It Has To Be Said: Stop Calling it a Game
by Jessica Holyoke on 05/03/10 at 6:46 am
by Jessica Holyoke
Second Life is like the Internet in many respects; its on the computer, no one knows that you are a fairy tale blind mouse and there is a heavy text and graphical basis for our interactions. And it looks like a video game; you can fly, you can be in space, you can be underwater without SCUBA gear, and you can have sex with strange creatures that shouldn't be reproducing with humans. But combine the video game looks with the Internet aspects and suddenly people take it as an excuse for being a dick or bitch.
"Oh, I stole all your spacebucks? Too bad its a game!"
"Oh I said I would be your boyfriend and I'm having fake sex with aliens? Its in my game rules."
"I want to spend time with you, sure, right after I am done spending time in Zindra gambling your spacebucks away."
These are typical things that are said to me. Especially by my dick ex-boyfriend Steve*. Jerk.
Now granted, there are aspects of SL that are games, role playing sims and actual video games like Dark Life. And on role playing sims, you are expected to play a character. But on those sims, if you 'role play a dick or bitch,' then you are treated like a dick or bitch AND they understand that you are playing a character. People present know the difference between In-Character or Out Of Character.
On the rest of the grid, if you are a dick or bitch, then expect to be treated like a dick or bitch because you are being a dick or a bitch. Residents sometimes just use SL as a communications tool, a heavy resource using, laggy, picking up a phone would be quicker, communication tool. And don't try to cop out by saying "its only a game! bawwwwww." Man or Woman up and say "too fucking bad, bawwwww." Just because you are on the Internet doesn't give you an excuse to be a dick or a bitch. People are dicks and bitches in Real Life too, like my dick ex-boyfriend Darryl*. Jerk.
If you are going to do it, do it with respect and dignity and not hide behind "its only a game."
*names changed to protect the Herald from DMCA wielding losers who couldn't litigate their way out of an open phone booth.
Witless X
Mar 5th, 2010
Second Life is a game.
JustMe
Mar 5th, 2010
Well said. However, people will continue calling SL a “game” because no one seems to know exactly what to call it.
Until the general SL public discovers a good term to use, “Game” will be the term of choice.
V
Mar 5th, 2010
Is not.
Danziel Lane
Mar 5th, 2010
Well, even first life is a game for many, for others it’s only one choice out of many others (they think they have), and some take it very very very serious.
Let everyone take it as they want.
Only, my experience is, that those, who see it as a game, often have much less fun than me.
And from having fun comes creativity and even success (success in a matter that you don’t really have fun with is rather seldom). So, please let me define SL as much much more than a game, and let me have fun with all the opportunities that I get from it. So, yes, SL is not a game, that is, why I have fun to be in SL.
All Seeing Eye
Mar 5th, 2010
OK I’ll call it what it is: A Ponzi Scheme…
Which is a game of sorts. It is just that the “players” don’t realize they are being fleeced until it is too late. It is a scam set up to feed on people with compulsive disorders of the variety that manifests in additive behavior. So the brutal reality is the government should ban Second Life as a hazard. But then they allow dumbasses to smoke nicotine enhanced tobacco and to drink alcohol and that crap is much worse. At least SL only negatively affects a microscopic part of the populace.
Senban Babii
Mar 5th, 2010
This argument has been going on for at least as long as I’ve been around. What *is* SL?
Is it a game?
Is it a development platform?
Is it a creative sandbox?
Is it a social networking tool?
It’s all these and many more. But in reality it boils down to something amazingly simple that no one ever seems to remember.
Second Life is what we make it.
Patasha Marikh
Mar 5th, 2010
Two years ago, I would have sworn it was not a game. Now, I swear it is. And I’m much happier playing it as a game than I was treating it like it wasn’t.
isoz
Mar 5th, 2010
Who cares about what you think it is? FFS.
Ban the womans on the internet.
Nelson Jenkins
Mar 5th, 2010
@ All Seeing Eye
That’s only a bad thing if you’re the one paying the Labs for spacebux instead of fleecing others out of their own for pixels and turning them into a positive cashflow.
Alyx Stoklitsky
Mar 5th, 2010
It’s a game, and if you view it as anything else you’re a sucker and you deserve to lose every penny you invest in this shithole.
Hi I'm A Computer!
Mar 5th, 2010
It’s a game. You’re part of the game. The Lindens, they’re the ones playing it. And you’re the sucker shucking out money because you are a compulsive shopper, who is attracted to shiney things. Oh and me? I’m the guy making you cry over the internet.
