It seems very likely that the freedom people have to create local regions or islands within Second Life with different forms of governance will result in many different utopian ‘experiments’. This is something that will be fascinating to watch, and may even inform decisions about the real world.
Philip Rosedale 13th April 2006 – INTERVIEW WITH PHILIP ROSEDALE, SECOND LIFE
In my opinion the solution is focusing a lot more on letting players make and be content for each other. Battlegrounds are an excellent example of an Evergreen style of content where it’s the players themselves that actually create the content. Auction houses are another example. So are things like storytelling tools in SWG.. or the brilliant music system in LOTRO. Building systems into the games that let the players interact with each other in new and unique ways gives us the ability to watch as the players do stuff we never anticipated. We’ll see a lot more creativity in action if the players are at the center of it. Imagine an MMORPG of a massive city.. and the Rogue’s guild is entirely run by players. Where the city has an entire political system that is populated by players who were elected by the playerbase.
John Smedley 11th February 2014 – The Sandbox MMO
I’ve opened with the above quotes to demonstrate firstly that eight years is not as long in technology circles as many think. Secondly it’s to emphasise that sandbox concepts are spreading and are going to create virtual worlds galore. John Smedley is the president of Sony Online Entertainment and in the blog post I’ve linked, makes excellent points about the power and potential of a sandbox MMO. Sony Online Entertainment are really starting to impress me lately, Everquest Next Landmark will allow user created content.
They are also dipping their toes into the water of allowing players to sell content. They are bringing together some of most wonderful concepts of Second Life in a more controlled environment, but they also recognise the beauty of such an environment.
So why is it that when we see talk of sandboxes and user generated content, the media shy away from talking of the ultimate sandbox that Second Life is? Why is it left to people such as Draxtor Despres to highlight the many wonderful use cases of Second Life via The Drax Files? Part of the problem of course is the mainstream media who don’t want to talk about the brilliant sandbox that Second Life is when they can create seedy headlines instead. This is why people don’t realise there are Orcs in Second Life!
Another reason is that Second Life is so open ended that it isn’t one thing or the other. That is of course part of the beauty of Second Life, but it also means that there are no real killer apps. There are no games to point to that are going to have people being draw droppingly impressed. However in terms of blazing a trail, the sandbox environment, the empowering of content creators to sell their wares, Second Life is a major success story and it’s a real shame that people don’t realise this.
However these planned sandbox MMO’s really can make great strides if they follow some of the paths Second Life has already been down. The economic model is a good starting point. When players can sell their wares, they can pay their subscription fees and even take money out of the world. This encourages more content. This encourages an evolving world rather than a static one. Static worlds rely on the devs rather than the users to make the next move.
There are of course dangers along these roads and Second Life has been more than exposed to some of those dangers. However really, these roads lead to a future, to virtual worlds where players and creators feed off each other to keep the dynamics fresh and interesting.
Many Second Life residents won’t of course be interested in a sandbox MMO, they do not want to play a game. That’s fine, their worlds will continue too, everyone will not have to become an Orc to embrace the bright new future, but some of Second Life’s content creators may well be tempted to expand their horizons into a world of wizards, witchcraft and pirates … never forget the pirates, in all their guises.
There will of course be differences on what sort of user generated content is allowed and some virtual world environments are going to be far more strict than others, but things are certainly heading in the right direction. The future of user generated content looks bright, I just hope that people remember how much ground Second Life has broke in this area.