YouTube Gaming Launches And Second Life Has Its Own Channel

YouTube Gaming has officially launched and Second Life has its own channel. I hope that link works, the URL is rather convoluted, if the link doesn’t work then just do a search for Second Life from the main YouTube Gaming page.

The about page of the Second Life channel tells us :

Second Life is an online virtual world, developed by Linden Lab, based in San Francisco, and launched on June 23, 2003. By 2013 Second Life had approximately 1 million regular users, according to Linden Lab, which own Second Life. In many ways, Second Life is similar to MMORPGs; however, Linden Lab is emphatic that their creation is not a game: “There is no manufactured conflict, no set objective”.

The virtual world can be accessed freely via Linden Lab’s own client programs, or via alternative Third Party Viewers. Second Life users create virtual representations of themselves, called avatars and are able to interact with other avatars, places or objects. They can explore the world, meet other residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, build, create, shop and trade virtual property and services with one another. It is a platform that principally features 3D-based user-generated content. Second Life also has its own virtual currency, the Linden Dollar, which is exchangeable with real world currency.

Now make sure that you take note of “Linden Lab is emphatic that their creation is not a game“, part of this before complaining that Second Life is not a game so what is it doing in the gaming section of YouTube. The fact of the matter is that virtual worlds end up in the games section because there’s no other category that is more suitable.

I should actually rewind a bit here, because some of you may be wondering what on earth YouTube Gaming is.

Back in June YouTube blogged; A YouTube Built For Gamers. In the blog post they announced :

This summer, we’ll launch YouTube Gaming, a brand new app and website to keep you connected to the games, players, and culture that matter to you, with videos, live streams, and the biggest community of gamers on the web—all in one place.

YouTube Gaming is built to be all about your favorite games and gamers, with more videos than anywhere else. From “Asteroids” to “Zelda,” more than 25,000 games will each have their own page, a single place for all the best videos and live streams about that title. You’ll also find channels from a wide array of game publishers and YouTube creators.

Today YouTube blogged; Let’s Play. In this post they basically inform us that YouTube Gaming is now live and tell us a little bit about the website and app :

• YouTube Gaming is your go-to destination for anything and everything gaming because it automatically pulls in all gaming-related videos and live streams from YouTube.
• Viewers get personalized gaming recommendations based on the games and channels they collect. With over 25,000 game pages and even more gaming channels, it’s never been easier to connect with your gaming community.

Currently the Second Life videos are the Second Life videos that YouTube have been able to identify as being related to Second Life. That means there will be all sorts of videos, including trolling videos. There’s more to this though than just being merely a way to create a large channel related to Second Life because one of the things that makes this new venture from YouTube a progressive one is that you can create a live streaming channel.

Obviously you will need a YouTube account and then you will need to go to youtube.com/stream to confirm your details and create a live streaming channel. This means that people will be able to live stream Second Life if they want. There may be other games or virtual world content that you want to live stream instead. Please note that this still has a beta label on it, so it may be a bit wobbly.

The result of this means that streaming Second Life will now be allowed on a platform with a lot of eyes, which should be good, as long as everyone behaves. The other thing to check of course is that your live stream doesn’t breach the Second Life terms of service.

All in all this looks like a good development, not just from a Second Life perspective, but from a live streaming perspective because there are sites out there who sorely need some competition in the area.