Oh, Second Life… what a mess you were… are?
I don’t even know where to start with Second Life. Should it even be considered a game, when there’s really no motive? Even Minecraft has the goal of not being killed by the creatures at night. But then, what makes a game a game, then? Ugh, I’m not going to allow Second Life of all games to get me started on thinking about this.
Second Life was influential. It’s probably the reason why we had games such TF2 and Fortnite get so wildly successful. It’s arguably a reason for why Bitcoin is even a thing. It let developers know that players are willing to spend real money to customize their fictional characters. Linden dollars showed that online currency could hold real monetary value and that people’s outside worlds could completely change from learning how to market in Second Life.
Second Life is remembered by most, myself included, as extremely predatory, creepy, and in general, not a good time. But the influence it had on the video game world that we see today is monumental. Whether you see it as positive or negative (and by looking at my score, I’m sure you can see where I stand), we can all agree that it’s an enormous part of video game history.
I don’t even know where to start with Second Life. Should it even be considered a game, when there’s really no motive? Even Minecraft has the goal of not being killed by the creatures at night. But then, what makes a game a game, then? Ugh, I’m not going to allow Second Life of all games to get me started on thinking about this.
Second Life was influential. It’s probably the reason why we had games such TF2 and Fortnite get so wildly successful. It’s arguably a reason for why Bitcoin is even a thing. It let developers know that players are willing to spend real money to customize their fictional characters. Linden dollars showed that online currency could hold real monetary value and that people’s outside worlds could completely change from learning how to market in Second Life.
Second Life is remembered by most, myself included, as extremely predatory, creepy, and in general, not a good time. But the influence it had on the video game world that we see today is monumental. Whether you see it as positive or negative (and by looking at my score, I’m sure you can see where I stand), we can all agree that it’s an enormous part of video game history.