I read Thomas Madsen-Mygdal’s blog a few days ago. He’s a very clever guy and I enjoy reading what he has to say! Your should too.

One of his latest posts is about Second Life (SL) and all of the attention (and hype) it’s getting. From his post it seems Thomas doesn’t really think all this hype is backed is by solid reason since not that many people actually use SL and since this is something which still needs about 10 years to mature. He’s asking about suggestions on the dynamics behind this hype…

Sci-Fi becoming reality in a not so distant future is always a great story. Isn’t it?

One reason could be the nature of human curiosity; we’re so damn curious about what’s lurking around the corner and we want to know about it right NOW … we don’t want to wait. Collective curiosity (on a mass scale) (often “transforming to” / “or creating” HYPE) is closely connected to factors like how “dramatic” something is and also how “relatable” it is to the ordinary John Doe.

Even though SL is quite a complex phenomenon it is also in some ways pretty straight forward and easy to relate to. It’s Second Life; a variation of First Life and in some ways just an extension of traditional multi-user communication tools (chat rooms, IM etc.). Sure it’s more than just that; it’s a world where people meet and form friendships, fall in love, get angry with each other, have sex and of course it’s a world of commercialism - the latter is quite important… On the surface it’s pretty straight forward; it’s a virtual world. We get it and it’s quite wild and wow!

Blogging and participation - as mentioned by Thomas - are trends that are much more relevant and existing/happening today. The RL impact on democracy / marketing etc. from these is very much already existing and happening. Still these things are a little less straight forward and harder to relate to, I think. They’re not necessarily more complex but even on the surface when discussing stuff like this it tends to become a rather intellectual debate…

Metaverses / MMOGs were hyped in the 80s when we saw the first few working “alfa-examples” of “(parallel/virtual) worlds”. It got a lot of attention. Again in the 90s it received widespread attention. Now it’s around for a new spin. And we’re getting closer to our vision for a virtual world all the time.

One of the the absolutely most interesting things about metaverses this time around - and SL in particular - (a good reason for the hype and what makes it “legit” and “credible”) is that SL shows us very clear examples of how to actually use a metaverse!

SL is not just about creating more or less fictive characters (whoops - now this could get intellectual and ugly!?) and taking them for a walk in a 3D park. SL is also a parallel economical system with Linden dollars and it’s also a platform where companies experiment with new communication strategies to achieve closer relationships with consumers. Examples - as mentioned in a previous post on The Dojo - could be American Apparel, Starwood Hotels, Saxo Bank, and many more.

“Hype and the legitimacy of hype” shouldn’t necessarily be so closely connected with actuality; meaning the actual value of a given phenomenon right NOW e.g. how many people use it right NOW? SL is window, a crystal ball showing us possibilities and - this time around - some solid examples - of what might happen in a not so distant future. I think the view is pretty interesting. Many of my non-tech/media friends are also talking about SL; it fascinates them.

SL and metaverses are not there yet! Especially the graphics in SL are rotten; but this time we might get very close since big technology and media companies are heavily involved with ambitious projects: Google, Sony, and even Lego (besides Linden Lab and Blizzard for that matter) is investing aggressively (more than ever) in 3D worlds. That alone is a RACE worth some attention.

What do you think: Why is SL so hyped and is it really?

BTW: People might find this interesting: Steve Rubel of Micro Persuasion is analyzing the numbers behind SL. The info a bit outdated - but I did some quick tests on Technorati / Statsaholic and the numbers seems pretty much the same.