Kwok 1

Jolin Kwok
CMCL-C420
June 19, 2009
Game Analysis 5
The Synthetic Game of Second Life

Video games have always carried the reputation as a platform for escapism. Video games

let people take on roles and digital representations of themselves (avatars) that detach them

from real life as they explore fantastical metaphysical realms. Easily, people assume that video

games are not “real.” As Johan Huizinga puts it, a game is a make-believe “magic circle” that

cannot be taken seriously (105). However, with the rise of the Internet and the effect of

globalization, video games seem to evolve to a whole new level. Second Life (SL) is one of the

many examples of this metamorphosis. While it retains the conventional aesthetics and design

of videogames, its user-experience make even the most experienced gamer wonder if it could

really be considered as a game, due to its nebulous interchange between fantasy and reality.

However, even though Second Life—a game-like media—immerses users in a “world

surrounding the imaginative work”, (Jones 43) it is not a game because it does not really share

characteristics that make up a game or a magic circle, marking it to be a stark reflection of the

real world.

One characteristic of the magic circle or a game is that it is a “temporary world within the

ordinary world” which gives players competitions and goals to test their capabilities. (Huizinga

106) However, the world of SL has no preset goals. Functioning in real time, SL is vastly open-

ended and its meanings are essentially created by its users (called “residents”). It is also on-

going, just like real life itself. Games have rules that are “absolutely binding and allow no doubt”

(Huizinga 106), giving them a sense of order. Though there are some form of ethics that govern

SL through the Terms of Service, users can easily bend their way around it. For example, during

my stay in-world, I met this resident (who claims to be male) who revealed to me that the avatar
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he is using is the 50th avatar he has used in the span of 6 months. In SL, a resident who is

reported for griefing (causing distress to other residents) will be banned from SL. However, as it

is only their account that gets terminated, they can easily create another account and effectively

another avatar and be delinquents again. (Second Life - Terms of Service) I guessed that he had

a penchant for anarchy and he told me I was right, before teleporting away to his next quest for

rebellion. Like real life, residents like him just need to adopt a new identity to wash away their

criminal records and start again. In this sense, there is no real order in SL as anything can

happen to anyone.

Some people like to be griefers, largely because they see SL as a game. A game is played

and is “not serious” while it absorbs the player “intensely and utterly,” on top of having “no

material interest” as well as profit. (Huizinga 107) On the contrary, to many people Second Life

is quite the opposite. While users can spend hours a day in-world, they do not see it as mere

play. As one spends time to customize their avatars, one starts to see their avatars as “an

extension of [their] body into a new space” (Castronova 45). After all, an avatar is a visual

representation of a person in the virtual world, and the avatar body is what that person use to

experience that world. As I modified my avatar, I noticed how I wanted to emulate my physical

self with enhanced features, such as creating longer legs. When I started addressing things on

my avatar as “my hair,” “my shoe,” and etc., and addressing the residents I became acquainted

with as “my friends,” I was surprised how “quickly and easily [I became] the object [I]

manipulate[d]” despite my awareness of its technical artificiality (Castronova 32). Everyone else

in SL seems to take on the identity of their avatars as well, merging their real selves with their

virtual selves together and function as one entity.

People in SL seem to replicate social norms in RL. For instance, People start

conversations with greetings such as “Hi” and “How is it going?” and they would usually make

small talks about the environment or make reference to in-world activities. If they are close

enough, they would skip the small talk and talk about their own lives, just as two friends would
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in real life. Also, many people form groups and conduct discussions about common interests. In

SL, I frequent philosophy clubs like Thothica and writers guild like Inkster. These group

formations are very similar to online and real world forums. On a interpersonal level, since

communication in SL is largely text-based, the visual clues one can have are restricted to the

direction the other avatars are facing. Even though other residents can see you, they tend to

make their avatars face you directly if they feel interested in you, or attracted to the appearance

of your avatar. Like real life, “the closer two characters were, the less likely they were to be

directly facing each other” (Jarett 490). You can also tell how two people feel about each other

or the kind of relationship they have based on the distance between their avatars. The personal

space bubbles around avatars are also very similar to the one people have in real life. The more

intimate two people are, the closer they will stand with each other. Also, the distance in front of

them tend to be larger than the distance behind. (Bailenson et. al) Like the communities in

MMORPG, as SL residents spend time doing activities together, they invest time and emotions

into relationships formed in-world and eventually gain significant “emotional experiences” just

as they would in real life (Yee). From my experience, the SL dating scene shares the same issues

as the dating scene I observed from the world. Because the way people function in groups in SL

mirrors real life group behavior so well, social psychologists take great interest in using this

synthetic world for social studies (Jarett 491).