Bye bye
Darien Caldwell
Mar 5th, 2010
It’s not a game, because the events that transpire in SL have real context and meaning to the participants, outside of a Role Play of course. Games have scripts and stories and you’re just following along. Real Life isn’t scripted, neither is SL.
Deadlycodec
Mar 5th, 2010
Uh, it is a game. Maybe you need some away time to get back in touch with reality.
Sylauxe Zhao
Mar 5th, 2010
Tl;dr: You’re a big gay baby who cybers a lot.
Jumpman Lane
Mar 5th, 2010
did it HAVE to be said lol?
NebulaCS
Mar 5th, 2010
Second life is a game in some aspects and in others not, some lie a seperate life in second life, while others role play in it and have little fake armies in combat sims and such. for them their role playing is a game and many of them will say “its just a game”. However for others it is not a game, it is a seperate life free from the rules and restrictions of reality. If you cannot see this from both sides then you should not bash people who say it is just a game or the other way around.
James Freud
Mar 5th, 2010
Sounds like someone’s been dumped just one too many times! Luckily you have an outlet for your bitterness, Jessica
Obvious Schism
Mar 5th, 2010
It’s not a game. When considering the yawning gape of geological time, the merest of miniscule infractions on a tiny blip of then what is only the tiniest of events in amongst what is a niche ‘world’ pales into insignificance. Sometimes I wonder how I can stay awake through all this.
marilyn murphy
Mar 5th, 2010
“Second Life is what we make it.” Senban Babii
that’s wonderful. i am gonna make it a peach pie, with sugar sprinkled on the crust before i bake it, then add some vanilla bean ice cream.
marilyn murphy
Mar 5th, 2010
@obvious schism:
didja know that the chilean earthquake that occured recently knocked the earth off it’s axis and our day in the northern hemisphere is now .0003 seconds longer than it was before? that alone would explain why you cannot sleep thru all this.
Yeah, but... no.
Mar 5th, 2010
It has to be said, that SL is a game.
A game that everyone for themselves chooses how to play.
You played it as a dating game, and, lost. I’d say the dating game isnt the wisest of ways to play SL, especially if you take it too serious. I’d save that for RL.
I agree that that isnt an excuse to be a dick or a bitch, but that’s still something the internet generation still has to learn. (if they ever will, I doubt it)
You can say that it’s a place for buisness, but having seen real life buisnesses come and go, I say it’s as much a buisness platform as Monopoly or gambling is. And putting money into your SL buisness is nothing but a gamble, no matter how you look at it:
You’re betting on the fact that tomorrow LL wont go “fuck it all” and pull the plug on you, your land, or SL alltogether. It’s not a bet I’d personally be comfortable with.
Here’s another game that can be a place of buisness: football. The fact that people make real life money with it, as long as the team is doing allright (also a gamble), doesnt make that less of a game.
Oh yeah, there’s the meeting people/socializing aspect of it too. A game with the possibility to communicate with other players, nothing new. Nearly all games, aside from maybe solitaire and other single player games, have a social aspect.
That SL doesnt have NPC’s or an ultimate goal or whatever decided on by the game gods, doesnt make it less of a game, as everyone decides those for themselves. There’s more then one way to play many gmaes.
Correction, I have seen plenty of NPC’s in SL. Every single bot, camper, sion chicken or Linden are NPCs to me. Granted, shooting at them wont give you points or money. But it is fun.
What makes SL mostly a game to me? entertainment. I play it when I get bored, and log out again once I have had enough. Completely unlike let’s say, my first life, my first life job, house, lovelife and pets.
And sometimes I just play GTA or chess instead.
We
Mar 5th, 2010
Second Life should probably most properly be called a “Virtual World”, but saying that casually just sounds douchey, and “Game” is easier to type and more natural to say. I think what the article is about is less about the semantics of it, and more about people who treat it like a single player offline game: not fully considering that they are interacting with actual people and not understanding lasting consequences.
Danziel Lane
Mar 5th, 2010
“It’s a game, and if you view it as anything else you’re a sucker and you deserve to lose every penny you invest in this shithole.”
It’s always amazing to see, how many people invest a part of their life time to examine and talk about what they call shitholes.
Unamused
Mar 5th, 2010
Its not a game? Yes it is.
If someone bumps you..do you feel it? No.
