Addiction of Second Life Online Game - Essay Example

Addiction of Second Life Online Game A small number of online social networking websites acquire as much interest as Second Life. This game includes a 3D virtual world where users, known as residents, can “pretend to be whomever or whatever” (Yee, 2006, p. 774) they would like to be. Even though it is an online setting, its control arrives at the actual world, together with a virtual financial system that is reliant upon real cash. In reality, or maybe virtual reality, Second Life is a multifaceted setting, packed with possible threats as well as incentives. Basically Second Life is an online game, where ‘residents’ form virtual depictions of themselves, known as avatars, and “network with other avatars, places or objects” (Yee, 2006, p. 775). Second Life is not merely a fancy chat room; here, residents can do a lot more apart from corresponding with others. They can as well chip in to the world around them, forming buildings and a number of other things, even simulations. Resident inclusions to the virtual world are known as user produced content, and this content is among the aspects that makes Second Life only one of its kind online setting, and have a huge number of users who are badly addicted to this game. For those who play Second Life, this is a game that is a lot more than just an ordinary game. For the players, it is an online word where they can have a chance to get a fresh start as well as a new “lease of life” (Kim et al, 2008, p. 214); and when people have a chance to make a fresh start thing, it can become somewhat hard not to get overly-involved in it. Each day, more and more people joining the Second Life and spending the most of their time within this virtual world. Whereas more or less everyone states that they play the game only for enjoyment, for the greater part of them, this is “more than just a game” (Kim et al, 2008, p. 215). System Design Second Life utilizes the “Havok 1 physics engine” (Boulos et al, 2007, p. 236). This software creates actual physics inside a virtual setting. The physics engine decides the way avatars act inside the virtual world, together with crash recognition - the engine informs the software how the each item should respond as soon as they get are in touch, automobile activities and what simulations seem to be. The more refined the physics engine, the more realistic animations utilizing it will be. Second Life is planned to be upgraded to the Havok 4 physics engine. Users can listen to and watch streaming audio and video. Users can select to exhibit video on particular surfaces on the property they have. For doing this, users select the surface's texture as a “media surface” (Boulos et al, 2007, p. 238). Second Life involves a rather ‘heavy’ setup on the user's system, and works well with both PCs as well Mac computers. Second Life layout covers two worlds: the actual world and the virtual world. Within the actual world, Second Life is present on a set of server host devices, known as “sims” (Van et al, 2011, p. 207). These processors save every bit of data created inside the virtual world. Every sim operates from two to sixteen processes, which reproduce areas within Second Life. Each area is “256 m2” (Van et al, 2011, p. 208) within the virtual setting. According to the creator of Second Life, Linden Lab, the set of these networked sims is termed as grid. In Second Life, residents can attend public gatherings, musical shows and press conferences and can even attend classes at college. They can do several things similar to the actual life, for instance purchasing property, buying garments and devices or simple meeting the friends. Users can also do things that are impracticable within the actual world. For example, avatars in Second Life have the ability to fly or to teleport to any location. A number of users create small programs, known as scripts, which provide avatars or objects with innovative capabilities, together with unique animations or the capacity to produce duplicates of other things. In a lot many ways, Second Life resembles Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games. Similar to such online games, users symbolize themselves with a modifiable, 3D stature that operates similar to a puppet produced by computer. People maneuver via an online world, coming across extraordinary sites as well as other users. However, contrasting Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games, users of Second Life are not merely in a game, despite the fact that there are games in Second Life's virtual setting - They reside in a virtual world, without any set objectives or chores. Evaluation The evaluation was done online in the form of survey which served to assess the behavior of users playing Second Life. The survey is based on the one developed by Charlton & Danforth (2007), which was formulated to collect information on the behavioral patterns of heavy Internet users. This survey has been customized to look at the individuals who are mainly addicted to Second Life. The survey questions were gathered anonymously via an online survey, which was advertised on different gaming forums hosted on recognized gaming sites. Questions were generalized so that any user from the general population who has played or plays Second Life can respond. From the results of the survey, it was found out that a large fraction of individuals (89 percent) usually spend over twenty to thirty hours every week with the online game, Second Life. This alarmingly high use of Second Life can usually replace conventional sources of success such as at educational institutions or at job. Most of the times, users do not get the sense that they are achieving something; generally do to an unsatisfactory work. Second Life is a