I know some people are unholstering fire-arms, drawing katanas or just fast-searching their inventories for that gun that was useful once or twice, just because I said that second life is a game. The G-word! But, in a way, it is. The game.
Sometimes we speak about levels in the second life. If there are levels, it might be some kind of game. But, actually, the point is not in the levels. This is not an average kill'em'all with the big evil enemy on the end of each level. Big monster you have to shoot a thousand of times before it mega-explode. Nope.
This one is a long-run. Without previously given direction. But, the one you can lose by losing a direction. One gets lost in a labyrinth of sims, groups, lindens, all kind of information streaming between our builds. This is a crazy and very busy world, you know.
So, how do one knows that e is on the good track? Well, e is still in the game. Still running. Still on feet. That's enough to know. Sometimes running, sometimes flying, sometimes ducking. Or dancing. Once you're out of the game, you know you have lost it.
Now we know what is the problem of retention in second life. Those people just see GAME OVER before they really started to play. Every gamer knows that feeling. We all get killed too early from time to time. Some games are just not our battlefield, that's ok. Whether running keeping the head low, silently sneaking out, elegantly driving in a fancy vehicle or blowing ourselves to bits loudly, we all just teleport to the other genre. Next sim, please. Or one can take a longer break.
Second life, though, is not just one game. There are many games of second life. Not only games which Onder Skall writes about. Not just combats or sports. Not even a role-playing that crosses the border of the lifestyle and becomes a life of its own. Shopping is one of the games. So called cybering or SLex, too. Making money. Doing business. Anshe Chung is playing her game. The 42.805 rezzidents who are logged-in in this moment are playing their own games.
In the months and years to come second life will grow. It will have even more games. New sims will open. There will be new things to do. New games to play.
And those that lost once before, might take another chance. They evolved. The game, the world, evolved. Rules are changing in vivo, while we are playing the game. Stars above us are cycling. So are possibilities and the reasons to take another turn. To play some other game.
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