3D Virtual Worlds vs. MMORPGs

I have spent 9 years exploring 3D Virtual Worlds, and 8 years playing MMORPGs.  For the longest time they felt like two different experiences.  3D Virtual Worlds are a creative outlet, while MMORPGs are a mostly cooperative gaming experience.  It seems that recently they have been merging.

I have not been adding many new virtual worlds to my master list lately.  While I am probably missing some, the main reason I have not been adding new ones is because there haven’t been any.  This is probably due to good old capitalism.  The potential market just isn’t as big as people thought, and the market that is there is covered really well by Second Life, IMVU, and OpenSim.

In the last couple of years, the growth in 3D gaming has been in free to play MMORPGs.  Not only do they attract a crowd with new gaming experiences, they have co-opted the social model of the 3D Virtual Worlds, creating central meeting places, and free “bases” you can decorate and host private gatherings.  They also have special interest groups you can join in game to meet like minded people.

Basically, everything that makes 3D Virtual Worlds popular, can now be found in MMORPGs too, except user created content.

This is why I now believe that if a complex “Metaverse” like OASIS in Ready Player One is  ever built, it is more likely to be in the form of an MMORPG rather than a 3D Virtual World.

We then must ask the question: How important is “user created content”?  Well, I learned early on during my 9 years of exploring that “content” is vitally important, in fact it is THE most important factor in the success of a 3D Virtual World, and in truth it is also one of the most important factor in MMORPGs, too (“playability” slightly trumps it however).  Allowing user created content is the fastest way to get content, but it is a two edged sword, because the vast majority of user created content is junk.  That user created content has to be loaded on the fly via asset servers which slows down and weakens the user experience.  So if a 3DVW or MMORPG can provide enough “content” without resorting to the user created variety, it is a better experience for the player.

On the other hand, creating the “user created content” is in and of itself the thing that attracts many to 3D Virtual Worlds in the first place.  It is one of the things I have enjoyed most about Second Life and There.com.

The truth is that content creators are seriously outnumbered by both socializers (especially since most content creators are also socializers), and gamers.  Now that MMORPGs are working to appeal to both of the latter groups, it is only the content creators who feel that 3DVWs are the better way to go.  For everyone else, there is simply more things to do in an MMORPG.

As far as “content” goes, competition between MMORPGs is fierce enough that the newest ones are constantly raising the bar on the amount (and quality) of the content they offer.  The thing that triggered this post is my exploration of “Lions Arch” in Guild Wars 2.  I have posted a lot of reviews of 3D builds, but I would say without question that the new “Lions Arch” is the most beautiful 3D build I have ever seen in any game I have ever played, regardless of genre.  It is a true masterpiece of the art form.

As I stated in a previous post, 3D Virtual Worlds are in a slow decline.  It is the competition with free to play MMORPGs that is doing it.  The MMOs are incorporating the stuff that makes 3DVWs popular.  If they are to survive, the 3DVWs need to start incorporating what makes MMOs popular.  They are just starting to do that.  The merging of the two genres seems inevitable.  I for one am looking forward to that, because it is only going to get more awesome.

Is the Party Over in SL?

Second Life is falling off the mainstream radar, ironically Linden Labs is making a potentially hazardous move to try to become more mainstream. I have to ask: Is the party over in SL?

SL’s Declining coverage

I am noticing a major shift in the attention that Second Life has been getting lately. Mainly it is getting a lot less of it.  I have an RSS aggregator dedicated to SL which pulls stories from the biggest and best SL outlets I can find.

I used to feature Reuters, they dropped covering SL. Same with Wired. Electric Sheep Company seems to be pulling out of SL and blogging less. I yanked them all.

Of the ones that are left, they are still covering SL, but at a reduced rate. Former Second Life Herald, now Alphaville Herald (thanks to trademark enforcement) is shifting to Metaplace and other VW coverage. Massively, a site dedicated to all online gaming that bought up SLNN for more SL coverage, still has the occasional SL story, but only when there is some interesting development. They no longer seek out the stories themselves. Of the other blogs I list, only New World Notes continues to blog regularly. To keep the aggregator busy I added Koinup popular places and the Second Life Bloggers group at ning.com.

Mainstream press in general no longer seems that much interested. Part of me suspects that when SL was being judged by the number of accounts, the tens of millions generated some interest. Now that the “active” account number seems to hover around 500,000 and hasn’t grown much in nearly two years, its considered old news.