If someone shoots your Avatar..do YOU personally bleed or die? No.
If you get orbitted…do you fly up out of your seat and suffer broken bones, head trauma..etc? No.
Is there a degree of mental trauma that can be attested to the game? Yes, but you make it that way. You allow it to occur in that way. Spending your spacebucks? Why give them in the first place? SET SOME GROUND RULES.
The people that think “SL isn’t a game..it affects me in real life” are those same sorts that..if their character dies in an RP go weeping for months and try to hang themselves or something. They’ve lost touch with reality..and are hiding behind an avatar mask to make up for it. Its a game. You play it to have fun, chat with others..etc.
But really..taking it beyond that point and saying “This hurts me IRL” is just too freaking much. It doesn’t hurt you. YOU make it hurt you..as its far too easy to play the victim than it is just to laugh about something and get on with your life. Boo hoo. Now fraud? Okay, reasonable. But..no one forced you to give the fella your cash. If you get orbitted..its not affected you..and there are things to do about it without resorting to having the intellectual capacity of being a child about things.
“OMG..he shot me..my life is over now!!” <— Ridiculous.
“Wow. With shooting like that, no wonder you’re single.” <– Much better.
We always have choices. You’re just choosing to feed a victimization complex rather than realize you made a mistake..get on with your life, and actually enjoy yourself.
Second Life is a game. In many ways, its a glorified chat program. It could also be said to be a social experiment..and if indeed that is the case..the only thing its proven is that folks like the one whom wrote this article are mainly little better than children wreaking of naivety in adolescent/adult bodies. I weep for the species.
Skye D.
Mar 5th, 2010
SL is *so* not a game. It’s virtual networking site, much like Facebook or MySpace, with the added option to be able to create some amazing shit. It’s a way to meet people that you might not have met otherwise…from different cultures, timezones, or ways of life.
It can also be used as a tool to harass, terrorize, and generally make what should be a fun diversion a scary, unsure, ugly place.
What Senban said is very true. SL is what you make of it.
Inniatzo
Mar 6th, 2010
Hmmm, and why does this need to be said? because someone has used absurdly lame excuses on miss holyoke? More likely because she made up some humorous fake lame excuses for this post.
But that doesn’t even really matter, this is a pointless non-controversy. No one is running around worrying whether or not it is a ‘game.’ And when forced to choose it depends on what sort of definition one wants for a ‘game.’ I suspect that depends on how much of a mental and emotional wall they want have (or wish they had) between rl and sl.
Inniatzo
Mar 6th, 2010
miss holyoke also says:
“And on role playing sims, you are expected to play a character. But on those sims, if you ‘role play a dick or bitch,’ then you are treated like a dick or bitch AND they understand that you are playing a character. People present know the difference between In-Character or Out Of Character.”
Umm, well, i think miss holyoke understand the philosophical underpinnings of rp (this post is tagged with ‘philosophical issues’ after all), but like many things theory and practice are not the same. It certainly is true that most people can keep IC and OOC separate, but not everyone can. This is not such a problem in those grab-and-molest sims everyone loves to publicly condemn and yet they remain very popular (go figure, lol). But in sims with longer term storylines, which includes gorean sims, this does become a problem. When someone has invested a lot of time and energy in a character it is not fun to accept some major set back like, oh, they’re killed off, and it makes it hard to keep the ic and ooc division. There are also people who go after someone within the rp because they don’t like them ooc, which is at best a bad idea and at worst a very very bad idea.
Yes, of course, whether you call it a game or not, people need to keep a perspective on what is going on with their pixelated characters on the computer screen, but, again, that doesn’t always happen. Sometimes the correct perspective of one person is not the same as someone else, and there is just going to be an ooc clash.
And yet, the lack of rigid rules which leads to these kinds of problems (well sometimes, at other times someone is being a crybaby because they lost), is also what i think helps to make rp much more interesting and exciting that a game where the rules all laid out in rigid detail.
At0m0 Beerbaum
Mar 6th, 2010
You’re right, it isnt a game.
It’s a piece of shit.
Jessica Holyoke
Mar 6th, 2010
@Unamused mostly
Let me give you two situations on which I am basing my editorial viewpoint.
1. The dating situation; I like to say that people are “all emotion” on SL because without the physical input, the emotional senses are heightened. So while some people might call it drama or drama inducing, people fall in love, or hate, on SL. And people become immersed, and possible enmeshed, with their avatars. If I or someone else was dating someone on SL, then its not considered my sprite is dating someone on SL, its looked at as “I” am dating someone.
