The Story of My “Second Life”

My friend and colleague Sylvia Martinez over at Generation YES just blogged about Metaplace, a brand new development environment that some people are calling a “Second Life Killer.” Holy hyperbole, Batman!

Basically, Metaplace is a development environment that makes it easy for non-technical users to create their own virtual worlds. The brainchild of Raph Koster, the service is just in alpha, with public release slated for Spring 2008. Here’s a short YouTube video of Koster explaining the service, and a forum for game developers (some of whom don’t seem to “get” Second Life). Particularly helpful postings can be found here and here. Finally, you can read a neat interview with Koster here.

I’m not a game developer and don’t play one on TV (nor did I sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night), so I’m not quite sure what to make of it, or if we should even try, since it’s the pre-ALPHA release of a PLATFORM (not an environment or finished, user-accessible product). No doubt in a couple of years (sooner?) we could be seeing exciting stuff for end-users (and the scale needed to build critical mass in terms of mindshare).

Koster’s industry track record speaks for itself. The video is compelling, but I am left wondering how this is considered a “Second Life Killer.” They seem like apples and oranges (both pro and con) to me. Similarities, sure – user created content, easy online collaboration, virtual currency/economy (coming soon apparently), but so many differences, too – simplistic graphics, web-based UI, closed/unlinked nature of each sim, to name a few. I guess people could create massive Metaplace worlds for people to interact in, much like the Main Grid now, but I’m not getting how they would be linked together as sims are now in SL.

BTW, I am continually amazed at how many people (particularly in the game dev world) dismiss SL as “a game” and kick it to the curb with glee. Wussupwiddat? Ignorant people condemn what they don’t understand, I guess.

What I do find intriguing is the “drag and drop, plug and play” UI for Metaplace world development. Building in SL is *SO* complicated, many people (including me) just aren’t inclined to master the craft. I’ve felt for a long time that SL needs a visual building environment like Google Sketchup (and HTML support), and once it gets those, watch out. In any event, the possibility of engaging non-developers in a development environment is very exciting, particularly for educational purposes. Can you say constructivism? Sure, I knew you could.

Another plus for Metaplace though is the utter non-existence of inappropriate material. (Fortunately, Teen Second Life is free of that, too.) Still, I think it’s safe to say that it’s only a matter of time before malevolent developers find creative ways to do bad things in public Metaplace spaces. Keep them private and closed, like current educational Teen Second Life builds, and the problem is largely resolved.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – regardless of which multi-user virtual environment comes out “on top” years from now, I am convinced that people investing time and effort in SL will be richly rewarded when and if a platform shift occurs. In the meantime, real projects (particularly involving education) are underway right now, real connections are being made, and real skills are being built. It’s hard to imagine ANY particular platform remaining dominant forever, but we have a chance, today, to participate in (and help shape) the future. Sounds good to me…

-kj-