Like I already wrote in my recent post on some of the recent Second Life statistics, in the Netherlands we are taking Second Life quite seriously, both in terms of a substantial number of participant, but also in discussing the implications of all of this.
Tonight Dutch National Television featured a talk show (show is called Rondom 10) discussing the potential negative consequences of gaming and Internet, with Second Life and World of Warcraft as main “targets”.
As it should in any good discussion show, there were widely diverging opinions about the risks of addiction that Second Life and World of Warcraft pose to users, e.g. from:
- Keith Bakker of Smith and Jones (a private Addiction Treatment Clinic; started of as very negative about Second Life and World of Warcraft, but later had to retreat a bit)
- a current World of Warcraft addict (and not denying it)
- a disabled person (could do things in Second Life that are just not possible in real life)
It was sad that there was too little attention for all the good things that happen in Second Life and that the addiction potential was overweighted.
All in all it was a nice discussion, which started of as being very negative and hostile (Keith Bakker!) towards Second Life and WOW, but actually ended more or less with the position I also have:
Applications like Second Life and World of Warcraft, just like alcohol, drugs and cigarettes, can have very big implications and risks for a group of people that are sensative to the risk of addiction. Most people are smart enough to do not let it happen to them and have it affect their real life, in the sense that others suffer (kids, relationships). Howevere for some of these latter people Second Life could be replacing previous “time spenders” (other hobbies), but this as such is not a bad thing.
Related: all my Second Life articles
Technorati tag(s): Second Life, World of Warcraft, Netherlands, Addiction,Television
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[18] | 
posted Feb 17, 11:32 pm on Feb 17, 2007 |
category: Second Life
/ On TV
Ok, I am quite late to report about this. But at least I took some time too look around. And guess what: I performed some real fancy dancing in the process, for the first time!
So, the famous TV-show Big Brother is coming to Second Life. Please check out the press release for details. It all starts on the 1st of December and runs until the 31st of December.
One of the first things that came to mind when hearing the news about Big Brother, was the question if the BB sim stays accesible for a lot of people at the same time. Recently, at the Crayon launch party I had big problems entering the sim. As I understand Sims can only hold a distinct numer of avatars at the same time (45 it was). I wonder if Linden Lab is capable of supporting such an inflow of people…
So, I went into Second Life to check it out and had a chat with one of the crew members (Willem Weiland) hanging around. Here is the transcript of the chat:
[13:08] You: Hi Willem
[13:08] Willem Weiland: hi marcel
[13:08] You: Nice laptop!
[13:08] Willem Weiland: thx
[13:09] You: Do you know how many avatars this sim will hold once you get started here?
[13:09] You: Is there a maximum?
[13:09] Willem Weiland: we are working on that
[13:09] Willem Weiland: normally its 45
[13:09] Willem Weiland: but you can devide the island
[13:09] Willem Weiland: and take more
[13:10] You: so that’s the strategy…will people notice?
[13:10] Willem Weiland: nope
[13:10] You: so how many people do you want to be ready for?
[13:10] Willem Weiland: the max that is possible
[13:10] You: and that is?
[13:10] Willem Weiland: dont know yet
[13:11] Willem Weiland: working on that
[13:11] You: well I guess what you are doning is very good for SL as well!
[13:11] Willem Weiland: we hope it is
[13:11] Willem Weiland: lots of media coverage
[13:11] You: will it be on TV as well?
[13:12] Willem Weiland: hope to get shorts clips yo broadcasters
[13:12] Willem Weiland: also still working on that
[13:12] You: nice!
[13:13] You: any news on the assingments ? I guess you are looking for the real creative types with lot’s of SL knowledge?
[13:13] Willem Weiland: noipe we are looking for a mix
[13:13] Willem Weiland: builders and non builders
[13:14] You: ok thanks for the chat and info…
[13:14] You: will look around now!
So:
- they are working on the maximum number of avatars thing
- it will not only be techies in SL Big Brother and part of the assignments will be non technical also I assume
- it will come to TV as well
Conclusions
Will this bring Second Life into the mainstream, to the big audience? I guess reaching the good old TV, will certainly help! I guess Linden Lab will be very please with this kind of development.
I wonder what those 15 people/avatars are going to do in the 5 transparent units specially build for them…
By the way, please find your way to the Kingdom of Media (the direct link to Big Brother Island).
Related: all my Second Life articles
Technorati tag(s): Second Life, Big Brother
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| posted Nov 9, 12:37 am on Nov 09, 2006 |
category: Second Life
/ On TV
Not so surprising, that some research in the Netherlands, released today, showed that during the last five years (study takes place every five years) people have been decreasing their time spend on TV (on average by 1 1/2 hours), while at the same time increasing their time behind the computer screen (+2 hours). It was the first time the research measured a decrease in the time spend on TV!
Like I said, to me this is not surprising. When I look at my own TV consumption, I can say that it has decreased dramatically over the last few years. TV these days is boring stuff in the Netherlands. On the Internet there is so much more to find for your particular taste.
Time to move the Internet to the big screen…
Speaking of big screens, did you see this wonderful Sony ad?
Technorati tag(s): TV, Netherlands, Sony
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| posted Oct 18, 10:01 pm on Oct 18, 2006 |
category: On TV
I do not watch much TV anymore. However for some shows I will graciously make an exception. A good example is Dragons’ Den of the BBC.
It is an exciting and educational show featuring 5 Venture Capitalists (dragons) giving their opinion on and sometimes their money-to-invest to a couple of people per show pitching their business idea.
To quote from the show website:
If you’ve ever had an idea to make money, Dragons’ Den is THE show to watch. All manner of money-spinning minds will step into the intimidating world of business financing, determined to make their dreams come true. All they need is the cash. To get this, they must face the Dragons, all of whom are formidable business thinkers with the money to make things happen.
But this is no lottery – the contestants will need all their powers of reasoning, presentation and persuasion to convince our five business experts that theirs is a product worth investing in. The Dragons know what makes a successful idea, how much it’s worth and how much cash is needed to get it off the ground.
By the way the dedicated Dragons’ Den web site offers a lot of background learning material on the “noble art of pitching” and doing business in general. It is a great entry in the world of starting a business and venture capital.
The only thing I missed really was some text providing the economics / finance background. And what do these VC’s write down on their notebooks?
And finally, you can watch all past shows as a webstream! Bravo BBC!
Technorati tag(s): Dragons Den, BBC, TV
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| posted Sep 8, 09:32 pm on Sep 08, 2006 |
category: On TV
