Comments on: The Predictive Power of Virtual Worlds

By: Uallas Borgin

Uallas Borgin — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 13:51:03 +0000

Excellent post.
You explored the notion of space, but did not explore the notion of group, subculture etc, which are linked. People can not exist, develop an identity as a single individual in a sea of individuals. We see it in the real world, as bounderies between nations get more blurred, people seek to regroup along lines of ethnicity, religion, regional identity (eg political parties like Lega Norde in Italy) or sub culture. I think Linden Lab missed the boat on that one too. Groups are linked to almost anything we do. They are used by a landlord to give priviliges to his renters, artists so people can stay informed about their activities, stores to inform about new products… . Amongst that plethora of uses are what I call the real groups, associations of people with common interests or dreams. In limiting the number of groups to 25 while linking a number of features to groups (land management, notices…) Linden Lab has missed the ball.

If Linden Lab would run the worldwide web, I would be made to choose between my subscription on a newsletter that contains vital information for my job and following my best friend on Facebook.

Land and groups are the two things that show a great gap between second life and the rest of the internet and social media. I have been to some terrific place in Second Life, but apart from the destination guide on LL’s website, these sites are not represented on other media. Off all the groups I am or have been member of, two had a presence on the internet and one on a social media site (ning). the connection was far from easy and pleasant, one website was static with some text and images that were not related to the land in question. I had to make and manage a new profile on the social network site and refriend all the people I was friends with in SL. When loggin in, I have to read all the group notices from the last 24 h to see if there something important before I go on with the order of the day. There is not enough linkage to the outside of SL and often a solution inside of SL is preferred where an outside solution is better.

I don’t think display names are the solution to this problem. As a Second Lifer, I would rather work in opposite sense (use my SL identity on other media): log in to a website using my SL account name and have a glance at all my group notices, click on a resident or group profile and acces their webpage, send notices or chat directly to a social network site or blog instead of group chat, have a button in a group or resident’s profile box that parses data from google calendars into a notecard.

By: ginsu

ginsu — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 01:11:34 +0000

I sometimes say “All I really need to know about the Internet, I learned in Second Life” – with apologies to Robert Fulghum. This is a wonderful post, thank you for writing it.

By: Tweets that mention Dusan Writer’s Metaverse » The Predictive Power of Virtual Worlds -- Topsy.com

Sun, 02 Jan 2011 21:40:02 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Elisa Butler (Bevan), Dusan Writer, Alan Rycroft and others. Alan Rycroft said: Excellent analysis on modeling future – RT >> @Dusanwriter: The Predictive Power of #VirtualWorlds – http://ow.ly/1rZ7V3 [...]

By: James Fullerton

James Fullerton — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 13:08:49 +0000

If I were an architect curious about how people will react and interact with a building design, virtual worlds seem like a natural sandbox for observations. Enjoyable post, thanks.

By: Juanita Deharo

Juanita Deharo — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 23:20:49 +0000

Thanks for the excellent post Dusan.
You are so right about SL being a giant sandbox to explore ideas. In the art world it’s amazing now to see how what was once only possible in SL is now coming to be possible in rl. I wonder if, without that sandbox these new artforms would be as far advanced as they are. Many of us have used the SL platform to experiment with the impossible and have gone on to find ways to make it possible in real life.
I don’t agree with you take on AR though. There’s another way to look at it- that AR can bring the physical world into the digital – and in doing so can release us from the tyranny of the chair and keyboard. I think the ability to interact with a virtual world by moving your body or eyes or an object in the physical world has possibilities we can’t even dream of yet. Another thing to experiment with in the big sandbox.

By: Tinsel Silvera

Tinsel Silvera — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 21:25:16 +0000

The idea of replacing the teleports with the telehubs is probably no longer feasible. The world that the telehubs were developed under no longer exist. We cannot undo the past four+ years of learned behavior. I honestly do not believe that the general masses would tolerate this restriction, other than, perhaps, the oldbies for nostalgic purposes or the current estate owners who already have such measures in place. Personally, this would be a nail in the coffin for me.

Excellent idea to have programmable panels in our viewers. I would like to be able to customize my entire viewer from a selection of drop-down menus. Definitely present that idea to Rod when you meet him. (Note my assumption there – not if, but when)

I like the idea of a social link-up of one’s identity, but only if it is optional. No one in Second Life should be ‘outed’ as to their First Life identitiy.

I do not think Mesh will be all that everyone envisions. Yes, it is going to change the dynamics of how we shop in Second Life. No more buying individual pieces from multiple vendors. I will need to buy an entire outfit from the shape creator to ensure that everything fits my shape, unless said shape creator shares his specs with other creators. Mesh will be a HUGE boon for people who are capable of creating the entire avatar from head to toe. For those who can only create pieces, I believe it will be a bust. Now, before anyone jumps on me about this statement, go to Blue Mars and outfit your avatar from head to toe with pieces from individual vendors. Then buy an entire avatar creation from one single vendor. You will see what I mean.

I have never stopped believing in the tagline YWYI that I entered under. It still applies, as far as I am concerned. But, yes, it would be nice if Linden Lab returned it to the masthead.

Your last lines bears repeating: “I’d like to have a world (and worlds) that I can keep logging into. All eyes on you, Rod, and welcome to Linden Lab.”

By: Linda Paine

Linda Paine — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 20:51:58 +0000

Thank you for this remarkable post at this time!

By: Botgirl Questi

Botgirl Questi — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 20:08:37 +0000

Wow. Great post. I wondered what you’ve been thinking about during your blogging hiatus.

In addition to all of the future oriented stuff you mentioned, the aspect of virtual worlds that I value the most is its power to shed light on current aspects of atomic life that are hidden through the fish-in-water syndrome. It’s like Uncanny Valley in a good way. Once we aclimate, the experience in virtual worlds is very, very similar to the human world, with just enough difference to keep drawing our attention to it.

So if you’re attracted to someone’s avatar form, for instance, the psychological and biological processes are just like RL. But since you “know” that what you’re seeing is just pixels, you can separate the feelings from the perceived reality and start to see that what you’re perceiving about the other person is largely a projection of your own mind. I’ve found that virtual worlds can be a powerful means to expose the pervasive mental-modeling process that is a core aspect of the human psychology.

Anyway, I think that this post and today’s blog entry from @pathfinder (http://becunningandfulloftricks.com/2010/12/31/my-prediction-for-virtual-worlds-in-2011/) are a great start for a more stakeholder-empowered direction for next year.