To my group members – HELP! It was challenging developing a tetrad for Second Life. Not being a resident, as Second Life users are known, and finding the notion of having an identity of my own choosing in a fantasy world odd, probably prejudices me. To this uninitiated Second Life seems a poor replacement for rich, real world interactions. But it is challenging to even define what Second Life is. Most think it is a game, but it is not really popular with gaming because of the low quality graphics (TED Conferences, LLC, 2008). The CEO of Linden Labs, creator of Second Life, Rod Humble describes it as a shared creativity tool (Hindman, 2011).
Most frequent users are between 30-60 (TED Conferences, LLC, 2008). Avatars though tend to be 20ish looking. Does it then replace real-world interactions with hipper, slimmer, younger version of yourself?
Some businesses ventured into second life but that interest may be fading or changing approaches (Reuters, 2007). This seems to be true of Second Life residents in general. In 2008 there were over 13 million residents (Schilling, 2008). But in a given week less than half a million logged in, and in a given month over 700 thousand logged in (Schilling, 2008). Even though some educational institutions have ventured in to Second Life, most educators are not jumping on the band wagon (Ash, 2011).
Enhance:
So what does it enhance? Creative abilities? Our own images/identities? I went with image and social range of possibilities as most people utilize second to hang out and relax with resident friends (Reuters, 2007).
Obsolete:
It is unclear to me what it might replace. It is not a new technology. Virtual reality has been around for a while and many other products incorporating virtual reality (gaming and simulators) have higher quality graphics than Second Life (TED Conferences, LLC, 2008). It doesn’t replace video conferencing or phone calls because you don’t see or hear the real person. I went with reality and face-to-face relations and that is a scary thought as Philip Rosedale, the creator of Second Life, admits (TED Conferences, LLC, 2008).
Retrieve/Rekindle:
I find this quarter of the tetrad particularly challenging. A virtual world that you can actually hang out in is new. It has anonymity. Perhaps it recalls masked balls. You go to a party to hang out with people with your identity unknown. But of course that is still in the real world and a mask does not alter other attributes (height, weight, voice, gender, etc.). It is the best I can come up with though.
Reversal:
Facebook has significantly outpaced Second Life as a social networking technology..
Ash, K. (2011, June 15). ‘Second life’ struggles to catch on with educators [Web log message]. Retrieved from: http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2011/06/15/03secondlife.h04.html
Hindman, B. (2011, June 23). Second life’s CEO Rod Humble talks anniversaries [Web log message]. Retrieved from: http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/06/23/second-lifes-ceo-rod-humble-talks-anniversaries
Reuters. (2007, Oct. 12). Companies rethinking ‘second life’ strategies. Retrieved from: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,301250,00.html
Schilling, G.B. (2008, May 7). Second life usage demographics [Web log message]. Retrieved from: http://www.bananaverse.com/2008/05/07/second-life-usage-demographics/
TED Conferences, LLC. (2008). Philip Rosedale on second life. Retrieved from: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/the_inspiration_of_second_life.html
Scott,
ReplyDeleteI think SL is a tool for creating "real life" interactions when there are limitations to those interactions occurring face to face. Online lab courses is one such possibility. I think if we move away from the gaming aspect, it is easier to see non gaming uses.
What do you think? I am not a resident either, by the way.
Erica
Hi Erica,
ReplyDeleteI would love to see your colleague's second life lab. My understanding from the limited research I did that most people don't use it for gaming. In fact most gamers don't bother with SL because the graphics aren't high quality (see the Rosedale video). Most use SL to relax and hangout with resident friends (see the Reuters article). That was the main reason for me seeing Facebook as its replacement.
Scott
Hi Scott,
ReplyDeleteWhat an indepth tetrad! Your work is very high quality and clearly well researched. I think you are on the right track when you say that Facebook can potentially replace SL. Facebook is a place where people can go hang out with people they may know in real life as well as those whom they do not know. I have also noticed more and more educational institutions beginning to pop up on facebook.
Scott,
ReplyDeleteDido on the “Retrieval” quad of the tetrad as I find it difficult to process.
In response to your post, I understand about not being able to see the value of Second Life (SL) due to lack of tactile senses. I try to look at thing from a different perspective (a glass half full) for example, tactile learners can benefit in SL as they can experience the learning that gets deposit into their long term memory where learning is retained.
Scott,
ReplyDeleteMy blog went through this time - must of logged in during a systems upgrade this morning Sunday, July 03, 2011.
Lynda
Scott,
ReplyDeleteI can totally see the interpersonal function. I have a feeling that is why Facebook's games are so popular. When I was an undergrad, I took an economics glass in the Ag department. We had to play a sim game that was more than something like Sim City and less than SL. The point of the game was to make decisions and see through the actions. It reminded me a lot of the choose your own ending novels and comic books. To that end, I can see SL really leveraging experiences to improve critical thinking -- moving away from interpersonal functions to more temporal functions.
What do you think?
Erica