Why Virtual Worlds (like Second Life) Have More Value Than Twitter & Facebook
Today I read Mitch Wagner’s blog post entitled “Why I hardly ever go on Second Life anymore.” In it he says:
“Short answer: It’s inconvenient.
Long answer: I love Twitter and Facebook in part because they’re very convenient. I can use them from my MacBook Pro or my iPad or iPhone. I usually check them only for a minute or two at a time, as a little break between whatever else I’m doing, like taking a sip of water.”
He concludes with:
“I think Second Life, and virtual worlds, may have gone as far as they can go, that maybe the whole avatar-in-an-imaginary landscape metaphor is the wrong metaphor to best achieve the benefits that Second Life provides, just as Usenet was the wrong metaphor for mass adoption of online discussions, and blogs turned out to be the right one.”
I get that Mitch is frustrated. Today we live in a “NOW” society. We want things to be quick and easy. Social media gives us the ability to check in and check out in a few seconds. The problem with social media is that the connections we make there can often on there own be superficial.
Social media is in many ways inadequate. In fact, the real value of social media is not in talking or engaging at all. The real value of social media is in listening.
In order for social media to have power, we have to extend the conversation. We are already do this using more traditional media.
Why do we still write books or blogs? Because people read them. So why use virtual worlds? Because more than any other space, people are engaging/collaborating/creating/etc in virtual worlds in a uncommonly immersive way that is highly emotionally and significant. A place where you can not only be part of the story, you can also create it. It’s hands on. I don’t want to just read about something, I want to do it! I want to experience it myself.
Is it a necessity right now? No. Not yet. However, virtual worlds present the biggest opportunity we have ever had.
The value of virtual worlds like Second Life is incomprehensible. It is worth more than the numbers.
What’s the ROI of my dogs? I put countless amounts of time and money in taking care of them, feeding them, walking them, etc. Some go on to become Seeing Eye dogs and literally change people’s lives. Others like my Patty (who had a heart condition that prevented her from becoming a guide dog) give me immeasurable amounts of love and support that are as responsible for my success almost as much as my mother(who’s ROI is also inconceivable).
It’s a silly question to ask, really. If you can’t understand the value of relationships, storytelling, real-time creation and collaboration, community, etc then I can’t help you. And it’s clear that so many people don’t understand or they just don’t care (they just want to sell stuff or whatever) because if you understood the value, you would justify the time, energy, etc because EFFORT = VALUE. You get out what you put in. You get so much more out of virtual worlds then the hurdle you have to jump to get in.
We spend time complaining about viewers, UIs, announcements, but at the end of the day it’s not that important because Linden Lab doesn’t make Second Life what it is.. WE DO.
And honestly, it won’t always be like this. The technology is coming. I haven’t figured out all the answers yet, but I know they are coming because we already see improvements in the virtual world everyday (just look at the enhancements of mesh support or Kinect hacks).
The internet itself is only 15 years old. It wasn’t that long ago that AOL was spamming us with CDs in the mail and we had to hear the distinctive sound of our dial-up connecting. The internet is so young and is growing so fast we are grossly underestimating the power that virtual worlds will have and already do now.
The technology will come. The numbers/stats will come. More people will then be able to justify their use then, but the value is here now.
UPDATE: John “Pathfinder” Lester lays out what he thinks are the next big steps for virtual worlds.
Alas, there have been many SL users very like Mitch – impatient for ‘instant gratification’ whether it be by instantaneous contact with an in world associate, instant loading of the VW, or simply knowing that this time upon log in, things will flow smoothly from our client and ISP. As a user of the internet for over 20 years, I can say that the journey to bring us this far has for me, been something I would not have missed for the world, it has been truly amazing to see the exponential growth and development. I know that it will only develop more, but to see this you need to look beyond what we have now, and look at what we could possible have, and make it happen. For me, the gadgets and gimickry of facebook and twitter are useful, but non fulfilling. Communication is not just about putting out brief text messages with perhaps a link or two. We are not that rushed that we need to do all our interaction in 20 second grabs. Virtual Worlds allow for the imagination, twitter never will.
AWESOME response! Great post! I totally agree!
I love that you turned the classic question of ROI back on them and used your dogs and mom as an example! Dead on! It is a silly question! The stats just tell them what they want to hear anyway. It’s clear SL has value, just ask any of the 400+ schools, universities, and non-profits using it. Thank you for putting it in perspective.
