About a year ago, I did some research into the history of MMORPGs, with the aim of identifying the role that the ordinary user has played in shaping the MMORPG. At the time, I referred to Second Life as representative of the new generation of MMORPG, in which the technological framework more fully supported user-driven innovations and creativity than its predecessors. At the time I had no idea of the buzz that Second Life would begin to generate towards the latter half of 2006, as indicated in the following graph of search trends for “Second Life” in the Google search engine.

Even as a mass migration of commercial interests began moving into the space, I hesitated for one reason or another. It was not until I found out that Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson were holding a weekly Second Life event, “Coffee with Crayon,” that I finally decided the time had come to step foot in the virtual world.

It was two weeks ago on a thursday, I entered the world of Second Life. I was immediately struck by the vanity of the avatars in the world. The default characters have chiseled features, impeccable style, and sculpted bodies. In other words they are completely unrealistic. The first thing I did was to set about creating a physical appearance that was more humble and down-to-earth:

Ready for action

After I was satisifed with my physical appearance, I set off to the Crayonville offices in Second Life and was quickly surrounded by a substantial group of Second Life denizens. I immediately approached Shel, who I have met at several industry events in the past and found to be a very friendly and approachable individual, and attempted to greet him with a personal IM. No response. I then turned to the first person standing by and attempted to strike up a conversation by sending another personal IM - again, I was met with silence.

Even worse, I couldn’t follow the fragmented public conversation taking place in the room. It reminded me of the first time I had entered a chat room and been presented with the flowing stream of fragmented jargon that pervades such spaces, comprehensible only by those who speak the language and understand the etiquette of that chat room.

After several minutes, I decided to venture out of Crayonville, and socialize with some of the other Second Life residents. I went to a populated area and began attempting to strike up conversations:

Do you want to grab a coffee sometime?

Believe it or not, the Second Life member above actually responded to me and we shared a brief, ephemeral conversation, which was cut short by the realization that I had officially began to waste time.

After leaving the world, I began pondering what the buzz was all about.

I was reminded of a similar space, Alpha World, which could aptly be described as Second Life before there was a Second Life. You could pretty much do all the same things in Alpha World that you can now do in Second Life. The only difference is that I’m pretty sure that no one has ever heard of Alpha World except for me and the developers who created Alpha World.

I first stumbled into Alpha World about eight years ago, when I was doing research for an IT provider that serviced the health care industry. I had stumbled upon the virtual world while searching for resources on diabetes, and had found a virtual ‘house’ dedicated to information about diabetes. I remembered walking through the virtual home, which was not so unlike Crayon, and being amazed at the potential within the technology. Rooms were adorned with information about diabetes, and through a television in a virtual room, I could actually access a Web site with more information about the condition.

It was an experience unlike any other I had had at the time.

Thinking back on this experience, I was also reminded of the isolation I experienced when I left the home in diabetes and began wandering around in the largely deserted virtual world. Slowly, I realized the hollowness that pervaded the experience, in spite of the amazing potential behind it. Simply put, once the novelty of the spectacle ran out, I found myself looking for a social experience, only there wasn’t one to be readily had.

It occurs to me that there is nothing really innovative about the technology behind Second Life. The thing that differentiates Second Life from Alpha World is the buzz, and the sheer volume of immigrants who it has attracted. The question remains, will the population stabilize or perhaps continue to increase? Or will Second Life go the route of so many other amazing technologies, and become a passing fad - albeit one that has had a lot more corporate money poured into it.

I’m hoping that this posting will stir some conversation on the topic because I really have no idea.