Fostering Friendships - Enhancing Social Bonds in the Classroom
Analysis of Play: Second Life
1.
2. Quick History Lesson
In March of 2002, the first resident came to Second
Life. In October of that year, the public beta started.
Second Life opened to the public at large in 2003.
For eleven years people have “lived” in Second Life.
7. So what it is…
• Second Life is a sandbox, where you can build things
out of “prims.”
• You can buy stuff. And wear it/use it.
• You can, of course, sell stuff you make.
• You can interact socially.
• You can exchange real money for “Lindens” to
spend in the game world.
9. Playing…
• We could role-play in Second Life. Lots of people do.
• We could find a pre-made game or make/make up a
game.
• We could likewise make a game of “messing” with
the expectations of the software.
• We have the free will to do a number of things we
might want to.
11. I’m going to assert…
• …that Second Life is not, strictly speaking, a game.
• Because of the lack of a defined rule set that would
form any sort of competition,
• The lack of any really centralized goals,
• And perhaps most importantly, something we haven’t
stressed in our definitions, but there’s no real reward
for skill (beyond being able to make money). How do
you “get better” at Second Life? How do you become
elite?
