Second Life in 3600 seconds

March

20

07

Andy Powell, Eduserv [email protected]

www.eduserv.org.uk/foundation

Second Life in 3600 seconds

or “My life in the bush of avatars”

March 2007Eduserv lunchtime seminar

Second what?

• 3-D virtual world

• run by Linden Lab

• ‘proprietary’, but public commitment to open standards and OSS

• populated by avatars, aka residents

• a ‘metaverse’ (from the book: Snow Crash)

www.secondlife.com


So it’s just a game right?

• can use SL to build games – including shoot ‘em ups

• but such activities frowned on in public spaces

• looks and feels like a gaming environment

• but no purpose as such

– use it to buy / sell, entertain, learn, collaborate, …

• do not approach it simply as a game – you’ll be disappointed!

image by J0@nn@ @ flickr.com


Ain’t you got a first life mate?


Joining SL

• two steps– register

– install client software

• note technical requirements


What does it cost?

• basic accounts are free

• need to pay monthly subscription ($10) to own land

• land can be quite expensive

• ‘land use fees’ for owning more than smallest plot


Naming / identity

• every avatar has a name

• chosen at registration

• can’t be changed

• though can have ‘Alt’s

• mine is Art Fossett - not an anagram!


Identity / appearance

• on the Internet no one knows you’re a dog

• in SL no one knows you’re a bloke

• appearance can be changed instantly

• wings and tails (‘furries’) seem oddly popular!


Communication

• chat

• IM

• group IM

• IM <-> email

• no in-built support for voice

• promised soon

• but residents have added Skype integration


Getting around

• walking

• flying

• teleporting– locally via scripted

objects

– longer distances via ‘landmarks’

• in-world search engine

• locations exposed to Web as SLURLs


Virtual land

• rent or buy

• needed for permanent buildings

– shops, galleries, universities

• mainland areas

• private islands (~$1000 for non-profits)

• issues with ‘land barons’ buying up available land and selling for profit


Building stuff

• anyone can build

• in sandboxes or on own land

• objects made out of basic building blocks – prims (cubes, spheres, …)

• prim limits usually apply

• prims can be textured for realism – but uploading costs L$10

• objects as HUDs


Scripting• scripted objects

• C++ like, event-driven language

• move, change shape, etc.

• interact via clicking, chat, sensing the env.

• modify avatar behaviour

• in-world physics engine


Multimedia• limited integration of

audio and video files

• SL client has built-in support for Quicktime

• can play anything that QT supports

• pulled in from URL associated with land parcel

• however, significant limitations currently


SL and Web 2.0

• scripting language can issue HTTP GET and POST requests

• can integrate with Web 2.0 services

• but significant limitations currently

• no built-in HTML, XML or JSON parsers so need to parse externally

• SLURLs can be bookmarked in del.icio.us

• some good examples – Second Talk, SLoodle, SLtwitter, BlogHUD, RSS readers


IPR

• IPR on in-world objects rests with creator

• e.g. rights to game designed in-world subsequently sold to Nintendo by its creator

• however, objects essentially remain locked in-world


Money

• in-world currency

• Linden dollar (L$)

• $1 = ~L$280

• fluctuates

• but supply influenced by Linden Lab

• currency market to buy and sell L$


Commerce

• many big brands in SL

• hype => presence

• some criticism from older residents that SL is becoming a ‘brandscape’


Entertainment

• hard to tell hype from reality

• some experimental use of SL to host events and/or mirror RL events

• e.g. BBC One Big Weekend

• but significant problems with scalability


Machinima

• the use of SL to create movies

• application in film studies and related areas

• of interest because the techniques are the same but costs significantly lower


Crime

• not a significant issue (yet!)

• some anti-social behaviour

• some reports of people pretending to be shop owners when they are not

• some reports of fraud around land sales

• one major incident of hacking into SL databases

image by ay1ene @ flickr.com


Hype

• SL very over-hyped

• significant complaints that stats are misleading

• i.e. worse than Web stats

• LL have improved the way they report usage but…

• SL also (inappropriately) touted as Web NG


Demographics

Country %

United States 31.19%

France 12.73%

Germany 10.45%

United Kingdom 8.08%

Netherlands 6.55%

Spain 3.83%

Brazil 3.77%

Canada 3.30%

Belgium 2.63%

Italy 1.93%

Australia 1.48%

Switzerland 1.29%

Japan 1.29%

Sweden 0.95%

Denmark 0.88%

China 0.61%

Age %

Average Age Adult Grid

13-17 1.23% 33

18-24 27.16%

25-34 38.88%

35-44 21.13%

Average Age on Teen Grid

45 + 11.61% 15

F M

2006 September 43.76% 56.24%

2006 October 42.65% 57.35%

2006 November 42.14% 57.86%

2006 December 41.42% 58.58%

2007 January 41.11% 58.89%

2007 February 41.07% 58.93%


Time

• SL runs on US West Coast time (GMT-8)

• many events tend to run on that basis

• SL tends to be empty during our working day

• actually, SL tends to look empty, full-stop!

• in-world daylight hours run on 4 hour cycle


Gambling and porn

• both exist… in abundance!

• as with early Web, both areas quick to exploit the technology

• indicative of flexibility?

• causes problems because of load on ‘sims’

• not possible to choose who your neighbours are!


SL rules

• code of conduct in public spaces– no griefing / hassling of other

residents

– no use of offensive language

– no nudity

– no public sex

• no police as such

• but breaches can be reported to Linden Lab

• areas can be explicitly marked as ‘mature’ (or for gaming)


Politics• RL politics surface in

SL every so often – anti-war, anti-NF, …

• SL politics also feature – pricing, land policies, IPR, open sourcing of SL software


SL and learning

• widespread interest in use of SL in education

• explicitly encouraged by Linden Lab

• not clear that people really know how to use SL yet

• but some interesting examples of use

• arts, social sciences, law, psychology, archaeology, languages, …


Teen Second Life

• note that SL is segregated

• Teen SL (14-18) and SL (18+)

• no cross-over allowed except in limited cases (e.g. teachers)

• well enforced

• presumably to prevent threat of legal action in US


SL and research

• even less clear what is possible here

• but note that Nature Publishing have an island (‘Second Nature’)

• speaking at our symposium in May


SL in context

• SL is one of many virtual worlds

• there.com, World of Warcraft, Entropia Universe, Active Worlds, …

• not clear that SL is the answer

• SL client now released as open source

• clear demand for server to made OSS also

• some commitment to this by LL (partly because people are reverse-engineering the server anyway)


Conclusions…

• too much hype

• no clear best-practice (or even much practice) around e-learning

• high technical requirements

• no voice integration

• but… useful experimental environment

• building and scripting environment very powerful

• seems likely that 3-D virtual worlds of some kind will be part of the future


Four examples…

Technology

Second Life in 3600 seconds