Q&A with Second Life creator

December 16th, 2007 by tim finin

Last week the Feakonomics blog invited readers to submit questions for Second Life creator Philip Rosedale to answer. There is an obvious economics connection, since Second Life has a robust and growing economy, but the motivation was broader.

“You could argue that Philip Rosedale has done more than anyone else to help millions of people live their dreams. As the founder and CEO of Linden Lab, the San Francisco-based company that created Second Life (which we’ve blogged about now and again), he has taken virtual reality to a whole new place.”

The questions asked about many things. I thought that this answer was interesting, and applies to interactive games and entertainment of all kinds.

Q: How do you feel about accusations that by providing a literal “second life,” you’re contributing to a trend of physical isolation that’s damaging the social abilities of an increasing number of teens and adults?

A: Whether sitting in front of a computer is bad for you is a function of whether what you are doing there is more or less challenging than real life. If you are mindlessly shooting monsters, the environment has the risk of making you oversimplify the real world. If, on the other hand, you are confronted with a complex human environment with people from all over the world who are demanding of you in your interactions with them, you could actually be better off in front of the computer. Second Life can teach people new skills and connect them with new cultures in a way that the real-world environments of many places cannot.

You can read the full Q&A session on the post Philip Rosedale Answers Your Second Life Questions.

Posted in Second life, social media |

Related posts:

TrackBack URI

Leave a Reply

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

« Older entry Newer entry »