Aside from its humanistic aspect, SL proves to have socio-economic value, showing how

it has “material interest” and “profit” as opposed to a game. SL currency, Linden dollar, can be

exchanged for US dollar (Xstreet SL Market Summary). Because of this and the growing

influence of SL in the pop culture, many people make a living by having small businesses in SL.

Sometimes, they earn much more in SL that it replaces their jobs in real life. In January 2006,

SL creator Linden Lab estimated that “nearly $5 million dollars, or about $38 per person,” was

exchanged between more than 130,000 residents, showing the great impact a synthetic world

has on the macroeconomic situation in the real world. (Craig) Like There.com, SL has brand
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companies like BMW and fashion designers like Jean Paul Gaultier utilizing the environment to

test their product designs. These users have to have monthly-paid Premium accounts in order to

conduct their businesses that they not only generate income for “a third-party corporation,”

which further influences the world economy (Yee). SL also functions as an information gateway

for educational purposes. Harvard University and Ball State University are two examples of at

least “60 schools and educational organizations” that treat SL as a virtual academic learning

environment. (Wong) Even though Reuters recently closed its bureau in SL, the fact that it

decided to have a correspondent in this cyber community marks the merit SL earns in being a

progressive medium for news coverage. (Williams)

Clearly, Second Life is far from a mere entertainment medium. Instead, it is a virtual

reality that is an extension of the real world. This way, Second Life is as real as it can get, as it

affects human psychology on a social and interpersonal level as well as the macroeconomics of

the world. Its contributions to reality go far beyond what any video game can offer. Within its

environment, people can learn more about their psychological selves and the dynamics of

human relationships as they interact with each other, providing valuable insights for academic

social and humanistic studies. Second Life holds a category of its own, proving that technology

has reached new heights beyond our imagination that we need to catch up. While it does blur

the line between a video game and reality, as we have observed, what Second Life really does in

the end is to encourage us to explore a seemingly borderless opportunity for creative explosions.
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Work Cited

Bailenson, Jeremy N. , Andrew C. Beall, Jim Blascovich, Mike Raimundo, and Max Weisbuch.

"Intelligent Agents Who Wear Your Face: Users." University of California. Santa

Barbara. <http://vhil.stanford.edu/pubs/2001/bailenson-virtual-self.pdf>.

Castronova, Edward. "Daily Life on Synthetic Earth." Synthetic worlds : the business and culture

of online games. Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2006. Print. 32, 45.

Craig , Kathleen . "Making a Living in Second Life." Wired.com. 8 Feb 2006. 19 Jun 2009

<http://www.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/news/2006/02/70153>.

Huizinga, Johan . "Nature and Significance of Play as a Cultural Phenomenon." The Game

Design Reader : a Rules of Play anthology. Salem and Zimmerman. Cambridge: MIT

Press, 2006. Print. 105-107.

Jarrett, Christian. "Get a second life." The Psychologist 22. 6.Jun 2009 490-491. Web.19 Jun

2009. <http://issuu.com/thepsychologist/docs/0609/27>.

"Second Life - Terms of Service." Second Life. 2006. Linden Research, Inc. 20 Jun 2009

<http://secondlife.com/corporate/tos.php>.

Williams, Chris. "Reuters yanks reporter from Sadville." The Register: Biting the hand that feeds

IT. 21 Nov 2008 . Situation Publishing Ltd. 20 Jun 2009

<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/21/reuters_sadville_end_of_an_era/>.

Wong. Grace. "Educators explore 'Second Life' online," 14 Nov 2006. CNN.com. Web.20 Jun

2009. <http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/11/13/second.life.university/index.html>.

"Xstreet SL Market Summary." Xstreet SL - Second Life Commerce. 19 Jun 2009.

<https://www.xstreetsl.com/modules.php?name=Currency>.

Yee, Nicholas. "The Psychology of Massively Multi-User Online Role-Playing Games:

Motivations, Emotional Investment, Relationships and Problematic Usage." 2006. 20

Jun 2009 <http://vhil.stanford.edu/pubs/2006/yee-psychology-mmorpg.pdf>.