Second Life in a Nutshell - Why this virtual World is Different from World of Warcraft

OK, I admit it - it is not a huge secret anyway - I am card carrying member (a "resident") of the virtual online world Second Life. Many people would call Second Life an MMOG (a Massive Multiplayer Online Game) and compare it to World of Warcraft or similar games. I hate such comparisons, because nothing could be more misleading then understanding Second Life as (only) a game.

It is terribly hard to explain what is the difference between such games and Second Life. And - to be frank - it takes a lot of words to do so. I like words, written words, too. So that is no big problem to me. But that is a preference I don't share with so many people. For all those who don't like to read many words: here is what I call Second Life in a nut shell, a five minute video, by the NMC, the New Media Consortium. Click on the picture to start the movie.

The New Media Consortium (NMC) is an international consortium of nearly 200 colleges, universities, museums, corporations, and other learning-focused organizations dedicated to the exploration and use of new media and new technologies. They recently opened a Campus in Second Life to explore the uses of such a platform, for applications like learning, arts, collaboration etc.

The video has been done by the Electric Sheep company, where my good friend Forseti Svarog (that's not his real name of course) is Vice President of Business Development. You can find his avatar a few times in the video. So I just had to do this shameless plug.

But that's not the only reason. This short clip really describes a lot of what makes Second Life so special - and why it might be the precursor to a future version of the web, the Web 3.D

Just check it out. You don't even have to read my long and winding sentences now, to learn a bit more about my secret second life.

Technorati Tags: net life, second life, web 2.0, web 3.d