Second Life.

As well as console games, I have also been doing some research into MMO games. I found this article, "This year's hottest destination: cyberspace", in which Gemma Bowes "goes on holiday" online in the online game "Second Life".

Below are the main points from the article:

• The most famous virtual world, Second Life, has attracted 4.6 million members since it was developed in 2003 by San Francisco-based Linden Lab, and now big corporations are using it to contact customers and market their goods.
• In Second Life, these movements are coming together as travel companies start to recognise the possible benefits to their industry. The Starwood hotel group has created the first virtual hotel as a way of gathering feedback on the designs for its Aloft chain, due to launch in the US, Europe and the Middle East over the next few years. Avatars can wander round the different rooms, swim in the pool and go to events (singer Ben Folds performed recently), and are encouraged to comment on its design.
• ‘What we will see is a very sophisticated form of travel brochure, where people can experience their holiday before they book it.' – people actually basing their lives and real experiences on what they see in Second Life.
• 'Virtual travel could involve wearing a helmet like an astronaut's and being wired up, so if you take a cruise down some rapids in a virtual world, it will feel like you're really doing it,' says Frank Shaw, of the Centre For Future Studies.
• ‘My attempts to start the Second Life programme prove stressful. As someone who has been thwarted by their iPod, even downloading the software (for free) over the net proves a stumbling block. I resort to ringing the IT department at work for help, and luckily a Second Life user answers the phone. It's like I've found a member of a secret society as he whispers conspiratorially: 'Once you start, there's no going back.'
• (On Second Life) – ‘It's all relatively simple and self-explanatory, and I'm struck by the quality of the graphics and complexity of the 3D world. But after a few hours I feel confused and frustrated. I'm not sure how a lot of functions work, can't find nice places to go or friendly people and the only way I feel like I'm on holiday is that I feel jetlagged from screen exhaustion.’
• ‘Are there countries with different cultures? 'Absolutely,' says Aimee. 'They aren't official, with borders, but there are simulations of real countries, and regions with their own cultures and populations.' There's a Little Italy, Dublin has Irish pubs and Ihla Brasil, which attracts Portuguese speakers. Then there are the 'furries' of Luskwood, who have animalistic avatars, and a place called Gor, where the resident Goreans live according to a novel by John Norman, The Cycle of Gor, with courtesy, slavery and female subservience as key beliefs.’ – OH DEAR. Surely this is taking it too far. When did our own lives become so boring that we needed to derive cults and other religions based on our real world and NOVELS?
• ‘Exploring the complex landscapes is certainly fun for a while, occasionally stimulating, sometimes relaxing. It offers some sort of escapism, but I think I agree with Frank Shaw, who says that, fundamentally, the point of a holiday is to move yourself somewhere different physically - and virtual reality can't really come close.’