I've been pondering the differences between WoW and SL, wondering what makes WoW more addictive for me, and today I ran across Casey's post on social networks. I like Stutzman's ego/object-centric dichotomy that Casey explores, but I think I'm disagreeing with him by saying both WoW and SL are "ego-centric" (I'm not sure which camp he puts WoW into). WoW is all about creating a kick-ass character, and I imagine that same sense of accomplishment in building a new person is what drives the hardcore SL fans. The two big differences I can identify are as follows:
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WoW provides a framework, as Casey mentions, and I like the story it tells and the mythology behind it. I think part of the reason I escape into games is that life has too many choices, and I like being in a place where your objectives (quests) are listed out for you. (Consequently, I've been writing down more lists for my day-to-day stuff, and hey, they're useful!)
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I've always preferred human vs. machine games over human vs. human. WoW provides both, and the human vs. machine one incorporates cooperation as a nice bonus. In other words, I could play WoW without the social aspect and still enjoy it. SL, on the other hand, has a little bit of the "beat the machine" in figuring out how to make objects and program them to do stuff, but if I'm going to be programming I'd rather be getting paid to do it. I'd rather be creating and fixing stuff that will be of use to people outside of SL, which is still a bigger community than inside, even considering SL's impressive numbers. I'd rather be working on something open source that's not constrained to a particular company's framework. And I'd rather be doing it in Python.
But I digress. Looking at Casey's post again, it occurs to me that the way I play WoW isn't really an ego-centric social experience. In fact, it's not social at all. Okay, maybe it's a little social, like when I get help on a quest, but my goal isn't "network-(re)establishment". I'm there to beat the game. As long as I feel there's more of the game to beat, the "What's next?" is answered. For some people, WoW is more social, and more like SL, but not for me.
And that might be the reason why I'm not a big fan of SL or social networking sites in general. While I appreciate the networks I have in my life (my neighbors, colleagues, friends, and family), I'm not one who looks forward to reestablishing those networks in a bunch of walled-off environments like Friendster, MySpace, Facebook, Orkut, and Second Life that each offer some variation on connecting to others on line. What interest I do have only holds if the benefit of the connecting tool outweighs the chore of setting up and maintaining a new network.
This reestablishment weariness isn't only true for ego-centric social networking sites. It's kind of a bummer having to reconnect with everyone to share bookmarks on del.icio.us and images on Flickr, as well. Which brings me to the article I read last night that's obviously affecting my train of thought here. Google is pushing something they're calling "OpenSocial", which seems to be some kind of standard or set of standards for social-networking site APIs. Sounds like a good idea. Standards are good.
Standards are great. Standards give me independence and control. That's another reason I don't get into the social-networking sites. I know how to make my own website, send email, and instant relay chat, and I don't have to rely on any one company or organization to continue doing those things. If OpenSocial lets me take my networks with me (maybe in cooperation with something like OpenID), then I'm all for it.