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Well done, excellent response to Mitch’s post. Personally, I’m patient regarding anything being fixed, or made easier. Those of us who need to create, to make things happen will always find our way through the issues and problems. Meanwhile, we’ve created community, forged friendships and made a beautiful place, all while learning skills and specs that we never knew we needed, but now cannot do without. I re-posted this to the Tools.Jam blog, there are some sympathetic ears there, I believe.
Hi Jenn. Thanks for sharing the post and your refreshing view. If only more people could see the virtual world through your eyes.
why did he have to say “my macbook” or my “iPhone”, instead of “lap top” and “cell phone”. Obviously an elitist, and not worth paying attention to. When the revolution comes, his will be one of the heads to roll into the basket, along with all the other sinners’.
Reed, I most definitely am an elitist, but not because I own an iPhone and a MacBook Pro. Those are just consumer goods, available to anybody with the cash to buy them. I’m an elitist because I think smarter and better educated people should run the world. And because I think it’s crazy to judge another person because that other person chooses to use a trademark rather than a generic word.
Some trademarks become generic words. Just ask the companies that made cellophane, or aspirin. Ask Xerox or Kleenex.
Sheesh.
you are SO at the top of the list there mr. smarty-pants. see if your mac book pro helps fend off the pitch forks and other assorted gardening tools.
If they are Apple pitchforks and gardening tools they will be ELITE pitchforks and gardening tools, wielded by ELITE PEOPLE. They’ll be MAGICAL. And if they are not Apple gardening implements I will FEND THEM OFF using my MACBOOK PRO as a shield and my iPad as a NINJA THROWING STAR!
So there.
you’ll be lucky to have one of these magical mac things you speak of. we will be burning them all in bonfires you see. they’ll see the smoke for miles.
I don’t believe that virtual worlds are in the same classification as places like facebook, twitter and blogs. Second Life is about community, gathering, collaborating and evolving. Facebook is connecting but not at all in the same way. Second Life entertains with music, art, history, storytelling, parties, presentations….and on and on WITH others. Facebook is an individual experience. I can check it anytime I’d like but that doesn’t mean that I’m interacting with anyone else. Interacting with their interactions is not the same as interacting with them. Whether or not anyone believes in the potential of virtual worlds is beyond the point anymore. Those of us that do and are using the platform recognize the potential and, not to worry, we’ll leave the light on for the rest of you.
I agree they shouldn’t be classified as the same. While virtual worlds are definitely social media, they are also soooo much more.
LOVE this!
a better comparison would be secondlife and skype surely
To be honest, I use Facebook the least. While it is good for connecting with friends and family, it’s not all that great for real communicating back and forth. Twitter I use more like a news feed, retweeting things that interest me, as those who follow me, might be interested in them as well. Certainly better than tweeting what I just did or am about to do. Then there is Second Life… now that is real social networking, actually communicating back and forth with others. No it’s not something you’d do on your smart phone yet… but, there have been enough accidents blamed for texting from a smart phone. If texting and tweeting and Facebooking are thought of as social networking, then Second Life must be a higher form of social networking, and I like it best!
> “The internet itself is only 15 years old”
Not at all. Depending on exactly how you count these things, you can pick 31 or 41 years, approximately, and multi-user online virtual environments of one sort or another have been around for most of that.
The Web itself is 20 years old this year, on its own.
Yes, technically you are right. What I should have said is the internet has only been mainstream for 15 years (since 1996/1997).
While some form of the technology had existed and there may have been some early adopters, I think people forget how young this whole movement and platform is! There were multi-user experiences they were more multiple users accounts on things like Unix that hardly compare to what we’ve had in the last few years.
Check out this clip from the Today Show in 1994. They were talking about it, but don’t really know what it is or understand it.
“What is the internet, anyway?”
I think this clip demonstrates that the internet (not unlike virtual worlds) had it’s own hurdles. People had to learn how to connect to it, what @ meant, what .com’s were, etc. If we say the internet as a concept came about in around the 70s.. it took about 20 years or so for the mainstream to really start to understand it and use it regularly.
I’d say the Internet has been mainstream for just five years now (from the perspective that ‘mainstreaminess’ is when most folks stop thinking that it is weird, outlandish, perverted or peculiar), but I take your point.
