What are the Lessons of Second Life?
Posted on December 1, 2006
Filed Under Companies |
Second Life is a product I blow hot and cold on. I’ve written enthusiastically and I’ve written critically, but I think I’m getting closer to understanding why. Let’s set out the stall.
Second life is a 3-D make believe world made up of pretend territories. Those territories can be intellectual such as IBM’s IQ island; sexual as in all the adult islands; musical, cultural, artistic and playful.
In essence what we are dealing with here is a metaphor where a computer server in a rack looks like an island with a set of buildings and/or gardens on a screen, and where a person logged in on the server looks like a fit and healthy young person walking the island(s). You’re buying into a different way of saying: dual core.
Second Life has fortunately been treated to some of the best PR of any “new” product I can remember. But how successful can the metaphor be? First, though, how successful is it? Yesterday I attended an IBM Second Life event where approximately thirty of us met online to discuss…. Second Life. It was quickly clear that thirty is too many, so we split into two groups. In what sense did we actually meet?
Well, our avatars convened in a domelike part of the IBM island but once we began to discuss, this physical metaphor became irrelevant. We were all typing and staring at the chat bar. In effect we were doing chat. And the weaknesses of online chat then become apparent. If fifteen people all have an opinion then online chat becomes chaotic. The metaphor of an island and the presence of avatars does nothing to help.
IBM won considerable press kudos when their CEO gave a speech to the Chinese IBM workforce in Second Life. At least that’s how the story came out. But it seems that the story too is a metaphor. IBM’s CEO did not give the presentation to the Chinese workforce in Second Life. he gave the presentation to about 30 people in SL, thirty seemingly a maximum manageable amount. The presentation was indeed given online, to about 9,000 staffers but that is called a webcast. Nonetheless the press was happy to somehow transport this webcast into the ultra virtual world of metaphorical life.
Because metaphors are powerful you can chose engage with all the possibilities they offer. We were away at a brainstorm session on an IBM island called IQ. I can go with that. But in reality we were doing online chat. Currently Second life’s metaphors are well managed. The idea of using territory as a proxy for a server and avatars for log-ins is the beginning of a metaphorical way of looking at what we do online and that’s fair enough too - log-in boxes are dull, avatars are fun and engaging. And after all the idea of surfing is one big metaphor so anything that imrpoves the experience is good.
A significant group with in Second Life takes the metaphor in a different direction - towards intimacy. Because the self becomes beautiful and perfect in Second Life people engage in intimate conversations and sometimes in simulated metaphorical sex. Leaving the latter to one side the intimacy is the real breakthrough for the Second Life paradigm.
The problem is, that’s not a whole lot of use for business. At least not in anyway I learned at IBM yesterday. The problem we need to guard against when dealing with these metaphorical transformations is we don’t confuse fact with fiction, and reality with illusion, or metaphor with actuality, especially in a world given over to hype.
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12 Responses to “What are the Lessons of Second Life?”
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Hadyn, it’s right of course to take a cautious approach and not get sucked in by the hype but what I see in some of the anti-hype is a denial of the real advances being made in our relationship with the internet.
I thought this Fortune article (http://money.cnn.com/2006/11/09/technology/fastforward_secondlife.fortune/index.htm) got the balance right when it said - “No, Second life is not overhyped. Is it a game? No. Is it a marketing opportunity? Yes, but who cares? What matters most is that it may point to the future of the Net”
There’s no denying that there are troublesome limitations to Second Life now but so too was the web very limited when I started using it in 1994. The thing is we can project forward (as I did then) and see how obvious it is that with processing power still improving in line with Moore’s law our virtual worlds will be incredibly more useful by the end of the decade.
Already the hackers are near getting Nintendo’s 3D Wii controller working with the PC. Wait until we get that working in Second Life. Then imagine the next generation of the Wii where it might be possible to include the 3D gyroscopic controls into LCD eyeglasses and gloves. It should also be possible to transmit stereoscopic imagery to those eyeglasses by 2010.
Then remember that the likes of Vivox, Ventrilo and Teamspeak will likely have full dynamic surround and positional group voice working and integrated into our virtual worlds at that stage. And taking into account the inevitable improvements in graphics and bandwidth and it’s difficult not to believe that the majority of internet users will choose 3D over 2D. In fact there’s no reason why a virtual world can’t be a superset of the web.
I don’t disagree wtih anything you’ve said there james. Right now Second Life is seriously limited and it will change. But right now companies like IBM are exaggerating their use of and for what is there and I think that point is worth making.
Re: James’ comment
>And taking into account the inevitable improvements in graphics and bandwidth and it’s difficult not to believe that the majority of internet users will choose 3D over 2D.
I seem to remember the same claims being made for 3D Operating systems in the 90’s. And while we’re at it - why aren’t we all flying around using Jet-Packs ? Yes we *can* project forward but that doesn’t mean we’ll always be right.
re: second life’s wall-of-hype
People love to engage in myth-making. SL seems to push all of those myth-making buttons - allusions to a gibson-esque utopia - check. 3D interaction - check. I could go on. I think it’s the 3D interaction that suckers most people, and you nailed it with…
>In effect we were doing chat. And the weaknesses of online chat then become apparent. If fifteen people all have an opinion then online chat becomes chaotic. The metaphor of an island and the presence of avatars does nothing to help.
