well said ... I just looked at all the Amazon offerings and couldn't make any sense of the reasoning. And yes, the "game" disturbed me too.

and it's great to see you posting on your blog!

it has always bothered me that people refer to SL as a game, but over the years i think i just got desensitized to it

The Lab itself has thought of SL as a game on at least two separate occasions. They've changed their minds many times.

hmm. i can relate to sl being a game. i came from blender and apposed to blender, sl is a 3d program, where you can build more or less wysiwig WHILE you are in the render engine.

if you want to run around in blender, you need to use the game engine.

and after all, a second life can be, in all seriousness, hardly much more than a game.

unless in cases, where someone is limited in his first life and can live a second life, wich is even richer than his first. and exactly those cases are, what devides sl from being a game, right?

so yes, sl is for sure far more than a game, if you look at all its possibilities, but i don't see where it is NOT a game, if you want to use it as such?

"A game is a system in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome."

To be fair, not all play constitutes a game, and not all games constitute play.

uhm. if thats the official definition of a game, i have to chew really hard on the word conflict.

it implies by definition that games equal war and i always sought for games, that may be a challenge, but rather live of solving conflicts.

its a good definition, i would just replace conflict with challenge.

conflict means "at variance". it does NOT necessarily denote warfare, whatever its current connotations

yes, i got after thinking some, still its not wrong to see sl as a game platform. looking at the performance alone of many things called game out there, leaving alone highly professional console and pc games

sl still can compete with lots of things like.. to name one, omgpop.

its more a lack of advertising sl as being much more than that, that i miss since quite a while.

they really lack to promote it as, if they want to promote it as game, game that you can build within, and create your own stuff - and that at least partly, easily. because the basic building tools can

easily compete with things like minecraft or lego and if you want to go ahead from there.. there are hardly any limits, as long you respect the performce that lies within sl.

more generally a game is anything with a purpose and an obstacle to that purpose, so unfortunately the "game" in SL is getting everything to work the way you want it.

AnandaS: And there it is. That nails it.

AnandaS: replurking this because of your reply xD

for sure.. and basically figuring out, what "the game" is about. if you are willing to take a challenge, you are right with sl

if you want everything ready and all paths checked before, you play WoW or something.

Embarrassing indeed.

Whether or not one considers SL "a game", an awful lot of people are drawn to SL for gaming-like play: combat, roleplay of all eras, adult games, actual "game"-type games, and so on.

i've never understood the appeal of combat games in sl, aside from the ability to really customize your av and add in a dash of RP. the lag would drive me bananas

The real problem with any label, be it "game" or anything else, is that no matter how well defined, it risks negative responses from one or more quarters.