User-Created Virtual Worlds are about WORLDS CONSCIOUSLY CREATED BY THE USERS. Anyone who considers them a social networking tool like Twitter or Facebook, neither of which allows ANY STRUCTURAL CONTENT or EXPERIENCE CREATION, is abusing metaphoric language hahahahah. It is like comparing an old fashioned quilting bee (social gathering in real time culminating in collaborative creation) to asynchronous letter communication. Twitter and Facebook are simply snail mail on steroids in many ways. The ability to “link” is just faster than directing someone to something in a letter. . . & it is far easier than mass mailing at the post office ;-D Their power IS their speed & reach. By NO stretch of the imagination are FB or Twitter an immersive experience. They do not offer a shared real time experience – I have never attended a live music performance while chatting with the musician and my friends from around the world on either. Even though they function as a publishing platform for writers, neither FB nor Twitter are an actual creative MEDIUM. From an artist’s perspective (mine:) Second Life & opensim worlds are huge art studios with ENDLESS free canvas, free colors & free sculpting materials for anyone from a master to a dabbler. . .and many a dabbler has become a master creator. In virtual world realms we can transcend the limitations of our bodies and physics, to manifest our thoughts into form: Build as we think & envision together as a group; Use 3d objects to exemplify complex concepts one can WALK through; Create art & architecture that is simply NPIRL (not Possible In Real Life). These is a very powerful & personally transformative experiences. Please Do Go Forth! Create! Then use FB & Twitter for that at which they excel (winks;-D . . . Post a pix & a slurl limousine to your truly immersive real-time social gathering & share your creations with your friends.
Thanks, Gianni. Great post! I love the discussion.
It isn’t that I want immediate gratification in all things. I’ve worked hard for more than 15 years to advance my career, I’ve been writing novels for four years and still haven’t been published, I’ve been married 17 years, I lost 90 pounds in 22 months. All of these things required delayed gratification.
I just want instant gratification from THIS thing.
I think that’s fair.
I respect your opinion a lot and I think you made valid points with some of the hurdles that make Second Life inconvenient for you. What makes me sad is you clearly have/had patience with all the successes you listed (and probably many more) so the only assumption I can make is that you feel like Second Life isn’t worth the delayed gratification where as those other things were.. so much so that you questioned the whole metaphor of virtual worlds. I can’t understand that… because I respect your opinion so much, and enjoyed what you’ve brought to SL… I can’t understand that.. because I still find an amazing story, or build, or project, or person there almost daily.. I just can’t understand. I can’t.
Thanks, Gianni!
“Isn’t worth the delayed gratification” is putting it in too absolute terms. It’s not something I feel drawn too right now, mainly because I have too much else going on.
And I actually hope to go in-world tomorrow to hear Dusan Writer’s talk, and to allow people to throw virtual tomatoes at me.
Glad to hear it. See you there.
[...] Kim/Gianna’s response “Why Virtual Worlds (like Second Life) Have More Value Than Twitter & Facebook” [...]
I think that part of the problem is that people identify “virtual worlds” with Second Life, and therefore the future doesn’t look particularly interesting. The reality is that SL (and Opensim too) represent merely step #1 in the evolution of virtual worlds, and it’s a particularly narrow step #1 because Linden Lab is very control-freaky by nature. They’ve been highly averse to setting the tiger free to see where it runs by providing enabling technologies that could disrupt their business model. Their virtual world could be so much more.
Step #2 will be much more interesting. Both Opensim and Third Party Viewer teams are starting to branch away from LL’s uninteresting narrowness, and the human interfaces they provide are slowly moving more in line with users’ requirements. As clients become more user configurable and friendly, so virtual worlds will appeal to more people.
It could take a decade or more for this area to become popular, but its capabilities so vastly surpass those of the 2D social networking Web that, timescales aside, a rosy future seems pretty certain.
Interesting thoughts! Thanks for sharing!
I’m still hopeful though, that tearing down the walls in SL means getting back into interoperability.
Indeed the culture of a virtual world is evolving. We are making the culture which takes time, collaboration and exercise in social skills within a world wide venue. Is that not of value? People working together to make a common bond… but even those who would just rather take out a pig gun and shoot avatars have gotten more value and interaction than a Mafia Wars “click to do job”.
Superficiality carried to the extreme is the current social media. Developing a culture is a virtual world.
Untill they resolve identity theft, copyright & branding theft then they will be taken seriously by serious creators. Which to date they, LL has not, which is why a class action suit has been brought against them by residents. But we still hold hope for virtual worlds, they may not be SL in the future but there is great potential for those which follow & do it right.
Neither of these issues have been resolved in the offline world either. Identity-theft (and identity-fakery), copyright violation, misuse of brands and counterfeit goods are even more widespread offline than they are online or in Second Life.
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