How many of us have actually wondered how it would feel like be in another person's shoes, or how would it feel like to be a completely different person altogether? With today's advances in the gaming industry, that possibility has now become a reality.
In 2003, a company named Linden Research Inc. developed a "game" that might have changed the future of interactive gaming. Second Life is an Internet based Virtual World, where users can socialize, connect and create using voice and text chat. Users are able to interact with each other through motional avatars from which they can explore, socialize with other users, participate in individual or group activities and create and trade items and services between one another.
While Second Life is sometimes referred to as a game, this description does not fit the standard definition. It does not have points, scores, winners or losers, levels, an end-strategy, or most of the other characteristics of games. It's a stretch to call Second Life a game because the "Residents", as players prefer to be called, create everything. Unlike in other virtual worlds, Second Life's technology lets people create objects like clothes or buildings from scratch, LEGO-style, rather than simply pluck avatar outfits or ready-made buildings from a menu. There is no set storyline, and players are free to do as they wish.
While Second Life may spark a revolution in the Gaming industry, what social repercussions will come about as a result? As it is, there has been much concern about addiction to online games. Children and adults alike can sit in front of a monitor for hours at end, playing multi-player games such as World of Warcraft for example. A certain few have speculated that this surge in online gaming/interaction would result in the weakening of social ties and relationships as it would decrease human interaction. At the end of the day, it is at the discretion of the individual, if it should be used or abused.
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