Since GDC (the annual Game Developer's conference) the newswires have been abuzz with talk about the new Playstation Home service. Judging by reactions from -- for example -- Microsoft, and the game press, this is going to be a very, very good thing for Sony.
What isn't so immediately obvious is that it's also very good for Second Life.
You see, one of the key things that people complain most about when they're listing complaints about Second Life is the uncontrolled, unmanaged experience during the learning phase. This is the time people are trying to get to grips with the whole virtual world thing, and everything about it, from the existing subcultures to the user interface seem to be getting in the way. Second Life doesn't provide that sort of managed experience -- it is both a weakness and a strength.
Playstation Home is -- as far as we can see, so far -- a beautifully controlled and managed experience. This is by virtue of its limitations. You can't create there. Businesses with lots of money will be able to, sure, there will be licenses, development kits, and special content approvals in future. You can experience it, and in your own private space you can remix it, but you (the user) cannot create or sell.
Your appearance is limited to an approved set of pre-made things. Extensible by more pre-made things that you can buy from Sony or from (in future) a sponsor's Sony-vetted-and-approved content. Sony's targeting a younger market than Second Life, too, so you can bet they're going to lean towards the conservative side.
But that's great. That's just what a lot of people want. It's great for virtual worlds in general, too. It's a good starter for people. They get controlled and managed activities, get familiar with the paradigms and peculiarities and slang of virtual worlds generally. When they get hungry for more -- to earn, to create, to have sex, to experience more freedoms -- other virtual worlds will be there, and they will have a much easier time getting to grips with them, with communication, with the basic notions.
While the user-interface in Second Life could stand a great deal of improvement, polish and refinement, it's not really that much tougher on the new users than it is on the old users who are still wrestling with it every day. What it is though, is a serious distraction from what you spend most of your time answering questions about. New users spend a lot of time asking questions about how things work, what is possible, how does the economy function, how to make friends, meet people -- It's the world idea that they have trouble with, but generally the user interface keeps distracting people from being able to focus on that.
With Playstation Home acting as a 'managed virtual world on training wheels', the barrier to entry for other worlds for Playstation Home alumni is significantly lowered. Second Life, and it's eventual competitors and successors will ultimately reap the rewards of that jump start into three-dimensional virtual non-game spaces.
1. great post - the "training wheels" concept was something i used to track at Second Life when we were just starting out. We knew we didn't have enough money to educate everyone about our product so we tried to ID the training wheels products and then figure out how to reach their users.
Posted at 12:36AM on Mar 15th 2007 by hunterwalk