Guest writer Carl Griffith attends a conference on virtual worlds and tells us why we should take the phenomenon of World of Warcraft, Second Life and 2D community-based sites seriously. They fulfill a fundamental human need.
Last month I attended the ‘State of Play V’ conference here in Singapore.
Organised by Harvard Law School, Yale Law School, New York Law School, Trinity University, and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, this pioneering global conference on virtual worlds invites experts across disciplines to discuss the future of cyberspace and the impact of these new immersive, social online environments on education, law, politics and society. (New York Law School, www.nyls.edu)
A conference founded by ‘legal folks’, State of Play is now a rather eclectic and interesting mix of the original ‘legal folk’ interspersed with gamers, educators, people representing the emerging virtual world creators and a smattering of interested and curious onlookers.
This seemingly bizarre mix of people is somewhat indicative of the current landscape – which, while changing and evolving on a par with the technical innovations making it possible, crosses over and overlaps with a myriad of social, technological and philosophical disciplines and implications.
Photo: Carl Griffith
The panels and associated discussions reflected this as did the small groups that gathered during the coffee breaks and over the rather good lunches and dinners.
Despite the diversity of conversation, there was this almost bizarre meta layer to the discussions – World of Warcraft – a subject that only a few years ago would have made little or no sense to almost anyone was now binding together one of the most intellectually gifted and diverse group of people I have ever been part of.
Whilst the notion of gaming and, indeed, collaborative gaming is not new, the advent of, first, the internet and then, vast processor power and fat data pipes into our living rooms and bed rooms has meant a paradigm shift in the nature and level of engagement. In short, it has taken the activity from places and environments few of us may have entered onto the desktops and laptops of children, teachers, work colleagues and CEOs.
As one of the well-established conference attendees put it, “World of Warcraft is the new golf”.
My thoughts during the conference were as many and varied as the discussions. But it was only on the third day when I realised, as I was saying something that that it – at least for me – captured an underlying theme – foundation even – of what makes this whole thing so exciting and important.
It was during a workshop where a few of the conference stragglers were having an informal discussion about commercial opportunities and applications in Second Life and other virtual worlds.
One of the perceived problems with Second Life is the large number of empty areas, specifically those areas created and built by large organisations, some of whom have entered that space with little or no thought about what their objectives are.
Several participants alluded to these ‘empty’ spaces and whilst there is much that can be said on this subject, my point is simple.
It’s not that these places are ‘empty’ that has bothered me when I’ve wandered through the branded 3-D landscape often with little more than 2-D web pages stuck on the side of 3-D objects; it’s that I am lonely.
What perturbs me is not that the creator may not be engaging me sufficiently with content and experiences that really should have been better thought through; it’s that there is no one else sharing the experience with me.
And it is for this reason that we should be taking World of Warcraft, Second Life and all other community-based spaces including 2-D social networking sites such as Facebook very seriously.
Whilst we are all accustomed to the functionality, access and opportunities the internet offers us, the possibility to do all those things and other things that people have not even thought about yet, with our friends, with people we have not met before, be it join a common interest group on Facebook or hang out and share an experience in Second Life or go on a raid in World of Warcraft, is what makes these spaces wonderfully exciting and hugely important.
During the first dot com boom, many people and companies went a bit wrong trying to invent human needs and activities that might fit the technology. World of Warcraft, Second Life and Facebook simply enable us, as human beings, to do what we have wanted to do for a long time and feel what we want to feel day to day.
Golf anyone?
Carl Griffith has lived and worked in Singapore for the last 4 and a half years. He is passionate about Virtual Worlds and the possibilities and implications they pose. A veteran of 4 years in there.com and of slightly less in Second Life, Carl considers himself almost a pioneer in this exciting new virtual reality.
Carl can be contacted at griffith_carl@hotmail.com and welcomes comments and feedback.