A couple of years ago the announcement to section off a continent for “adult content” would have gotten a few mentions in the mainstream press. Today nary a blip. The last SL story to get mainstream press coverage was last November’s headline of a real world divorce over the husbands SL “cybering” with another player. It was a strange human interest story, but that kind of thing happens a lot more often than you think. That story reinforced SL’s reputation as a “cyber sex” haven. The recent “adult content” announcement was an attempt to lessen that reputation.

“Adult Content” Continent

As  I have said before, the age verification is a game changer. There has been quite a confusing discussion about what exactly counts as “adult content” and many players are upset that Linden Labs is engaging in censorship.

What LL is proposing is a new mainland continent where adult content will be allowed reachable only by acconts that have been age verified or that have used a credit card for billing. The general consensus is this will be a “ghetto” continent, which could eventually be closed completely if LL decides it is necessary.

Personally I have a suspicion that this may backfire completely on every level. First of all, you are going to lose some of the 500,000 active players who no longer want to have anything to do with SL, best case is that they are replaced with new active players not looking for adult content.

But from my perspective, there are unforeseen benefits to this island. Adding verification for admittance means there will be no “kids” on this island, no “alts” or “alt griefing”, the vast majority of people allowed will be paying customers with lindens to spend, few “noobs”, few free accounts = no lag due to “camping”, and no one complaining about the content there, because everyone goes in knowing what to expect.

No doubt the immediate focus of this continent will be on the adult content, but these other ancillary benefits may actually drive more really active players there, possibly making the adult continent more popular than any other continent, possibly making the rest of SL the “ghetto”. A recent NWN post agrees with my assessment.

If Linden Labs sets the adult content bar real low (like no nudity) and strictly enforce it, this will almost certainly be the outcome. If this does occur SL’s reputation may continue to sour. New players will find new obstacles to the “good content”, ultimately driving a wedge into the community as a whole.

On the other hand, If they set the bar real high (like no XXX porn anything less is OK) and don’t enforce it much, it will change SL not at all and then LL can tell anyone interested that they are doing “something” about it without really doing anything.  The new adult only continent really will become a “ghetto” no one wants to go to.  Unfortunately, lax enforcement will lead to more player complaints ultimately driving a wedge into the community as a whole anyways.

Either way the community loses. Linden Labs has put themselves in a tough position that will affect every player one way or another.

Based on interviews at NWN and reports from the SL forums, there is lots of contradictory info coming out of LL’s offices. If they hope to have these policies in place by the end of summer, they got a lot of work ahead.

A divided community is an unhappy community, opening the door to the next cool thing taking away LL’s business. The party in SL will truly be over, moved to another venue.

Second Life now has Usury Laws

If you lend money to any of My people who are poor among you, you shall not be like a moneylender to him; you shall not charge him interest. – Exodus 22:25

As of January 22, 2008, it will be prohibited to offer interest or any direct return on an investment (whether in L$ or other currency) from any object, such as an ATM, located in Second Life, without proof of an applicable government registration statement or financial institution charter. – Ken Linden of Linden Labs

So after getting rid of casinos, which killed Gecko Financial and other money schemes which relied on casinos, Linden Labs has had enough and is doing the same with all investment schemes too. No more banks allowed.

Here is the full statement

This is another example of real world laws interfering with virtual life, but I’m pretty much OK with this one, as well as any rules regarding Linden dollars, in order to keep the ability to convert lindens and US dollars. Heck for the past year, Lindens have been more stable than US Dollars

Second Life At Dangerous Crossroads Part 1

I have been meaning to write a comprehensive essay on how many recent changes in SL may have a cumulative affect of making the world completely unrecognizable in a few months.

I want to do the story, but the changes keep coming and it is increasingly hard to keep up with it all. Here are two big hits that just came in the last 24 hours.

1. SL Terms of Service In Legal Limbo

Lets start with the big news from Bragg vs Linden Labs court case. Let me summarize:

Bragg: I found an exploit to make Lindens really cheap
Linden Labs: You are not allowed to do that!
Bragg: Your sucky code lets me, so it is legal!
Linden Labs: You still can’t do that so shut up! (account closed)
Bragg: You can’t close my account, I invested money!
Linden Labs: Yes we can, its in the TOS!
Bragg: Well your TOS sucks, I’m going to sue you!
Linden Labs: You cant sue us, its in the TOS!
Judge: Yes he can sue you, your TOS sucks!

Here is more on the case. Personally, I’m rooting for LL in this case, because Bragg is a “cracker lawyer” who should be thrown in jail for virtual land fraud.

Basically this means that the Terms of Service agreement you have to agree to is no longer legally binding and will have to be rewritten to be more fair to players who have a dispute with Linden Labs. Here is more on that.

