The Killer App

It took 116 comments on Uncle Phil’s blog before someone uttered the immortal line “Can I have your stuff”. Come on down Peasan Kuu, you saved the day 🙂

Alan Bamboo recently commented “SL needs a reason for 99.9…% of the population to even have a reason to use a virtual world.” I agree with him entirely. SL is lacking an ingredient. It’s an ingredient that Mitch Kapor is familiar with, it’s the killer app and SL doesn’t really have one.

The history of computing is littered with roads that lead to another road. An event that triggered another event with lots of people pointing to a certain point and yelling “I’m Spartacus”. However Visicalc is widely regarded as a killer app, it gave people a reason to use the Apple II. Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston are the people credited with this, it gave purpose to the Apple II and launched an industry. This allegedly led to IBM believing that people would use computers in their home and office. This in turn led to the success of the operating system marketed by Gary Kildall Bill Gates.

Mitch Kapor then created Lotus 1-2-3 for the PC, a hugely successful product and again considered a killer app. I remember Lotus 1-2-3, although I don’t recall the significance at the time, I was too busy playing Sabre Wulf, Manic Miner, Tir-na-nog and Knight Lore on my Sinclair Spectrum. Games that gave purpose to the Sinclair Spectrum. Sure you could do more than play games with the Spectrum, but the games contributed to its success.

Hmm this means I’m going to have to go and find a spectrum emulator again, more than twenty years on and these games still do it for me.

So what has any of this got to do with Second Life? “Your world, your imagination” is the tag line and yet, a cursory glance around this world reveals a glorified version of The Sims Online. People buy clothing, furniture for their homes, rental systems, business vendors, there’s a virtual economy in there (well managed to halt the RL pressures economies face) and yet, there’s nothing to really give it the oomph to make people sit up and take notice for an extended period of time. The feeling you get is that despite being a 3D environment, the reality is one dimensional.

Educators enthuse about SL, the virtual classroom is indeed a success story, yet the virtual classroom won’t drive the virtual economy.

I’m going to have to say it again, but in terms of social networking, the 25 group limit greatly impedes collaboration. Yes yes there are ways around that, but it’s a serious issue and one that needs to be addressed sooner rather than later.

In terms of variation, we see themed islands. The hugely respected Desmond Shang runs his own form of governance on the independent state of Caledon and yet it’s immersed in the grid as a whole in a way that doesn’t quite give the visitor the impression that they are visiting somewhere independent. However hats off to Desmond, it’s a creative step and something that if more people created their own independent states might lead to the feeling of visiting somewhere different.

Xcite of course have tapped into one aspect of Second Life that makes people stand up (no pun intended) and take notice. Take a visit to the Xcite store, it’s packed. Don’t panic, you won’t find yourself having an uncomfortable experience with an SL thingy! Just take a look and see what can be created with the right product and then think how many other products could attract such interest. Xcite will never be a killer app because of its content, but it is an example of what a killer app could be capable of.

Where are the games and sense of community? A football (Soccer to you heathens) game between Caledon United and Dreamland City in a Second Life stadium with those feeling the community spirit to support their side, there’s none of that.

Where’s the adventure? A middle earth type community on their own independent states. I’ve dealt with hobbits, they’re devious buggers and I’ve got spies in their camp. At times I think Saruman and Sauron were right, but when I visit hobbit land I have an admiration for the landscaping and architecture but I don’t feel I’m in hobbit land because all around, it’s normal.

Where’s the swashbuckling adventure of being a pirate and challenging Carla the Swordmaster to a round of insults? Singing sea shanties in a tavern and raising the Jolly Roger before setting sail to other lands to plunder?

Where are the battles with dragons, orcs and beasts and wanting to come back again and again to battle dragons, orcs and beasts? To come to Second Life to play that character again and again, for that to be your main purpose of being here. You can still involve the virtual economy, you can make your swords and armour and spend your L$.

Yet these concepts aren’t the domain of Linden Lab, they’re the domain of us, we are the community. LL merely supply the tools, that’s the idea. The group limit issue is where LL need to focus. The rest of us, we need to look at the bigger picture. We need to grow up and be professional, we need to find ways and means to trust each other so shared visions can be enhanced.

We’re in this together, I’m as guilty as anybody with regards to the one dimensional outlook and it’s something I myself need to look at by developing skills to enhance my own vision, my world, my imagination. I’m not pointing fingers and I’m not telling people what to do. Those who love playing house, buying clothes and the interaction we already have, that’s great. I salute you. I encourage you to keep doing it because it’s what currently drives this world. I’m glad that you’re happy and I want you to stay happy and I’ll do what I can to help you. I do that myself and I enjoy it so I’m happy too, so no you can’t have my stuff.

Yet I can’t help feeling that there needs to be more to do here. Other users who don’t want to immerse themselves with the main grid, who may want to just play around on an island or two doing something different. They have the option of course to do what the heck they want, but the reasons for coming here need to be wider and more varied.

The longevity of this platform is in the hands of the users, not the new CEO, so where will the killer app for Second Life come from?

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Follow

Get the latest posts delivered to your mailbox: