Avatar Worlds

I could probably spend the rest of my life playing MMROPGs or visiting environments such as Second Life, There, Active Worlds and many more, so it's probably just as well then that I find myself at the thin end of the UK digital divide. That is, I still have dial up, and live in an area too rural for conventional (affordable) ADSL broadband access. So, my experience here is limited to a little bit of playing around in Active Worlds around a year ago, and a large amount of playing about in Second Life over the last 2 months. I am aware that there are a number of Second Life like systems out there, often referred to as non-combat MMORPGs, and if you want to explore more of them, and see info on some quite old examples, the Avatar Teleport looks like quite a good place to begin.

I first used Active Worlds as part of the Introduction to Digital Environments for Learning course when it was run as a pilot course. I logged in a couple of times to an 'moonbase' type area, but to be honest never found it that compelling. It was a bit pixelly, and quite difficult to get the hang of moving around, reading information, touching things and suchlike. I think in reality there's probably a similar time investment required to become proficient in Second Life too, but for various reasons I found it easier to accomplish in Second Life.

In exploring the Creative Commons area in Second Life I came across the transcript of a talk given by Mia Wombat (in RL Mia Garlick, Head Attorney at Creative Commons). In her talk she described worlds such as Second Life as being composed of two spaces, the topography of space, and the possibility space. I like this idea and I think it's a neat way of getting to grips with the scope of the challenge of good digital citizenship.

Many avatar worlds limit to one extent or another the possibility space; in MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft you could argue that there really isn't any possibility space at all. Although there are any number of potential options, each with far-reaching repercussions, they are in fact all still quite firmly bounded by the topographical space. In these cases our digital citizens face a far more manageable task potentially, as the world in which they inhabit is quite firmly bounded. Furthermore there are also clear goals or quests that focus activity within the world and so help to shape citizenship. Second Life by comparison seems to have a far more well developed possibility space, and the concept of goals or quests is a matter for the individual. The challenge then of becoming a good digital citizen inside an avatar world like Second Life is a far larger one.