2. Second Life’s Patriot and Domestic Surveillance Act

On the same day that a federal judge has put the TOS in jeopardy, ironically Linden Labs decides to release a vague statement to the affect that activities that many players engage in are now not allowed in Second Life anymore.

The diversity of things to see and do within Second Life is almost unimaginable, but our community has made it clear to us that certain types of content and activity are simply not acceptable in any form:

• Real-life images, avatar portrayals, and other depiction of sexual or lewd acts involving or appearing to involve children or minors;
• real-life images, avatar portrayals, and other depictions of sexual violence including rape,
• real-life images, avatar portrayals, and other depictions of extreme or graphic violence, and other broadly offensive content

are never allowed or tolerated within Second Life.

Please help us to keep Second Life a safe and welcoming space by continuing to notify Linden Lab about locations in-world that are violating our Community Standards regarding broadly offensive and potentially illegal content.

Our team monitors such notification 24-hours a day, seven-days a week.

Individuals and groups promoting or providing such content and activities will be swiftly met with a variety of sanctions, including termination of accounts, closure of groups, removal of content, and loss of land.

It’s up to all of us to make sure Second Life remains a safe and welcoming haven of creativity and social vision.

WTF is this? What happened to “Your World, Your Imagination”?

What exactly does this mean? It means that the stuff they were planning to sweep under the rug as “adult content” restricted to age verified players is now just simply not allowed period. If someone reports you, LL can delete your account if they feel like it, it says so in the TOS (that a federal judge ruled as sucky).

There are two kinds of players in SL, you have those that equate virtual activity with real activity (the “Virtual Utopians”) and those that see it as all pretend (the “Role Players”).

On issues like this, I am squarely on the side of the role players. Ageplay does not equal Pedophelia, virtual nudity does not equal real nudity, virtual sex does not equal real sex, virtual rape does not exist, and to say it exists is a slur against real rape victims. (Ignorant newbies being fraudulently coerced into virtual sex, not knowing they could easily report the conversation to abuse, is sexual harassment at best).

The Virtual Utopians don’t see it that way. They don’t understand that virtual and reality are two very different things. That is what this new (they are claiming it is not new) policy is trying to cater to. To them, virtual sex and violent acts can lead to real sex and violent acts. They think we have to clean up virtual reality to have any hope of cleaning up real reality.

Except, the evidence says no, in fact even the opposite:

• Increased access to internet porn has reduced sex crimes
• There is no causal relation between violent video games and violent crime

If people want to get their yayas out doing stuff virtually that could cause physical or psychological harm if done really, I have no problem with that. Lets keep extreme sex and violence in Second Life where it belongs!

Motive: Follow the Money

What does all this add up to? Why are they doing this? When a company starts pissing off its core audience, just follow the money.

The answer can be found in the notes of the Virtual Worlds 2007 Conference. Corporate sponsorship was more interested in PG rated games like There than they were in more open NC-17 games like Second Life.

With everything going 3D these days, the small companies that run today’s virtual worlds have to be considered prime takeover targets. Second Life is worried about its reputation. It wants to go mainstream. It would rather have the corporate dollars than the player dollars.

That’s what its all about!

Hey Second Life: NO SCRIPTS = NO ME!!

There seems to be a growing evil trend in Second Life. More and more “popular” places are disabling scripts as a way to cut down “lag”. I understand their reasons for it. Supposedly reducing lag makes the experience better, but they cant be more wrong.

SL was built on customizability and creativity, and disabling scrips on your land all but kills that customization and creativity. If you own a club, and disable scripts, no can bring outside animations or chimeras for customize dancing, no one can use animation overrides to look cool, they are stuck using the ugly default ones. No one can launch particle effects to liven up the atmosphere. Basically you are stuck using what the club gives you. That defeats the whole purpose of SL.

Turning off outside scripts on your land is a major turn off to the coolness factor.

As a scripter/animator, I find this intolerable. If I cant play and show off, I do not feel I have a reason to go.

A Survey of outside script policy at the “Most Popular Places”I use quotes, because popularity in SL is meaningless, most popular places get there by using camping chairs, which brings an audience, but offers no meaningful content.

A Virtual Festival – No Scripts
Amsterdam – No Scripts
Bad Girls – No Scripts
BHE Welcome Center – No Scripts
City of Fortune – Scripts camping chairs
Club Arsheba – No Scripts
Club Extreme – No Scripts
Club Sin – No Scripts
Dragon Fly Oasis – Scripts Camping Chairs
Elements – No Scripts
Hedonism – No Scripts
Ice Dragon Playpen – Scripts
ILHA Brasil – Scripts but my Portuguese is rusty
Neva Naughty – No Scripts
Nude Beach – No Scripts
Ocean Casino – Scripts Camping Chairs
Odds&Ends – Scripts camping chairs
Parrot Head Cove – Scripts camping chairs
Sexy Land – No Scripts
South Beach Miami – Scripts Camping Chairs

So basically, among the most popular places in SL the only one worth visiting is Ice Dragon Playpen, especially if you are a Tringo addict like me.

