Gaming & Internet: Second Life

If you're focusing on video gaming its probably worth also looking at internet gaming, in particularly Second Life and World of Warcraft. Similarly, if you are studying the Internet then it could be useful exploring this area too.

Second Life has had a lot of press coverage and there has been much speculation on the amount of people who are actually signed up to the game. As with many areas of NMT, there will always be positives and negatives and, as you read through the below links you will see evidence of some shocking misuse of technology that raises a number of questions.

Second hype or second life?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6137424.stm

Today Second Life, tomorrow the world
http://media.guardian.co.uk/newmedia/story/0,,2081663,00.html

Europe takes lead in Second Life users
http://secondlife.reuters.com/stories/2007/02/09/europe-takes-lead-in-second-life-users/

Second Life Users Top 1.3 Million in March
http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3625769

'Second Life' User Numbers Don't Quite Add Up
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,269690,00.html

'Second Life': Don't worry, we can scale
http://news.com.com/Second+Life+Dont+worry,+we+can+scale/2100-1043_3-6080186.html

Unrest in Cyberspace
http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/18667/

A story too good to check
http://valleywag.com/tech/second-life/a-story-too-good-to-check-221252.php

Virtual Rape Is Traumatic, but Is It a Crime?
http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/commentary/sexdrive/2007/05/sexdrive_0504

Second Life 'child abuse' claim
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6638331.stm

Teenage clicks in Second Life
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6209616.stm

Finally... The Sims Online could be seen as the original Second Life, and this report from 2003 suggests that already then there were concerns about the potential abuse of this type of 'game'.

The dark side of digital utopia

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3334923.stm