Second Life--game or virtual reality?

Hello Autocatters:

Book in hand: The making of Second Life, OCLC #155715254

In the record, Second Life is listed as the subject, with the qualifier
"game". Consequently the DDC number assigned by LC is 794.8, computer
games. There's also an additional subject heading, Shared virtual
environments. 

I've never used Second Life myself and don't know much about it, but I
believe that the "game" qualifier is no longer accurate. According to a
Wikipedia article I located recently, Second Life is more of a shared
virtual world in which users, called "Residents", can interact,
participate in various individual and group activities, and engage in
commerce. It would seem that Second Life has expanded beyond the
parameters of a computer game and evolved (as it is still evolving) into
a shared virtual experience with commercial, educational, and social
networking applications.  For that reason, I feel that Second Life could
be given the qualifier "shared virtual environment" instead of "game"
and classed with that subject in 006.8.

What do others think?

Thanks for your input!

John McPike

Library Technician/Cataloger

Sacramento Public Library

828 I Street

Sacramento, CA 95814

jmcpike@...

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