But then you are dating someone, and they turn out to be a liar and/or a cheater. You trusted someone and they have hurt you. Yes, the hurt party eventually must get over it and move on. And there is a point to be made that maybe you shouldn’t date someone on SL because you don’t have the same ques and signals that you would get in RL. But the liar and/or cheater isn’t innocent in their actions. My point is the cheater doesn’t or shouldn’t get to say “its only a game, too bad for you” as an excuse for what they did. Their actions still hurt the person that they betrayed.
2. The Business situation. I’ll keep the stock exchanges out because that will drive everyone nuts. But I used to work with friends who decided to open a club in SL. There were four partners who all chipped in to finance and run the place. Two of them decided to close up shop, sell everything and leave, leaving the other two people out. That’s stealing from my two friends. And yes, I can hear Alyx already saying you shouldn’t spend any money in SL even though if some people didn’t spend money in SL there wouldn’t be an SL.
Now the two people who made off with the money might be able to say that they are justified for some reason or another. But saying that they are justified in shutting out the other partners because “its a game” isn’t a valid argument.
Deadlycodec
Mar 6th, 2010
“Skye D.
SL is *so* not a game. It’s virtual networking site, much like Facebook or MySpace, with the added option to be able to create some amazing shit. It’s a way to meet people that you might not have met otherwise…from different cultures, timezones, or ways of life.”
Okay psychos, let me explain. You cannot touch, taste, or smell the things that happen in Second Life. You cannot feel the warmth of that horse you were fucking in a pixelated forest yesterday. You experience it over the internet, through your computer monitor. Without a computer, it wouldn’t exist at all as far as you’re concerned. Virtual world or game? Either way, it’s not real life. People who are so upset over it being called a game that they need to argue about it, should instead be seeing psychiatrists to argue with them.
That said, it being a game doesn’t give people the right to screw with you and use that as an excuse. Not nice messing with other people’s fun, no matter where it’s taking place.
One of the biggest sources of conflict in Second Life stems from how some people think of it as a game, while others see it as quite literally being a ‘second life’. The people who make up the latter, made second life absolutely miserable for me back before I became a griefer, when I used to play it legit. They would flip out over things that didn’t really matter much at all, tattle tale and tell you they were ‘reporting you’ for any old thing, ban you and/or mute you at the drop of the hat. Can’t tell you how annoying it was. Second Life has some people in it that have become so addicted that they have totally lost touch with reality and when they see people in their prim homes that don’t belong, seem to think it’s akin to something like irl burglary or breaking and entering. These people, the extremists, have stunk up the place for everyone else. I mean *really* fouled it up. That’s why I won’t be back in SL in the foreseeable future.
That and because I’m ban-on-sight, but the latter wouldn’t really stop me if I really wanted in <3
Doc
Mar 6th, 2010
its not a game, its a 3D-chat with built-in legos.
JustMe
Mar 6th, 2010
If, as many of you are saying, the emotions you feel aren’t “real” because they are virtual and not experienced in “meat space”, let me ask you this.
If your RL partner breaks up with you by email or phone, does that mean it’s not “real” either and you shouldn’t be hurt or upset?
The difference between a “game” and “life” is just that.
- A game has rules and a goal, whether it’s GTA (virtual) or chess (RL). You know it’s not real, it’s an activity you and other people chose to do, following a set of rules, for the enjoyment of it.
- A life is just that … something you do on a day to day basis, including interaction with other people, sharing emotions, thoughts and feelings. What is the real difference between listening to a live performer in an SL club or a RL club, other than the fact you can be in your RL jammies while in SL?
In fact, let me ask you this … do you consider “dancing with the stars” or “American Idol” to be “real” ? They are just pixels on a screen, too .. just like SL. At least in SL, you can interact with the other ‘pixels’, unlike a TV show.
Skye D.
Mar 6th, 2010
@ Deadlycodec:
And you felt the need to quote me why? I didn’t say anything that much different than other people have expressed, and you could have made your point without it. Just because *you* had a bad experience inworld is no reason to denigrate my opinion of it.
And just an FYI…while I do treat SL as a second life instead of a game, I wasn’t one of those people that made you miserable, and don’t appreciate being lumped in with people like that. Funny you forgot to quote me where I mentioned “It can also be used as a tool to harass, terrorize, and generally make what should be a fun diversion a scary, unsure, ugly place.”
