What Would Matt Do

Interested in Second Life, wonder what all of the hype is about? Me too. Well, I am in a, "I wonder why I didn't have that much fun playing." sort of way. I played a Second Life awhile back and the fun part? Well, I didn't find it. It felt like an annoying UI tacked on a virtual chatroom. Now, to be fair, I like my games to have some structure and SL is anything but structured. So I wrote it off. Didn't look back.

That is until it started to get so many interesting articles on so many blogs. James Wagner Au (crazy!) actually goes in as an embedded reporter. At least once a week or so my favorite MMO designer / former MMO critic (Lum!) covers it, even though it's often to say, why are people in the mass media talking about second life. And we get horribly interesting accounts like this from Au:

The first night I arrived at the protest against the Second Life headquarters of Front National, the far right French political party of Jean-Marie Le Pen, it was ringed on all sides by protesters with signs to wave and statements to distribute.  By the second night I came (this was late last week), the conflict had become more literal, for many Residents had armed themselves.  Multi-colored explosions and constant gunfire shredded the air of Porcupine, a shopping island which FN had inexplicably picked for the site of their virtual world HQ, in December.

That makes the game sound pretty interesting and maybe something I want to get involved in. But then I read something like this on Broken Toys and I remember why it's not so much fun:

Au is, to be fair, forthcoming that he is deeply enmeshed in every conflict of interest possible with SL/Linden Labs. He also notes, correctly, that many of the critics of SL may simply not be able to operate the freakin’ thing. I personally needed a native guide just to instruct me how to WALK and LOOK AROUND. And I think it’s safe to say that I have a passing familiarity with computer games and user interfaces. The “I have a box on my head” icon I use for SL (now new and improved!) is not coincidental. The default action for an object container is to wear it. Which results in you having, well, a box on your head. This makes little sense in terms of user interface conventions, but it was unfixed for so long (edit: finally patched in August of this year) that it’s become a running gag among SL users.

And I remember the UI was horrible and the "game" wasn't really a game. So I go back to wondering if maybe I should play. Maybe it's more fun than it was, maybe I can create my own spiffy content, maybe it'll be different than I imagine it is (virtual IRC). But probably not.

See, that's my problem Second Life. There isn't really a game there. It really is a something completely different from any existing MMO. It allows players to create whatever stupid crap they feel is good at the time and then share that with others. Or maybe I'd get involved in some protest about some right wing group and try to crash the their server. That sounds horribly fun. But what do I do when I'm done with that? Is there a virtual directory that doesn't involve porn? Not that I'm against porn, but virtual porn and I? We ain't close.

So, where's the fun again? Can I complete quests? Is there a dragon to slay? Did I miss something when I played before about how cool SL is? Because I really like reading about the various exploits in SL. I like hearing about protests and virtual pimps and even the occasional virus that's hard to contain. It just doesn't seem at all appealing to play.

Oh, and Mass Media? Please cover Second Life realistically. Oh wait, you don't know about not sensationalizing things. Ok, my bad.

What Would Matt Do: Keep reading. Resist the urge to play.