Second Life isn’t a game because it doesn’t have any objectives/goals for the player (socially-destitute and major investor in the myopia industry) to achieve – ‘Key components of games are goals, rules, challenge and interactivity (Wikipedia, Games 2007). Although Second Life might have the element of interactivity, it’s still just an environment for people to come together and do as they please; it’s more like a forum or an online community in terms of principle than a game.
Virtual worlds such as Second Life mimic reality as much as technologically possible. The game even has its own currency, which you work to earn or trade for that crosses over the reality boundary and makes it translatable into actual cold hard cash! This seems a lot like life doesn’t it? Especially with the concept of earning real moolah! If so, would you consider life a game? The players also have great fun participating in the ‘game’ where they get to sightsee and discover an entirely new concept: friends.
However, since it’s a virtual world, the players are able to do things beyond their wildest imaginations/physical limitations. Yes, they’d be able to see their own toes! Not only that, when they chat up a stranger, the chances of them replying instead of hurling abuse is greatly reduced! Magnificent, no? But seriously, what attracts people to the game is the fact that they can have a go at a ‘second life’ and try their hand at professions they always wished they could be involved in (a thin person with no geeky glasses) or a drastic lifestyle change like having friends. Players can even build their own furniture and put them up for sale for real money (how this transaction works I haven’t any idea, probably credit cards and such involved)! Why stop at furniture? They can even erect buildings (unless they chance upon a someone exciting, which ‘buildings’ will then just be a euphemism for something else)!
In another similar but more game-ish game, World of Warcraft, a WOW player quoted ‘Warcraft is the new golf… I actually clinched a deal with a company I met through WOW.’ Although being associated to a proper game and sport like golf, all this ‘game’ is doing is being an alternative to life. True, interactivity is crucial in such games but that’s all they have to offer in essence. As stated earlier, a game has to have goals, rules, challenge and interactivity. Second Life only has interactivity as its corner stone and nothing more. Would you conclude that just because Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew has opposable thumbs similar to a primate’s then he must be a chimpanzee (even though he has the uncanny resemblance to one)?
Second Life may be coined a ‘game’ but is in fact nothing more than a glorified online community/forum with better graphics and a higher level of interactivity.
References:
Wikipedia. ‘Game’. (2007). Retrieved April 6, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game
Levy, Steven. (2006). ‘World of Warcraft: Is it a Game?’ Retrieved April 6, 2007 from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14757769/site/newsweek/page/3/print/1/displaymode/1098/
Clarren, Rebecca. (2006). ‘Virtually dead in Iraq’. Retrieved April 6, 2007 from http://www.salon.com/ent/feature/2006/09/16/americasarmy/
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