platform for continuous development; residents within the game have very clear as well as defined improvements. On the other hand, improvement within actual life is a lot more complicated to assess. Even if people make advancement or achieve something, it is not as obvious as it is in Second Life. Discussion A number of users think that the future of the Internet is in 3D virtual worlds similar to Second Life, where users will maneuver through artistic lands looking for data as well as entertainment. Consequently, a number of businesses have delved into Second Life with anticipations that they can be included sooner than the community's attractiveness vanishes. Over a hundred businesses have an online presence within Second Life. Several hold islands and arrange events such as press conferences or musical shows. Many utilize Second Life to support charitable organizations or political viewpoints. A number of companies form a space within Second Life with no obvious policy on what has to be done with it, which, in most of the cases, fails because no one would like approach a location that is merely a huge commercial and nothing else (Boellstorff, 2008). At the same time as businesses carry on to check an online existence within Second Life, a small number of Internet safety specialists warn that these virtual settings are not the secure environment for carrying out business activities. It is revealed that other users can discover techniques to listen to classified discussions or interfere with an organization’s Second Life place (Cole & Griffiths, 2007). For the most part, businesses merely utilize Second Life as the promotional means instead of for distant conferences. A few businesses are forming virtual environments of their own with the purpose of staying away from the safety threats posed by Second Life. The thought of a role playing game is quite easy: one plays as a character in Second Life which has a narrative that links it into that game. This resident will network with other residents and discover the world of the game. Being addicted with the game in this manner is quite appealing for users and explains the massive popularity of role-playing games. Residents can find out the world for themselves, a lot like virtual travelers, and get understanding regarding the property. This is a concern even for users who play for fun; however, for users trying to get away from actual life, Second Life holds a higher risk of addiction. Ducheneaut et al (2006) argue that distraction is the most excellent interpreter of harmful usage, noting that users think they lack power in actual life, and then these games like Second Life provide them with a social status as well as importance that they are not likely to accomplish within the actual world. Consequently, the actual world becomes worse and the virtual world starts getting better in contrast. This is established by the latest emergence of huge amount of support groups for online addiction. The most precarious outcome of such an illusion will be the inclination of users, by now obvious, to approach these worlds as a way of fulfilling the “darker requirements” (Ducheneaut et al, 2006, p. 214), finally convincing themselves that these aspirations were normal right from the start. Conclusion There are a lot of reports regarding the users who have turn out to be extremely addicted to Second Life. According to experts’ claim, Second Life is just simply an online game; however, for individuals having a lot many issues in their actual life, this can turn out to be the ideal spot where they can gladly spend the major chunk of their time (Young, 2009). By completely ignoring their existing, real life problems and by forming another world where they can resolve their issues with a lot more convenience as compared to actual life, or where they have no worries in any way, they get a false feeling of safety. When an individual arrives at this point, this is when things turn out to be very severe and when real help is considered necessary. References Boellstorff, T. (2008). Coming of age in Second Life: An anthropologist explores the virtually human. Princeton University Press. Boulos, M. N. K., Hetherington, L., & Wheeler, S. (2007). Second Life: an overview of the potential of 3‐D virtual worlds. Information & Libraries Journal, 24(4), 233-245. Charlton, J. P., & Danforth, I. D. (2007). Distinguishing addiction and high engagement in the context of online game playing. Computers in Human Behavior, 23(3), 1531-1548. Cole, H., & Griffiths, M. D. (2007). Social interactions in massively multiplayer online role-playing gamers. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 10(4), 575-583. Ducheneaut, N., Yee, N., Nickell, E., & Moore, R. J. (2006, April). Alone together?: exploring the social dynamics of massively multiplayer online games. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in computing systems (pp. 407-416). ACM. Kim, E. J., Namkoong, K., Ku, T., & Kim, S. J. (2008). The relationship between online game addiction and aggression, self-control and narcissistic personality traits. European Psychiatry, 23(3), 212-218. Smahel, D., Blinka, L., & Ledabyl, O. (2008). Playing MMORPGs: Connections between addiction and identifying with a character. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 11(6), 715-718. Van Rooij, A. J., Schoenmakers, T. M., Vermulst, A. A., Van Den Eijnden, R. J., & Van De Mheen, D. (2011). Online video game addiction: identification of addicted adolescent gamers. Addiction, 106(1), 205-212. Yee, N. (2006). Motivations for play in online games. CyberPsychology & behavior, 9(6), 772-775. Young, K. (2009). Understanding online gaming addiction and treatment issues for adolescents. The American Journal of Family Therapy, 37(5), 355-372. Read More