. It reminds me of an old Bob Dylan song called Talkin' World War III Blues in which he says "I'll let you be in my dream if I can be in yours." This is the essence of Second Life - "I'll let you be in my dream if I can be in yours." The ability of users to get the content of their imaginations into the virtual world for others to see and the ability to see the content of the imaginations of others is truly the strength and most impressive accomplishment of Second Life. And the importance of this capability cannot be overstated.
That bears repeating. The importance of this capability cannot be overstated. And if I say anymore, I will only diminish it. So, I will end with that remark.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Monday, January 12, 2009
Animating Your Second Life
In the last post, I mentioned that what Second Life does give you is the ability to modify the virtual world as opposed to playing in a virtual world that some else (usually a game designer) created. This is not an entirely new idea. Perhaps one of the most notable earlier examples would be the various versions and varieties of Sims. Nonetheless, one of the ways in which Second Life allows you to modify the virtual world is through the use of scripts. Scripts are little programs written in a C-like language called Linden Scripting Language. And here we see a great example of a good idea poorly executed.
Linden Scripting Language, for those who are unfamiliar with it, allows you to animate objects in Second Life. This includes simple examples such as doors that open, visitor counters, and teleporters. It also includes more complex objects such as guns, vehicles, and security systems. Most 'activity' in Second Life other than that cause by keyboard directed avatars is driven, in some way, by Linden Scripting Language.
Thinking of LSL purely as a program language, it is about as bad of an example as one can find. If there is a theoretical model behind the language design it has been successfully disguised. The functions are named in such a way that nobody would ever guess what a function they need might be called. And, if you wish to learn the language, your only option is to learn it one tedious function at a time and hope you remember it for next time.
Thinking of LSL as a development tool, it is, once again, about as bad of an example as one can find. Their is virtually no support for developers. You write the LSL script in a notepad like editor and compile it by hitting the "Save" button. Who would ever guess that? If there is an error, it will tell you the line on which the error occurred and give you message that no normal person could possibly understand.
Unlike Visual Basic that provides extensive help to the non programmer, LSL leaves you to your own resources to sweat through script development. And unlike Java or C# that reward your effort by teaching you how a properly constructed language might look, LSL rewards you with nothing but frustration.
This language is not targeted at the casual user. It is not targeted at the advanced programmer. It is not really targeted at anyone. It is a horrible hodgepodge of scripting functions developed in what appears to be a laundry list fashion and all it shares with other languages is that it seem to incorporate almost every bad idea found in any other language.
The problem here, and this will become a repeating theme with LL, is that LL does not seem to know what they are trying to do. If LSL were developed for the casual programmer it should have been done entirely differently. If it were done for the advanced programmer, it should have been done entirely differently. Once cannot say that LSL fails to meet its design goals because there do not appear to be any design goals. And thus the user is left with a very difficult to learn and very difficult use programming language that deters nearly everyone who is not in SL on a mission.
It was a terrific idea gone horribly wrong due to a total lack of vision and direction. And that statement may well sum up Second Life as well.
Linden Scripting Language, for those who are unfamiliar with it, allows you to animate objects in Second Life. This includes simple examples such as doors that open, visitor counters, and teleporters. It also includes more complex objects such as guns, vehicles, and security systems. Most 'activity' in Second Life other than that cause by keyboard directed avatars is driven, in some way, by Linden Scripting Language.
Thinking of LSL purely as a program language, it is about as bad of an example as one can find. If there is a theoretical model behind the language design it has been successfully disguised. The functions are named in such a way that nobody would ever guess what a function they need might be called. And, if you wish to learn the language, your only option is to learn it one tedious function at a time and hope you remember it for next time.
Thinking of LSL as a development tool, it is, once again, about as bad of an example as one can find. Their is virtually no support for developers. You write the LSL script in a notepad like editor and compile it by hitting the "Save" button. Who would ever guess that? If there is an error, it will tell you the line on which the error occurred and give you message that no normal person could possibly understand.