Not all projection forward is in the realm of science fiction. We’re not talking about jetpacks here, we’re talking about the inevitable forward march of Moore’s law, relatively small advances on *current* technology, and then pulling all the pieces together.
Walter says, “In effect we were doing chat. And the weaknesses of online chat then become apparent. If fifteen people all have an opinion then online chat becomes chaotic.”
Remember, project forward! Joystiq recently reported from the Austin Game Conference [http://www.joystiq.com/2006/09/12/agc-out-on-the-show-floor/] Among the points made -
- “Vivox is showing off their voice communication software — you’ll find it in EVE Online, Second Life, and Icarus Studios MMO to-be Fallen Earth. The difference between this and the ubiquitous TeamSpeak or Ventrillo is that it’s integrated with the game itself - no more alt-tabbing.
- “In mentioning voice in BigWorld [alternative virtual world platform] it is perhaps worth mentioning that BigWorld also offers voice by DiamondWare. DiamondWare offers two advantages. First, the voice is 3D positional; it sounds like it’s coming from the respective avatar, and it can move in realtime (stereo or surround-sound). Second, the voice quality is exceptionally clear–more like digital home theater than telephone quality. DiamondWare demonstrated this technology at the OGSI booth”
That’s sound but what about haptics? Here’s what a Forbes article recently said -
“Products, such as the CyberForce “whole-hand force feedback system” from Immersion Corporation and SenseAble Technologies, let users interact physically with virtual objects. For instance, by using a sensor-equipped glove and a force-reflecting exoskeleton, you could literally feel the shape, texture and weight of an onscreen 3-D object. Such devices are used now for virtual modeling, medicine and the military, but as costs decrease, haptic interfaces could become valuable communication tools. Using haptics technology, people will be able to shake hands virtually over the Internet, and doctors will have the ability to remotely diagnose and operate on patients.”
So, to repeat, we’re not talking jetpacks and warp drives here, we’re talking about technology that is already being demonstrated and integrated into some virtual worlds.
I don’t doubt that the technology for an immersive 3D experience exists - I just doubt that it will ever be used outside of specialist apps. It’ll never go mainstream. there were prototype jetpacks in the 1940s. It’s 60 years later and they still aren’t widely used. 3D is fine for games - and a handful of specialist applications.
Ok, interesting. I’d like to hear the reasons why you think the 3D immersive experience will never be used outside of specialist apps Walter? Is it how you think the interface will always be more cumbersome? When you say never,… do you really mean never? Even well into the future when we can experience an almost realistic immersive environment with full body-suit control and haptic feedback? Do you think we’ll always choose to interface via 2D monitors instead? Or something else?
James,
The reason is simple.
Most people either don’t care or don’t want an immersive 3D experience everytime they use the internet - they just want to get in and get out with a minimum of fuss.
Who’s going to put on a full-body suit control with haptic feedback (sounds scary) to get cinema listings or google “chest pains” ?
Obviously you’ve been researching this area and you’re interested in 3D immersion but most people just want to “use” the internet - they don’t necessarily want to live there.
Right, I know what you’re saying Walter but I’d still be interested to know what you think the interface of the future is if not 3D immersion. At this stage it’s all becoming a bit blue-sky and I know there’s no point flogging a dead horse but I really don’t think it’s going to be such a big deal to immerse (or ‘jack-in’ as they say in the movies) in future. I mean I put on a pair of glasses first thing everyday, and a watch and if it’s a cold day a pair of gloves before going for my walk. Immersion devices won’t be any more intrusive. That’s why I see it as a natural evolution that we’ll ‘live in’ a 3D interface instead of a 2D one. I just don’t see why we’d choose to stick with an interface that was merely a subset of a superior one.
I think of it as a similar evolution to the one we’ve already witnessed on PCs - the command line to the WIMP/GUI. I remember a number of my fellow students and colleagues down through the years who refused to give up the command line because they felt all that ‘eye-candy nonsense’ just got in the way. I can’t imagine many of them still holding out in text mode today. WIMP/GUI is a superset of the Command line - you can still run the DOS prompt from within Windows. But most of the time people use the visually rich ’superset’ interface instead.
Similarly, you’ll be able to access a 2D WIMP/GUI from within 3D virtual worlds (Second Life is adding a web browser) but you’ll also have access to the visually and sensorially superior 3D tools.
Well, that’s my opinion anyway. But I guess we’ll all have different preferences and choices.
>I just don’t see why we’d choose to stick with an interface that was merely a subset of a superior one.
That’s kind of how I feel about SecondLife vis-a-vis Real Life.
Walter’s argumetne wowrk pretty wel lfor me, James. I sense people are knowingly ramping up Second Life not just as a destination but also exaggerating what it is capable of now, and that’s going to hurt immersive technologies yet again (as did the misplaced optimism VRML)
“That’s kind of how I feel about SecondLife vis-a-vis Real Life.”
Huh? Ok, now we’re really gone off on a tangent
Ok guys, it’s been an interesting debate…. looking forward to continuing it at BarCampSouthEast. Hopefully you’ll both join in the the panel discussion?