...Second Life begins...
So goes the announcement in my intray that Second Life v1.3 is shipping.
The new features are interesting because they seem to mark a specific push by Linden to blur the boundaries between SL and "real world" communication modes. So says the announcement:
The walls between Second Life and the real world are tumbling down! When you're not able to visit Second Life in person, v1.3 lets you receive and reply to your in-world Instant Messages via email.
For communicating in-world v1.3 adds IRC-style emotes -- typing "/me blanks" in chat results in a display of "Your Name Blanks". Using "/" chats on the specified channel to communicate with Second Life scripts. ... How do you share your Second Life adventures with those who aren't yet in the know? Take a snapshot of your favorite people and places and send it as an email postcard right from the Snapshot window -- free of charge.
It can't be long now before we see "Jennicams" set up for virtual worlds. And it's pretty clear that the business plan for There is to take over the next-but-one iteration of AOL instant messaging. (Oh, a prediction/bet by way of aside: ten bucks says that AOL buys There within the next 3 years. You heard it here first.)
I'm not sure what to make of features like the ones appearing in Second Life. One view is that VWs will just be another communication modality--amongst the many that we have--and that prognostications about a brave new world are just the ravings of the over-enthusiastic. The other view, and the one that I have to admit I lean towards, is that announcements like Linden's point to the fact that these places will be genuine little metaverses, with their own unique types of expressive behavior, opportunities to do good and bad, and so on. (And I thought this even before I discovered that SLifers can choose the surname "Protagonist")
You know, these worlds could be really quite interesting. Hell, we might even play games there. I can't help but feel that there is an important shift happening right about now...
Gotta admit, SL is all that the late 90's VRML worlds hype did NOT turn out to be. Well, maybe its a lot harder to build stuff, but nobody's perfect.
Posted by: DivineShadow | Mar 29, 2004 at 21:34
Dan wrote:
How do you share your Second Life adventures with those who aren't yet in the know? Take a snapshot of your favorite people and places and send it as an email postcard right from the Snapshot window
A MUD-dev roundtable this past weekend nibbled away at an edge here. The topic there was to contrast the impact of graphical emotes with text based ones. My re-spin of it for here: its hard to communicate enough context of a VW to impact with those "not in the know". What can sending the occasional snap and "love and kisses" from a VW to someone on the outside accomplish?
So, I speculate that the value here is more of an ALT channel of communications for those already networked in the VW.
Posted by: Nathan Combs | Mar 29, 2004 at 22:55
Dan Hunter>typing "/me blanks" in chat results in a display of "Your Name Blanks".
I wonder why they don't go for ;blanks or :blanks, if they're keen on using textual world standards?
Do they allow "hello or 'hello for speech?
Richard
Posted by: Richard Bartle | Mar 30, 2004 at 02:17
You know, these worlds could be really quite interesting. Hell, we might even play games there. I can't help but feel that there is an important shift happening right about now...
From what I understand, There is working on something like this. Adding small games into the larger framework of the VW. Imagine being able to go into a Tiki arcade in There, walking over to a machine, and your view zooms in to whatever game you'd like to play. Since there uses tons of .swf files, flash games could easily be integrated into a framework like this. Meet me at the arcade...
Posted by: Bart | Mar 30, 2004 at 12:11
This version also allows anyone to buy entire islands. A group of ex-Uru players plans to buy an island and recreate the Myst-world they didn't get to experience.
Full details here.
Posted by: Edward Castronova | Mar 30, 2004 at 15:58
Dan, I'll take your AOL bet, especially if Mr. Case is involved in decision making. AOL has a bit of a record of canceling these kind of social/game spaces in favor of larger, trackable (advertisable) spaces (chat, IM, etc.).
I view the new features in SL as brilliant. First the IM<=>email maintains a social contact with the world that might otherwise be broken (*especially* among more casual users who don't collect IMs address of eveyone they meet).
The screenshot feature as "wish you were here" postcard tool *can* draw fringe people in. It's working those social nodes. As for not providing enough context - sure, but neither do travel brochures or picture postcards provide a rich sense of the location. They do provide social contact with context which can pique curiosity and lead someone one step closer to clicking on the "download" button.
And thats what I see these two as - bring curious, but cautious, folks in and keep them connected so they stay. They seem pretty low overhead, to boot.
Posted by: Scott Moore | Mar 30, 2004 at 16:33
> The screenshot feature as "wish you were here"
> postcard tool *can* draw fringe people in.
Now all we need is a SL/Flickr gateway. :)
Posted by: Andrew Burton | Apr 01, 2004 at 11:54
No, but someoen in the orkut SL group posted her live journal listing:
So, some of you are wondering just exactly what it is I am doing in SecondLife so much? I thought I’d give you a peek.
Dial-up, beware.
A little tour, in alphabetical order by image name.
http://www.livejournal.com/users/ladychangeling/108186.html
Posted by: Scott Moore | Apr 01, 2004 at 14:32
(pardon, this is a slightly more coherent and better spelled reply)
That may be coming. Someone in the orkut SL group posted her live journal listing (prior to the new SL feature release):
So, some of you are wondering just exactly what it is I am doing in SecondLife so much? I thought I’d give you a peek.
Dial-up, beware.
A little tour, in alphabetical order by image name.
http://www.livejournal.com/users/ladychangeling/108186.html
Granted, most of the comments are by other SLers. I find it interesting that she took it upon herself to try to explain her interest to people who might not get it. Not suprising for anyone with niche interests.
Posted by: Scott Moore | Apr 01, 2004 at 14:33