Obvious Schism
Mar 6th, 2010
@ marilyn murphy
No I didn’t know that actually. That would explain why my clock was wrong.
Deadlycodec
Mar 6th, 2010
“And just an FYI…while I do treat SL as a second life instead of a game, I wasn’t one of those people that made you miserable, and don’t appreciate being lumped in with people like that. Funny you forgot to quote me where I mentioned “It can also be used as a tool to harass, terrorize, and generally make what should be a fun diversion a scary, unsure, ugly place.”"
Don’t you think you’re being just a tad dramatic there? And quoting your mention of how terrifying (Really? You serious?) Second Life can be wouldn’t much have helped your case. I definitely should have mentioned it though, to find out exactly how the hell pixels in Second Life can make you scared and unsure. Are the pixels going to get you?
Skye D.
Mar 6th, 2010
@ Deadlycodec:
Whatever. I can tell already that trying to debate you is going to be a moot point, so I’m not going to even try. My last take on this post is that yes…I know of cases where people have been harassed and terrorized inworld, and it has then spilled into RL, and it *is* scary.
Garmin Kawaguichi
Mar 6th, 2010
It’s not a GAME!
It’s an EMAG!
samatha e
Mar 6th, 2010
It is a game plain and simple.
I go in, and have fun, when someone pisses me off I then commit myself to looking at their line of work or business and then go in and blow theirs out of the water with better product service and ultra low prices. I get a rush of making a few mill but that wears off after a month or so.
I then wander around SL for a few months until some other jerk raises his or her head and I then rededicate myself to destroying their experience no matter how long or how much it costs.
This to me is a game and you’re all pawns to fleece an take everything you give me. I don’t even take the millions in lindens stored up seriously as I really don’t need them.
I can take anything, buy anything I want. But that’s boring. I need to be driven. But pray you don’t run afoul of my enterprise as I will gleefully drive you to earth.
Business is WoW on crack. The ultimate game of destruction and I have all the time in the world to destroy yours.
Yeah, but... no.
Mar 7th, 2010
@JUstme:
Quote:
“If your RL partner breaks up with you by email or phone, does that mean it’s not “real” either and you shouldn’t be hurt or upset?”
You’re talking about RL partner. Real Life. As in, nothing to do with SL and wether or not SL is a game.
If you apply above situation to SL partner, have them break up with me by email, phone, or notecard or IM (or even voice chat) I wouldnt be hurt or upset: I dont let myself get emotionally attached because to me, SL is a game.
The way I see SL affects how I play it: I am wiser then to go look for romance and love on SL, mostly because that wont work for me.
I have played family RP mind you, partner, kids, house, and all that. Great fun was had.
Quote:
“The difference between a “game” and “life” is just that.
- A game has rules and a goal, whether it’s GTA (virtual) or chess (RL). You know it’s not real, it’s an activity you and other people chose to do, following a set of rules, for the enjoyment of it.”
You mention rules here. I’ll get back to that.
You know SL is not real, everyone knows that. The people playing may be real, but nothing in SL is. Not even your AV’s name, the way it looks, the house you might have or that extremely cool car on it’s pixel driveway. Not even the emotions other AV’s display. My AV can cry while I’m behind the screen laughing.
SL is an activity we all choose to do. No-one plays SL against their will, everyone can log off when they choose to.
Everyone plays SL for the enjoyment of it, no-one logs off with the feeling of “Dammit I hate mondays, another gruelling evening on SL”. There’s an exception here: those that have turned a game into work. But that doesnt mean it’s no longer a game: I myself have stopped playing WoW because my group started demanding I play at certain times, so that we could do the more difficult missions together. A game can become work, and that’s the point where you have to stop playing, or start playing differently. This has no effect on what WoW is; a game.
Now of course, the rules.
Everyone knows games have to have rules… But do they really? Who ever said that a game should have set rules? And who says that SL *doesnt* have rules?
There is a very fun little game called “linerider”. There are only a few rules, and no goal. At least, not a set goal. The game works by letting you draw a line in the playing field, and you can let the computer let a little guy on a sled roll along those lines as if they were snowcovered hills. The few rules that are in place have to do with the lines, wether or not the sled sees them as a surface (enabling you to draw anything without it affecting the sled as well), and simple gravity.
There’s no goal, you wont get more points if you manage to make a nice course with loops and jumps and not have the little guy fall, then if you were to make a giant pit of doom to have the guy bounce left and right off the walls on it’s way down.
