I guess I'll have to be the one to say it ... As much as I believe that video games have a definite place in the library, I fail to see why librarians continuously turn to "Second Life" as an example to back up this viewpoint.
My brother (who works in the gaming industry) had a former boss leave for California a couple years back to join Linden Lab and work on the "re-design" of "Second Life." He showed me a few screenshots of what the new look of the game would be, and I must admit that it was rather impressive; however, as far as I can tell, it did little to actually maintain the level of popularity that "Second Life" once had ... The truth of the matter is that "Second Life" lost its relevance ages ago, and (unless you're talking about MMORPGs like "World of Warcraft") these types of games just do not have the level of popularity needed to justify their continued presence in the conversation of gaming in libraries.
Google attempted a "Second Life" clone called "Lively" ... it failed.
Sony, with its vast resources within the gaming world, started up its own version of "Second Life" called "Playstation Home" ... its level of user activity is a running joke, if not greatly exaggerated.
The fact remains that "Second Life" has been in decline for a long time now, and attempting to establish a presence within that virtual world is no longer worth the effort ... What I did like about this video was the use of other "participatory media" by Rheingold within his lectures (Flickr, blogs, wikis, video, etc.); it certainly seems as if he is getting his "brand" out there amongst his students (even if "Second Life" might not be the best place to collect all of those applications).
The other thing I liked about this video? The fact that Rheingold called it "the Second Life" ... That gave me a good chuckle :)
Actually Second Life is NOT a game, but a virtual space. One CAN play there, but there are many other activities. That said, I am not personally fond of Second Life, but with many library organizations like ALA and SLA maintaining a presence there, it would be remiss not to at least mention it in class.
ReplyDeleteSorry Suellen, when I was talking about librarians who keep mentioning "Second Life", I wasn't referring to you specifically ... It's just that I continue to see it brought up within the literature, and I still see organizations like the ALA attempting to maintain a presence there, which I just find to be baffling (it's like continuing to encourage libraries to set up a MySpace account, that fad has come and gone).
ReplyDeleteAlso, you're right in that I shouldn't have referred to "Second Life" as a "game", I know there's been a lot of debate over the years as to how it should be classified ("game" versus "virtual space" versus "immersive 3D experience", etc.) ... However, I believe that's part of the problem, in that so many people still think of it as "just a computer game" that when people try to make it into something more (a place for learning rather than a glorified chat room with avatars) there's not enough users to support such an endeavor.
I don't know...I guess I don't understand "Second Life." I've never heard of it before. Reading your post gave me some background I was unaware of. What's the actual point of it??
ReplyDeleteBasically, the idea was that Second Life would serve as a "virtual chat room", where users could interact and exchange information while presenting the world with whatever persona ("avatar") they felt comfortable with ... IMO, the idea kind of fizzled out because people could get that type of interaction elsewhere (online gaming, MMORPGS, Facebook, etc.).
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