Ok, so I opened up a Second Life account at the suggestion of my remarkable professor and I was literally catapulted into a Virtual World. No, not like Pac Man. A REAL VIRTUAL WORLD!!! Like, the world we live in now….just virtual.
I do not know about other people, but I was a little scared by all of this. It was all just so creepy to me. I couldn’t help thinking about that movie Matrix and imagining that I was really somehow controlling another life for myself in some other universe. People were approaching me in this world and talking to me. One woman even gave me a new outfit. It was all so real! I had a mentor who was guiding me through it all. I had NO IDEA there was a whole other alter-world that was going on 24 hrs a day like this, with over 10 million people logged on all over the WORLD! Virtual people from everywhere are creating self-generated entertainment and economy on this thing! I mean this is waaay too real. On Second Life, you can make yourself look like you really look or even make yourself look the way you wish you looked. One thing I found to be particularly cool about it was that everyone in this virtual world has to be nice and respectful because anything other is NOT tolerated in this game. In a nutshell, you will be reported and kicked out of Second Life if you start doing or saying anything offensive or stupid! Therefore, it is kind of like living in our real world, only MUCH better. Imagine what our world would be like if we had that same intolerance. Ha! It definitely wouldn’t be 10 million people here, that’s for sure!
But what really scares me about the whole thing is that it is so much like living in the real world, that there is
a constant need for continuation so its not really a game as much as it is ….just living. I see the potential for this becoming an extremely addictive side hobby and I personally don’t want to spend MORE time on the internet than I already do on average.
Anyway, aside from making tons of money, the purpose of these MMOG games seems to be to enable players (Residents) to cooperate and compete with each other on a grand scale, and to interact meaningfully with people around the world. For the most part, MMOG games like Second Life seem to be pretty successful at doing just that. According to Wikipedia, In January of 2008, Second Life residents spent 28,274,505 hours in this virtual world, so an average about 38,000 residents were logged on at any particular moment. That is quite an astounding realization for me who only just entered this world for the very first time as Adrienne Moonites last night.
on another note…
Given all I have been learning this semester about Social Media and the Digital Disruption, I think I was most pleased and surprised about something I came across in the book Naked Coversations when authors Scoble and Israel agreed with the premise that “Blogging and Podcasting…will not completely displace existing media nor will change the traditional role of public relations”. Stated by Trevor Cook, Director of Sydney-based PR firm Jackson Wells Morris. I’m not sure I agree with him.