Unlike Visual Basic that provides extensive help to the non programmer, LSL leaves you to your own resources to sweat through script development. And unlike Java or C# that reward your effort by teaching you how a properly constructed language might look, LSL rewards you with nothing but frustration.
This language is not targeted at the casual user. It is not targeted at the advanced programmer. It is not really targeted at anyone. It is a horrible hodgepodge of scripting functions developed in what appears to be a laundry list fashion and all it shares with other languages is that it seem to incorporate almost every bad idea found in any other language.
The problem here, and this will become a repeating theme with LL, is that LL does not seem to know what they are trying to do. If LSL were developed for the casual programmer it should have been done entirely differently. If it were done for the advanced programmer, it should have been done entirely differently. Once cannot say that LSL fails to meet its design goals because there do not appear to be any design goals. And thus the user is left with a very difficult to learn and very difficult use programming language that deters nearly everyone who is not in SL on a mission.
It was a terrific idea gone horribly wrong due to a total lack of vision and direction. And that statement may well sum up Second Life as well.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Customizing Your Second Life
There are basically three things you can do in Second Life. You can socialize. You can modify your avatar or the environment. And you can see how others have modified their avatars or their environments. If it were nothing more than socializing then Second Life would be little more than a 3D chat room. But there is a complex interplay between these three capabilities that produces an impressive synergistic result.
If it weren't for the social aspects of Second Life there would be no one to appreciate what you have done modifying your avatar and your environment. It would be like the old catch phrase "all dressed up and no place to go". But, there is something about having others appreciate your work that can be incredibly motivating. At the same time, seeing what others have done can be creatively stimulating. So, although I am going to focus on these mod capabilities, I don't want to downplay the importance of the socializing for giving significance to these mod capabilities. And, for the sake of brevity, I am not going to distinguish between modifications to your avatar and modifications to the environment. I will just refer to these generically as mod capabilities.
There are two kinds of mod capabilities in Second Life, those created outside of SL and ported in, and those achieved in-world. Mods created outside of SL and ported in include some avatar shapes and skins, clothing, animations, gestures, music, and textures (images). If this were all that Second Life had to offer, it would not be distinguished from other virtual worlds that allow mods created outside of the world to be ported in. It is the in-world mods that really distinguish it.
Mods created in world include 3D building and Linden Scripting Language (LSL) scripting. While these in-world mod capabilities are not completely unique to Second Life; they are what give Second Life its unique flavor, unique capabilities and unique possibilities. Between these two, it is the 3D building capability that Linden Labs got mostly right. Not completely right. But certainly in the right direction. LSL has promise but falls short of building in its potential. Since I have taken this long to get down to these two mod capabilities, I will save further discussion for the next post.
If it weren't for the social aspects of Second Life there would be no one to appreciate what you have done modifying your avatar and your environment. It would be like the old catch phrase "all dressed up and no place to go". But, there is something about having others appreciate your work that can be incredibly motivating. At the same time, seeing what others have done can be creatively stimulating. So, although I am going to focus on these mod capabilities, I don't want to downplay the importance of the socializing for giving significance to these mod capabilities. And, for the sake of brevity, I am not going to distinguish between modifications to your avatar and modifications to the environment. I will just refer to these generically as mod capabilities.
There are two kinds of mod capabilities in Second Life, those created outside of SL and ported in, and those achieved in-world. Mods created outside of SL and ported in include some avatar shapes and skins, clothing, animations, gestures, music, and textures (images). If this were all that Second Life had to offer, it would not be distinguished from other virtual worlds that allow mods created outside of the world to be ported in. It is the in-world mods that really distinguish it.
Mods created in world include 3D building and Linden Scripting Language (LSL) scripting. While these in-world mod capabilities are not completely unique to Second Life; they are what give Second Life its unique flavor, unique capabilities and unique possibilities. Between these two, it is the 3D building capability that Linden Labs got mostly right. Not completely right. But certainly in the right direction. LSL has promise but falls short of building in its potential. Since I have taken this long to get down to these two mod capabilities, I will save further discussion for the next post.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
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.
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.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
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.
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.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
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.
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.
Friday, December 5, 2008
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
