2010 was a year of growth and advancement for virtual environments, but it was also a time of uncertainty and transition. While I often refer to the metaverse as an open frontier, this year I kept thinking that we were still in a stage of discovery, and had only recently set foot on this incredible new world. There may be a few small villages popping up, but for the most part, we’re still struggling to learn how to live and work in this new place. A few explorers are trying to map and explore the frontier, but the real gold rush hasn’t started yet, and the railroad is still a distant dream.
and.. that’s OK. It’s actually pretty exciting. There’s a lot to look forward to.
If 2010 was a year of transition, I think 2011 will be a year of convergence. I spent most of 2010 retooling to learn Unity3D and Maya – not because I’m giving up on Second Life, but because I wanted to survive as a 3D environment designer, and needed to follow my clients. In addition to adding a few new tools to my belt, I also gained a really unique and invaluable new perspective from looking at virtual environments from the game development perspective. I’ve written before about how each of these industries are approaching very similar challenges, but from very different angles, and I think their convergence and combined energies will be exactly what we need to propel this whole thing forward.
Next year, mesh model imports will finally be possible in Second Life. It will take a while to get mesh imports right, from a usability perspective, and there’s a chance that it’s too late for SL… the train may have already left the station. Yet, all told, I think mesh imports have the potential to entice a whole new category of developers, content and use case scenarios. If lag can finally be reined in, professional game developers and designers might begin to think of virtual worlds as an alternate platform to develop for. In the end, I think the irony will be that prim-built user-generated content will be as popular as ever, but I digress… more about that in a bit.
All of this taken together has the potential to address the perpetual question with virtual worlds – the reason people get bored and leave after a few minutes – because there’s *nothing to do* in SL. Unless you happen to make some friends early on, find a niche, and climb the learning curve, chances are, you’re not going to stick around because, it seems, there’s nothing to do. For game developers, building something fun to do, creating intuitive interface designs and softening the learning curve until its almost unnoticeable is their exclusive focus. It’s what they do, and it’s what they’re really good at. If virtual worlds can just manage to be viewed as a viable, feasible platform option for game development, it could go far toward attracting new users, and giving them something to do when they arrive.
I’ve never been much of a console gamer, but this Christmas, Santa brought me both a Nintendo Wii and an XBOX 360 with Kinect! The quality of the games is extraordinary, and the content is absolutely phenomenal. There’s plenty to do in those worlds, and they’re so incredibly efficient at setting the hook inside the first few seconds. Within a few minutes, a good game will have you at the edge of your seat. If only the first hour of Second Life could be as engaging.
Yet, for all the fidelity and grandeur of the gaming world, you’re still (with a few exceptions) a passive observer of content developed by others. You have limited, if any, ability to create or modify those environments. Of course, not everyone wants to develop content, but the rapid growth and popularity of user generated content (UGC) certainly can’t be ignored. It would seem to me that integration with a world like Second Life would be a unique and intriguing destination within consoles, and with their dedicated hardware (designed to bring speedy, lag-free, graphically rich experience to your living room) it would seem an ideal match. I’m not talking about interoperability – I don’t really mind having a different account for each platform – but if it could just be as simple as setting up the Netflix app on my XBox, the wall between consoles and virtual worlds could come down, and users on both sides of the wall would benefit from a new dimension to their experience.
When you need a break from Halo, why not log into SL, stroll over to one of the many stunning user-generated creations in Second Life? If you’re planning for college, you might head over to the virtual sim built by your school of choice. You might meet some other students or faculty, and find yourself on one of those “only in SL” moments where you’re teleporting all over the grid with a group of friends from all over the planet, visiting their work, sharing ideas, showing them what you’ve been working on, etc. If you’re so inclined, you might head over to a sandbox and try your hand at building something with prims. Imagine prim modeling with a Kinect or Wiimote! If you build something cool, why not put it up on the marketplace and make some money? From a console perspective, this might seem far fetched, futuristic, or even downright impossible. But for anyone who has spent time in Second Life, you know that its not only possible, but its been going on for several years now, in its own little echo chamber.
On top of that, Linden Lab is already deeply invested in solving the tough issues of content protection, management, regulation (or segregation) of X-rated content and gambling. No matter how frustrated the resident community in SL might get, there’s simply no comparable apples-to-apples offering anywhere else. The Lab’s also been dealing with the monumental and incredibly complex task of managing and balancing an international economy- with millions of real dollars changing hands from all around the world. Imagine the complexity… yet, it works, and it’s been working for several years now.
Second Life could open up a whole new dimension within consoles, just as game development methodologies could solve so many of Second Life’s unanswered challenges. Consoles might find a new audience in ‘serious’ users who might not otherwise consider picking up a Wiimote, looking for the artsy or educational capacity, now accessible from within their console of choice. Second Life creators and residents might enjoy a wave of gamers who would never have otherwise taken the time to download and install the client on their computers, suddenly wandering into SL to check out the UGC arts, educational builds, collaborative opportunities and the chance to earn money building and selling virtual goods, engaging the marketplace and economy.
If that’s not enough, take a look at Linden Lab’s new CEO pick, Rod Humble. Here’s a clip from the official announcement post:
“Rod has an impressive depth of experience in developing and leading fun, immersive entertainment experiences that have been great successes. As a 20-year veteran of game development, he’s worked on more than 200 games, and last year, the gaming magazine Edge named him #2 on their annual list of Hot 100 Game Developers. Rod is coming to Linden Lab from Electronic Arts, where he was Executive Vice President and led EA Play, including the best-selling PC game franchise of all time, The Sims. Prior to EA, he was a VP of Product Development at Sony Online Entertainment, where he led the EverQuest Studio.”
The future will be as much about mobile devices, augmented reality, and streaming SL to the web, but I’m much more excited about the merger of game development and virtual worlds, and I think that will ultimately be the sweet spot in 2011.
Happy New Year, and let the games begin!
