Synthetic Worlds: Second Life,
Business, and Virtual Gaming
Nikki Price
2/27/12
Engl 197
Edward Castronova, Synthetic
Worlds
• “synthetic world”: computer generated
space, represented graphically in three
dimensions, that can be experienced by
many people at once
– “synthetic”: crafted by humans
– All MMORPG (massively multi-player online
role-playing game) worlds in the game industry
– Examples: The Sims Online, Second Life
– DOES NOT include games such as online
poker or text based chat rooms
Synthetic Worlds
• “Synthetic worlds hold immense promise as places where
humans can enhance their Earth experiences with ones
drawn directly from our glorious collective history and
imagination.”
• “Ideally, the synthetic worlds we revere and feel most
comfortable in will also be Good worlds. We will like
them, and they will enhance human dignity and well-being
[…] The Earth is very nice, but there are experiences we
can imagine in our minds that we cannot have here…”
• “Multiplayer online videogames […] have become too
fraught with heady implications to be ignored any longer.”
“A virtual world is a world
rendered out of a computer”
• Virtual reality: “The result of efforts to craft
an all-encompassing synthetic environment”
– More likely to be “absorbed” if designed in a way that
appealed to others, that invited them in and tried to
provide something that they would like to have
Therefore, all of these “virtual reality” games must entail
some sort of reward.
• What sort of rewards do virtual games offer its players?
• How are virtual reality games advertised to potential
players? http://secondlife.com/whatis/
Synthetic Worlds
• “Looking beyond these simple joys of
immersive, interactive entertainment,
however, it should be stressed that synthetic
worlds may eventually make contributions
to human well-being that will be judged as
extraordinarily significant.”
What can synthetic worlds contribute to the human
experience that would be considered “extraordinarily
significant”?
Second Life: Currency
• “Linden dollars”
• 1 U.S. dollar approx. 300
Linden dollars
• “Virtual worlds, especially
Second Life, tap into the talent
and hard work of everyone.”
• in 2003, Linden Lab allowed
Second Life residents to retain
full ownership of their virtual
creations
– Programmer Nathan Keir,
Tringo
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_18/b3982001.htm
“My Virtual Life”: Business
behind virtual worlds
• “Virtual worlds could transform the way they
[businesses] operate by providing a new template
for getting work done, from training and
collaboration to product design and marketing.”
• “People are willing to do tedious, complex tasks
within games,” notes Nick Yee, a Stanford
University graduate student in communications
who has extensively studied online games. “What
if we could tap into that brainpower?”
From Second Life Wiki:
• “Over the last few years, many large multi-national enterprises and
government institutions have realized that Second Life is a powerful
collaboration tool for work such as: meetings, training sessions, and
simulations and prototypes.”
• Possible to build conference spaces that can hold 200-300 avatars
• Applications within Second Life include Powerpoint presentations, white
boarding, brainstorming, dynamic audience polling, etc. Available in the
SL Marketplace.
• Quality of Second Life meetings > conference calls or video conferencing
– SL provides a “shared sense of environment […] the next best thing to a face-to-face
meeting which is usually preferred, but not always possible due to geographic or
budgetary constraints.”
– Example: IBM coordinated a virtual world conference in 2009, ultimately saving
$320,000 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsYVF25jHqw
What are the potential benefits and consequences of using virtual worlds
for business related purposes?
Virtual Pets
Nintendogs (2005)
http://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=4ch0bt1x
pk4
Tamagotchi (1996)
http://www.bandai.com/
tamagotchi/
http://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=nYhjYbal
8oI
Movement towards community
Why do virtual games continue to make the transition from
individual game play to multiplayer online communities?
What do players benefit from, or see as a reward, from such
communities?
Can or do these communities detract players from “face to
face” interactions in their everyday lives?
Castronova: “I fear the power of a simulated world to alter the
mind’s conception of it’s own desires. Many people seem to
be heavily invested emotionally in rather crude synthetic
worlds […] some spend every waking hour there. Is that the
result of a rational choice, or rather some form of chemical
response similar to nicotine?”