ION 2008 - Redefining Virtual Worlds

by Jason Van Horn

There is a distinct divide that exists between virtual worlds and the worlds of classically labeled MMO games. The line, however, has been propagated and placed between the two by people in the media more than anyone else, and it's a phrase that the developers are quite sick of hearing. "I hate the word virtual. Let's just call them worlds," said Erik Bethke of GoPets Ltd. while on the 2008 ION Game Conference's panel entitled Redefining Virtual Worlds For Mass Market Consumption. Dave Elchoness (Association of Virtual Worlds), John K. Bates (Mindark/Entropia Universe), Craig Sherman (Gaia Online), and Rob Lanphier (Linden Labs) all joined Bethke during the panel, and each of them had some interesting thoughts on the worlds they've created and how they are seen in the eyes of other people.

"Yes, virtual worlds need to be redefined," said Bates. "Language is tremendously important. Is a digital item more important than a virtual item?" The differences between a digital item and a virtual item are in name only, as they are literally the exact same thing. As Bates pointed out, however, labeling something as "virtual" is given less importance in the West than it is in the Far East.

There seemed to be a little animosity between some of the panelists and Rob Lanphier, the Director of Open Source Development at Linden Labs. Whenever a story comes out involving virtual worlds, it seems as if Linden Labs' Second Life is always front and center. This occurs often to the disadvantage of other companies involved in creating virtual worlds that may not share any similarities with that property, and yet are lumped in with it all the same . "If revenue is everything, then fine, but if we are talking about expanding games more than beyond questsecond Life was over hyped this past year to where it is today. It's still looked at as a toy," said Lanphier. Bethke soon followed up Lanphier's statement by adding that he is, "frustrated with Second Life's execution."

The idea of Second Life having no "context" was a huge talking point between all the panelists. For Bates the "context" comes from the gamers themselves, who use Second Life's universe and tools to create their own game world to experience, thus providing the "context" themselves. Other panelists, on the other hand, seemed to think Second Life's lack of overall vision was a hampering system not just for the game, but also for the perception of all virtual worlds currently in existence.

"Who is responsible for providing the narrative?" said Lanphier, seemingly starting off the chain reaction of argument among the panelists, stating that it wasn't always necessary for the virtual world creators to always bring into play more than the world itself. Bethke made an analogy about how LEGO?sells mostly sets you put together rather than just the building blocks to make whatever you want with them. Another panelist thought that developers should at least give players a sense of something to do, as players like being given suggestions when they first start playing, and that "people get satisfaction from getting things done and checked off a list."

It was a spirited debate among the panelists, showing that while game developers may find themselves in the same industry or genre, that doesn't necessarily mean they have to share the same common set of ideas or vision.

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