The goal basically is what you want.
You mention GTA as having rules. But, does it really? The beauty of GTA is, that you can do anything you want. You can follow the set goal and storyline if you choose, and finish the game. But even after finishing the game, and at any point during the game, you can choose to not follow it’s rules.
GTA does have a goal, and endboss and you can finish it. But you dont have to, and wether or not you follow the creator’s goal, has no effect on what GTA is, a game. It’s how you choose to play it, that is the real goal of GTA and also SL.
There’s several cheat ways, so you can bypass the rule that you have to find a gun or car before you can use it, and you can also go into multiplayer where guns are lying around on every streetcorner and in between, so you dont even have to cheat for them.
Whereas in SL, you have to either find a freebie gun, or earn money following SL’s rules, to buy a better one. Or, ‘cheat’ and make one out of thin air or buy some L$. (but in this case it’s not cheating as SL’s rules allow it)
Another one of the rules of GTA is the law, and it has a quite strong arm, too. But as no killing is one of the laws, no one really follows that rule of the gameworld. Not because one of the rules of the game says you have to break the law, but because its less fun if you never even run a red light.
The only real rules of GTA, and SL with it, are the technical rules and possibilities of the programs behind the screens creating the grid or Liberty City: you cant walk trough walls, there’s a limit to the maximum number of objects, faces, and textures, you cant walk trough some walls but you can trough others if the designers intend to, cars drive on the ground unless it’s super awesome, there is gravity, and so on and so on. Real Life, Not a Game, follows it’s own set of rules.
“- A life is just that … something you do on a day to day basis, including interaction with other people, sharing emotions, thoughts and feelings. What is the real difference between listening to a live performer in an SL club or a RL club, other than the fact you can be in your RL jammies while in SL?”
What is the difference between listening to the radio and talking about it via the phone with friends who are listening to the same thing?
This has not to do with the game itself: you can play monopoly with friends, including interactions, sharing emotions, thoughts and feelings. But that doesn’t mean that monopoly is not a game. You can apply the same to GTA multiplayer: I for one find myself getting pissed off for a moment if another player kills me. And I can imagine that one could start to play someone if they kill you off again and again and again. There’s emotions in every game, and interactions, sharing of thought and feelings in every game with more then one player.
I think the difficult part here, is that I see SL for a game for what it technically is. You see SL as not a game for what the human interaction part trough SL is. It’s looking at the game VS looking at it’s players.
Tomaz
Mar 7th, 2010
Why do they continue to let women on the internets alone?
LOL
Mar 7th, 2010
Second Life is classified by various sources including ign.com, Wired Magazine, Photoshop User, as well as PCgamer’s magazine and Website. All the above sources including Linden Lab classify Second Life as an M.M.O.R.P.G.
and that means,
Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing GAME!
nuff said.
Unamused
Mar 7th, 2010
Prior post:
——————————-
@Unamused mostly
Let me give you two situations on which I am basing my editorial viewpoint.
1. The dating situation; I like to say that people are “all emotion” on SL because without the physical input, the emotional senses are heightened. So while some people might call it drama or drama inducing, people fall in love, or hate, on SL. And people become immersed, and possible enmeshed, with their avatars. If I or someone else was dating someone on SL, then its not considered my sprite is dating someone on SL, its looked at as “I” am dating someone.
But then you are dating someone, and they turn out to be a liar and/or a cheater. You trusted someone and they have hurt you. Yes, the hurt party eventually must get over it and move on. And there is a point to be made that maybe you shouldn’t date someone on SL because you don’t have the same ques and signals that you would get in RL. But the liar and/or cheater isn’t innocent in their actions. My point is the cheater doesn’t or shouldn’t get to say “its only a game, too bad for you” as an excuse for what they did. Their actions still hurt the person that they betrayed.
2. The Business situation. I’ll keep the stock exchanges out because that will drive everyone nuts. But I used to work with friends who decided to open a club in SL. There were four partners who all chipped in to finance and run the place. Two of them decided to close up shop, sell everything and leave, leaving the other two people out. That’s stealing from my two friends. And yes, I can hear Alyx already saying you shouldn’t spend any money in SL even though if some people didn’t spend money in SL there wouldn’t be an SL.
Now the two people who made off with the money might be able to say that they are justified for some reason or another. But saying that they are justified in shutting out the other partners because “its a game” isn’t a valid argument.
