Re: Second Life--game or virtual reality?

Maybe it was the company that I kept when I was a child, but usually those
playground activities had the goals of catching the others and not getting
caught by said others all before recess was over. And scores were kept,
which led to some heated contests later on in the school year.

The definition of game from Merriam-Webster does define part of what SL is
for some users: play, diversion from their first lives. Nonetheless, as
others have pointed out, SL's function is more than a diversion. Meetings,
conferences, book readings, music concerts, political campaigning, social
research, attending class (SJSU's virtual campus) - even IBM has offices in
SL, among other businesses. Sure, you can try and do that in a MMORPG, but I
would bet that MMOs, even though their environment is non-liner and gives
the gamer a lot of freedom, might not be the best place for these activities
to take place. I have yet to see a weekly status meeting for a first life
business in WoW.

Cathy makes a good point about SL as being a CMS with the option of
synchronous and asynchronous interactions. That makes a whole lot of sense,
especially when you look at all the educational institutions that are using
SL for their classes.

On 5/15/08, Kevin M. Randall <kmr@...> wrote:
>
>
> The lack of a defined storyline or goal to play out does not, by itself,
> make something not a "game".  Take, for instance, playground activities such
> cops and robbers, or cowboys and indians, or (as I liked to do in grade
> school) "Lost in Space" and "Star Trek". There is no "goal" or scorekeeping
> involved, but they meet the primary definition of "game" as found in the
> online Merriam-Webster Dictionary:  "activity engaged in for diversion or
> amusement : PLAY"
>

***********************************************************************

E-mail AUTOCAT listowners:             autocat-request@...
Search AUTOCAT archives:  http://listserv.syr.edu/archives/autocat.html
Selected AUTOCAT commands: http://www.cwu.edu/~dcc/Autocat/options.html
  By posting messages to AUTOCAT, the author does not cede copyright

***********************************************************************