Bar Hopping in the Metaverse

Everybody needs a break now and then.

I mentioned a few posts before that the metaverse is becoming for many people the new “third place” where you can relax and unwind from home and work. Like the real world, it seems that bars and clubs are often the most popular venues.

So I decided to stop by a few of the virtual bars and clubs and just hang.

The virtual club experience consists of going to an area of the 3D world decorated like a club. You dress up your avatar, do sexy dance animation moves that are physically impossible in the real world, and everybody listens to the same streaming audio. This usually spurs conversation. The drinks are free but virtual.

Virtual clubs first started in Active Worlds. My first experiences were in The Sims Online where streaming audio didn’t exist so you had to open winamp and go to a URL that the DJ provided. They have become a requirement for any social game. Even the newest, Virtual Laguna Beach, has four of them.

Above is a bar scene in IMVU. Because there are no physical locations or events in IMVU it is tough to fill a bar with people. I’m hoping this changes once they get the bugs in chat cast ironed out.

Basically, The Lounge, consists of one big club. This game still has yet to really find any kind of an audience. Their last update though improved some animations and graphics. The fact that most all the avatars look like young teenagers tells you right away where the target audience is. Probably not my scene.

Red Light Center is a more mature audience, and for me anyways, the ONLY place worth visiting is Club Blu (sorry, I’m not into the porn theaters or sex palace scene). There is usually a small group of players here hanging out and dancing. It’s usually a friendly atmosphere, but the ratio of men to women is very lopsided right now.

I dont play City of Heroes much these days, but here is a file photo of a party on Pocket D. If you want to know what is going on these days here, just imagine the above picture without the people. Sometimes you can find stuff going on in Pocket Zero (the only neutral place where City of Heroes meets City of Villains), but the biggest party atmosphere location in City of Heroes is probably right outside Atlas Hall.

Almost every MMORPG has its places to hang out, and it is usually where the newbies hang out, or in front of some big quest starting place where people try and get on a good team. Every single one of them have dance animations that people like to play when they are just hanging around waiting on the rest of the team.

Back at my old stomping grounds There.com. It has a lot of great club settings: The Inferno, Club Bali, Oro Lounge, The Cannery, Aero Lounge, etc. They are unfortunately rarely used. Best bet here is to go and see when and where events are scheduled. House parties are still a regular activity in There.

Welcome to Bad Girls, the most popular club in Second Life. Always a big crowd, and always a live DJ, 24 hours a day every day. Second life has many popular clubs, and the best ones are the ones on private sims: Bad Girls, The Edge, Hot Licks, Studio 54, Club Vixens. The atmosphere in each is different, and when the crowds get big, they get very laggy.

I guess like real life, sometimes the bar scene is great, sometimes it is just boring and sad. It all depends on your attitude and friends you tag along with.

The Virtual Third Place

What is a virtual third place?

Well the term “third place” comes from the book The Great Good Place by Ray Oldenburg.
http://www.pps.org/info/placemakingtools/placemakers/roldenburg

Oldenburg identifies third places, or “great good places,” as the public places on neutral ground where people can gather and interact. In contrast to first places (home) and second places (work), third places allow people to put aside their concerns and simply enjoy the company and conversation around them. Third places “host the regular, voluntary, informal, and happily anticipated gatherings of individuals beyond the realms of home and work.” Oldenburg suggests that beer gardens, main streets, pubs, cafés, coffeehouses, post offices, and other third places are the heart of a community’s social vitality and the foundation of a functioning democracy. They promote social equality by leveling the status of guests, provide a setting for grassroots politics, create habits of public association, and offer psychological support to individuals and communities.

So, in the world of suburbia where these “third places” seem to be disappearing, what is there to replace them?

While it is definitely not for everybody, I believe that virtual worlds, whether it be games designed to be social places like There or Second Life or MMORPG’s like World of Warcraft and City of Heroes, have a good shot at fulfilling that role.

The “Metaverse” is on its way to becoming real, and offers a social environment where people cut off from one another geographically can meet and socialize with all the benefits of real “third places”.

Couple Meets in Paragon City

A couple of friends of mine from City of Heroes got married on Tuesday June 6th and the odd way they met got a good write up in the Wall Street Journal. http://tinyurl.com/kqyxf