————————–
Okay, time for a counterpoint. First..dating is actually harder in SL than it is IRL. The other person has far more opportunities to be devious..and for all you know that person has a googling of alts and runs things as a professional scam session. Remember what I said..about it being choices? You check something out *before* you jump into something.
And many of the relationship ads i’ve seen in SL tend to go “SL only..”, refuse to give out First Life details..etc. These are people that clearly are attempting to separate the two. But that *aside*? You’re going out with someone and you partner them. Does that make you partnered in real life? No. Any benefits whatsoever? No. You might bring something into SL..or actually get to know someone..meet..etc..but then you’re playing the dating game as if you were utilizing an online dating site. Is that part just a game? Not necessarily…however, it is part *of* a game.
If someone goes onto World of Warcraft and opens up a dating service..that doesn’t make it any less than an online game. It just has an online player’s personals area.
And the business strategem? They should have had that worked out well beforehand. When you have four people splitting something up, and two of them bail..that means that it was not well thought over. Again, world of warcraft..a guild or a trading block. YES, you put real money into the content and the tier..however..look at a free-to-play MMO with say, a cash shop. They utilized real cash to get in game content/items..sometimes on a temporary basis. And it is STILL..just a game.
My point stands. The only loss to yourself is the loss you create for *yourself*. The game -itself- does not cause you physical pain..and no more emotional trauma than any other game out there…again, unless you allow it to do so yourself..like the pen and paper roleplayers that take gaming sessions too far and hurt someone..or hurt themselves after something happened to their character. Guess what? Dating happens there too. Usually as part of a storyline. YOU might not see it that way, but that doesn’t speak for the other person. There’s a fellow on SL that has had a bunch of alts, partnered a bunch of folks..and what? He should be charged with bigamy now?
No. Granted, his behavior’s retarded..but he didn’t actually marry someone. He just ran wild..and what goes around comes around.
However, when you take the attitude of.. “This isn’t a game!” Your own sense of reality becomes skewed. You take things MUCH more personally, and SL goes from a somewhat amusing and bizarre past-time to something akin to a poison that creeps in, removes any sense of real vitality..and finally shuts you down altogether.A casual bump becomes a grave insult. Someone laughs at your avatar and you blow up in rage. You can’t even have a decent conversation because you’re paranoid about whether that person you’re talking to is a guy..a girl..an alt of someone that dislikes you..etc,etc,etc.
A social experiment. How and what we will do to ourselves when taken outside of our usual perspectives and placed in a rigid, very different perspective that seems more open but is pretty well locked down tight. Then, for kicks..add a normal (Mature) and a control (PG) group to maintain and study the results. You’re a lab mouse and you can’t even see the test tubes for what they are..and you are *making* the choice to be such. You are -making- the choice to be owned by the game, rather than owning it..and thus, you are following a strange but definitive form of self-enslavement that would otherwise not be possible but for your own permission and behaviors.
Second Life is a game. If it shut down tommorrow, you would still exist. You might have to find other things to occupy your time..but in fact, it would still exist. You could go a week..a month..even a YEAR without it and your life would not be impacted in much of anyway. (Unless you lived off income of SL..which isn’t wise in the first place.) Your COMPUTER could shut down..and your life and vital signs wouldn’t even skip a beat aside from anything induced by the general shock of such an event.
Oh, right. IT RUNS on a COMPUTER. Not your body, not your brain. Your computer. It is a program on that computer. Logic beats insanity more often than not..and LOGIC dictates that Second Life is a game and does not truly affect your life in any way *unless* *you* *let* *it*..and then you have no one but yourself to blame. Again, victimization.
The defense rests.
Anon
Mar 10th, 2010
It’s basically a virtual IRC client.
archie
Mar 14th, 2010
Game?
Kiss my hairy ass!
s’not a game
Mimika Oh
Mar 31st, 2010
*This* is a near-meaningless semantic debate.
SL shares many properties with many (video) games. It also has many properties that are not in any game. It is also missing many properties that nearly all games have. Saying it *is* or *is not* a game achieves nothing, communicates nothing.
Op/Ed: Narrative Games | The Alphaville Herald
Apr 16th, 2010
[...] Much has been written about whether SL is a game or something else. Most people I know in game call SL a “virtual world.” Most professors I know in real life call it a “serious game,” although I do not think the eggheads are deliberately implying that SL is serious as opposed to fun (it’s a shame they’re so out of touch like that). [...]