[geeks] Second Life is not a game?

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

On Tue, 31 Jul 2007 12:33:05 +0300
"Geoffrey S. Mendelson" <gsm at mendelson.com> wrote:

> I think the problem has to do with understanding the difference between
> a simulation and a game. It's been blured by the fact that someone won a
> Nobel prize for "game theory" applied to business and almost overnight
> every business professor was publishing something about game theory, and
> all other simulations became games because people wanted to get their
> Noble prize too.
> 
> Second life is a simulation. It provides access to things that
> people would do in "the real world", but it is not IMHO a game.

By that definition, Neverwinter Nights is not a game either.

Neither are most things currently called games, since the majority of games
released today are actually simulations.

Gothic 3 is a simulation of an ancient world with magic.

The only real difference between it and Second Life is technical.  If I had
the sources, I could easily remove the arbitrary limits that SL "players'
think makes it a game rather than whatever SL is.

In fact, I could easily argue that SL is a game and Gothic is not because
Gothic has realistic flora and fauna simulations built-in, and SL's are
primitive at best.

When I played SL, it looked like an iconic late 80s 3D game.  By contrast
Gothic 3 looks like my back yard.  Obviously that makes Gothic a simulation
and SL a game, right?

Therefore on purely technical grounds SL is a game and Gothic is clearly a
professional simulation.

If you look at some of the persistent NWN worlds, they have removed all of
the elements that Jon said earlier makes those programs a game.

Do you see how stupid this arbitrary dividing line really is?

I think some people just get too hung up on classification and forget why
they are using the program in the first place.  If you enjoy it, have a ball,
but don't expect other people to willingly enter into your reality distortion
field.

To me SL is a game and a simulation.  It's a hybrid if you must give it a
single label.

-- 
shannon           | An Irishman is never drunk as long as he can hold onto 
                  | one blade of grass and not fall off the face of the earth.