Ever since I saw that Adam Singer was going to talk at EIEF I've been intrigued about what he was going to say. I've known Adam for years as the dad of my friend Daniel and although he's always been a high flying executive, I've never had him down as a gamer. Well, having read Edge's write up of his talk I wonder whether Adam may have been playing games at the office while Daniel and I were playing Tie Fighter at home as I agree that stories, facts and eroticism have a big part to play in the future of games and virtual worlds.
Historically games have relied on action and haven't been known for engaging stories while factual uses of virtual worlds have tended to be simulations used as dry learning tools. I think this is changing. Despite its stunning technology, it was the story that made Half Life 2 a great game. The feeling of vulnerability during the flight from City 17 and triumphant return at the end created a wonderfully engaging epic storyline. Similarly games set against factual settings like World War II have started to feel more like interesting documentaries and less like text books, providing some sense of what it must have been like without requiring the complete mastery of the controls of a Tiger Tank. At the same time Google Earth has increased the gamut of factual uses for virtual worlds and the links between virtual worlds and the real world. As I mentioned on Terra Nova the same fictional/factual split seems to be happening with augmented reality technologies with factual applications providing extra information about the real world as you move around it while fictional AR games hint at unseen conspiracies haunting the real world.
We're already seeing both fictional and factual uses of Second Life, of course. Games provide the most obvious fiction, but the creation of a fictional Second Life persona is a powerful attraction as are the creation of Second Life myths like the FIC. The real world, factual content in SL often takes the form of tributes to real world events, such as the Life 8 and UK election events I've commented on as well as many others. The virtual hallucinations project was the closest I've seen to the documentary use of virtual worlds. I'm sure we'll see lots of Google Earth style applications, where a virtual world is used as a real world tool in the near future and the many mature areas in SL more than adequately address Adam's 3rd F.
I can easily imagine a future where people use virtual worlds like Google Earth at work and then come home to participate in the next chapter in a story told in a game then switch to another world which provides a taste of what it would be like to live in a bygone age or one which provides erotic thrills. Just as we are happy to watch fictional and factual TV programs back to back people will become comfortable with virtual world technology and use different virtual worlds for different reasons. Or they could just come to SL and have the whole lot under one (virtual) roof.
In the meantime I can imagine that as CEO of the MCPS-PRS Alliance Adam might be interested in some of the virtual funking that goes on in SL too. Maybe we should get him to talk at a future Second Life Future Salon?
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