SecondLife vs. Game

After getting tired of trying to explain the difference between SecondLife and a game, I decided to draw pictures. Pictures tend to have a more direct effect on the brain, for some reason.

Off to the right there is a classic MMORPG. The game (blue) encompasses the virtual world (green), and it all exists within the Real World. Simple, and to the point. Generally speaking, there is one 'game' within the MMORPG though there can be many quests.

When virtual items became valuable enough for people to actually pay real money for them, there was a cross between the game and the real world.

Pretty simple, actually.

SecondLife, on the other hand, is a little different. Like many newer virtual worlds, it has business transactions which connect it to the real world - and in SecondLife, this is encouraged whereas in other virtual worlds it is not, or is not encouraged as much.

Thus we come to the representation of SecondLife - which allows games within it, as decided by the users - such as role playing and role playing and whatever else can be dreamed up - I've seen chess. Then there are simulations, and there is business. Business transactions happen both in world and outside of the world - payments related to SecondLife may never enter the SecondLife economy. Money in the SecondLife economy circulates, and is sometimes even invested. The key here is that while a game may exist within a virtual world, a virtual world may contain many games.

Perhaps these images will help the mainstream media better understand why calling SecondLife a game is inappropriate and demonstrates a lack of knowledge on the subject on which they have chosen to write.

It is time for the mainstream media to accept the term 'virtual world'. Games can be played, certainly - just like on the internet itself - but a virtual world has so much more potential and allows for more than just a 'game' with certain goals and rules can allow for.

Like anything else, one gets something out of a virtual world representative of what one puts into a virtual world. If one puts money into a virtual world, one would expect that money would purchase something of value to the purchaser. If one puts effort into a virtual world, getting acknowledgment and even money out of the virtual world makes sense. Socializing begets socializing. Cybersex - well, figure that one out.

So there you go, mainstream media. Stop calling SecondLife a game. Its a virtual world which does encapsulate some games and has the potential to encapsulate more - but it is a virtual world.