Ideal World

August 9, 2005 2:23 AM

The Protagonist : Virtual Entrepreneuris a 5 minute excerpt of the crossover machinima/meatworld documentary project Ideal World, and is about one user's "real life" in the MMORPG Second Life. The finished documentary seeks to examine the growth, impact and society of this amazing digital reality over the last 2 years.
[ via New World Notes ] Disclaimer: I am not a Second Life player- as much as I would like to be, I'm too scared it's too much fun.
posted by elphTeq (7 comments total)

Is Second Life really an MMORPG? To me, It always looked basically like a 3d chatroom with customizable avatars, not unlike The Street. Arguably a lot more interesting than another game in terms of what it's accomplished, and more of a "role-playing" device than any of the MMORPGs since that's all there is to it, but without any actual gameplay to justifty call it a "game".
posted by kafziel at 4:18 AM on August 9, 2005

I've never played Second Life, but from what I understand it most definitely is an MMORPG. It seems that the gameplay and storyline is not as linear or forced as most other "RPG"s.

After playing other MMORPG's for years, however, the competition doesn't really seem to fit into that category, depending on what you consider an RPG to be. Asking if game X is technically an MMORPG is almost a pointless question because definitions vary and the games themselves are still trying to find that magic formula to keep milking subscribers for as long as possible.
posted by melt away at 5:04 AM on August 9, 2005

Second Life is in competition with There.com to provide a social virtual space. There is no winning or losing. If there are quests or structured adventures, they were created in-game by other people who participate largely without subsidy from the Second Life (or There.com) commercial owner.

There.com fuzzes the line in a couple of places, as does Linden Labs (Second Life's real world corporation). There are some participants who are not employed by There.com or Linden Labs who nevertheless have some kinds of in-game commercial ties to the companies that run the environments.

The major difference I see between Second Life and There.com (I have an avatar in each one) is that Second Life does not exercise editorial control on player-created objects whereas There.com does. This means you get a lot of leeway for adult-oriented content on Second Life that you'd never see on There.com (at least not with current editorial restrictions). They both allow for generation of revenue, though. In both places you can sell your creations for in-game money, and both places have an exchange rate with the real world.

There's currency's exchange rate is something like There$1800 for USD$1.00. Second Life's is L$1000 for USD$3.50 - USD $4.00 at this time. In this way, the virtual entrepreneur can make a real life living if she sells enough of her things within Second Life.

Also, There.com does not subsidize one's existence at all in There's world (you must earn - through designing and selling new clothing and other item designs, or working for someone who can pay you, or working for There as a helper for newbies, or running interesting events that charge - or buy your There bucks), whereas Second Life just gives you L$50/week. As you can see from the exchange rates, it's a pittance, but it's something.

Another difference is that in There.com you can't give something away for free. In Second Life, you can sell an item that unlocks itself to infinite copies after it changes ownership, or you can lock it down to be only a single instance. Also, Second Life allows for a lot of content creation within the game environment itself, through manipulation and linking of 3D primitives.

I've had a Second Life avatar for only a few weeks, but I've found a lot more to admire about Second Life than There.com, which I always felt was too limiting to creativity.

But looking for plot or adventure in either is generally like looking for adventure in a chat room. Go to a MUD for that.
posted by kalessin at 6:27 AM on August 9, 2005

There's not really any storyline in Second Life. Occasionally the Lindens (employees of Linden Lab, the company that owns and operates Second Life, identified by the surname "Linden" in the game) will try to create some sort of backstory, such as earlier this year when they released a bunch of new land in the form of a new continent in the game (or "world", if you prefer) and posted entries in a blog leading up to the opening of the land to the public, but there's really no overarching storyline in which the players (or "residents", if you prefer) take part. It's basically just a microcosm of real life -- you can socialize, buy land/clothing/gadgets/trinkets, build things, shoot people, etc., and there are no goals imposed from above as there would be in an MMORPG like WoW.

Also, about There (since kalessin brought it up): most, if not all, of There's developers left shortly after the There beta ended and it was publicly released. Most of them either moved on to IMVU or some military project using the There technology that I forget the name of. (One of them was hired by Linden Lab.) So unlike Second Life (which should be releasing version 1.7.0 in the coming months), There is no longer actively developed.

And finally, I'll echo kalessin's sentiment about plot and adventure: Second Life is not really the place to find it. Although someone DID create a D&D-inspired MUD-like game in Second Life, called Dark Life ... I have no idea if it's still running, though.
posted by zztzed at 6:43 AM on August 9, 2005

I find that depressing. Can people really be satisfied if artificial reality gives them what reality can't? Playing a MMORPG like WoW seems better because it's more of a game, and not a wholesale replacement for human contact, which is what I'm afraid Second Life could become for some people.
posted by Citizen Premier at 10:33 AM on August 9, 2005

Citizen Premier - I think the "game" in Second Life is creativity. The tools for scripting and making objects are amazing.

Players can make any type of game that they want in the environment (FPS? RPG? 3-D Platformer?); which makes it a much more powerful reality than the fixed reality of WoW, for example.

Why spend your time adventuring for objects when you could make the very objects yourself? Why be one of 6 races when you could be one of a zillion?

People readily dismiss Second Life as 3-D avatar based chat when it really is a world-making machine.
posted by elphTeq at 3:21 PM on August 9, 2005

i'll stick with lambdamoo
posted by analogue at 4:36 PM on August 9, 2005