How many worlds do we need?
By Jeff Hilimire on Wednesday, December 13th, 2006I’m fascinated by the new virtual worlds that have popped up over the past year. Second Life is obviously the most popular one right now with an estimated 1.9MM “residents” as of this blog post. But there are many more out there, each with different features and selling points. I’m personally wondering how much of a commitment people can make to multiple virtual worlds and if there will come a time when you can take your avatar and use it cross-worlds.
I did come across this site that lists an unreal amount of virtual worlds, most of which I had never heard of. Here are a few I found interesting:
- MTV’s Virtual Laguna Beach - You guessed it, a virtual world based on MTV’s popular show Laguna Beach (interestingly if you check out this link you’ll see that MTV has created what is being termed a “broadband” website)
- Kaneva - Atlanta-based company started by a local Atlanta tech legend, Chris Klaus
- Virtual Magic Kingdom - for the kids
- Teen Second Life - right, I wonder which world the teens will choose if given the option to hang with adults in Second Life or run around with a bunch of other teens in Teen Second Life
Or when will I be able to access one of the other virtual worlds from within the virtual world I’m in at that time?
I walk my avatar up to an Internet kiosk in Second Life and jump into Teen Second Life to see what my kids are up to.
Speaking of multiple worlds, here’s a question. Can you play Second Life in Second Life? If you could, would you want to? On one hand, you would have access to a whole new Second Life world – an alternative Second Life reality. Effectively, it would be like having access to a Third Life. On the other hand, this could easily lead to infinite regress – gaming within gaming, getting users so deeply lost in the Second Life world that they may never find their way out.
Where does the real world metaphor end in gaming? Should it end?