Presenting Virtual Worlds
Last week a colleague invited me to make a presentation on virtual worlds to a class at NYU. Having had a major computer melt down only three weeks ago (which accounts for my long silence here), it was a bit of a struggle to get the presentation together. I was to have 45 minutes, which was a large chunk of time for a rather obscure topic. The last time I did a basic introduction presentation, I had 10 minutes, and it focused only on Second Life. This time, I wanted to really do the topic justice and show a lot of pictures from a variety of virtual worlds. I did…89 slides worth!
What was most interesting about the process to me was how my point of view has changed on Second Life. If you look back two years ago, I was skeptical about it and didn’t think it deserved all the hype it was getting. After a year of delving into Second Life and exploring all the variety it has to offer, I can now say without reservation that it is the best virtual world out there for content creators/builders and people who just like to explore. So far, anyway. Yes, there are issues with the SL platform — security, server lag, unexpected down times, a non-intuitive user interface — but it is still the best there is right now, and a rich place to spend time and learn what virtual worlds can offer. There are some exciting new worlds emerging now, and the early views look very promising, even though none of them yet looks like the “killer app” that will turn us all into virtual versions of our physical selves!
The virtual worlds I showed in my presentation were Kaneva, There.com, ActiveWorlds, vSide, World of Warcraft and Webkinz. I didn’t have time to do the visual research on others I like a lot, but that is underway now, and I’ll be completely prepared the next time I’m asked. This was the first time I have ever just lined up all my screenshots back to back and looked at them — and it’s why I decided to write this article. All the avatars and most of the scenery/buildings in most of the worlds are much more simplistic than those in Second Life. It was like the difference between a Mickey Mouse cartoon and the 3D richness offered by characters in City of Heroes. Most of the other worlds are sparse on detail, which reduces the server demands, but makes them much less interesting to look at for long (or after playing Everquest or World of Warcraft for many years!). After looking at the unique and charming appearances of my various avatars in Second Life, it’s really hard to get attached to an avatar in any of these other worlds. Most of them are cartoony and pre-created…the subscriber has little or no ability to customize the appearance details, which matters a great deal to many people like me. At most one can choose darker/lighter skin color, a hair style, and a few basic clothing items.
Second Life has surprised me by being deeply interesting, and engaging my interest on many levels. I do not have a business there, though I have considered making one of some sort. I do own land, a house, various pets and accoutrement, and I manage a sim for a friend. These constitute my personal learning platforms. I learned to use the building tools to create and script objects, to change colors and textures, and to terraform the land. I learned where the truly innovative virtual world creation is happening, and I try to hang out there regularly to absorb the impacts of the many new and creative things I discover there. Plus, I have found several mature, professional groups whose chatter I enjoy seeing scroll by on my screen as I do other things. It has been a wonderful, rich education, even if it has been unstructured. As the saying goes, idle hands will always find something to get into!
The class presentation went well, and many of the members really had their eyes opened and their understanding of the possibilities of virtual worlds stretched. That was satisfying. Mostly, it was just fun for me to be able to introduce people to something that for so many years no one was interested in at all. Ten years ago, when I first proposed a virtual insurance agency in ActiveWorlds using scripted chatbot agents, people’s jaws dropped and they didn’t get it at all. It’s great to be on the leading edge, but it’s really nice when people catch up with you, too.
