Zuckerberg’s Metaverse: Lessons from Second Life

This week, I traveled back in time to visit the future.

It’s been about 10 years since I first stepped into the virtual world of Second Life, arguably the Internet’s first attempt at what every tech giant is racing to build: the so-called metaverse.

The term metaverse was coined in the 1990s in a science fiction novel, Snow Crash, in which it served as a virtual reality successor to the Internet, in which people live much of their lives in virtual environments.

Second Life peaked in the late 2000s with millions of users and hundreds of exciting headlines about people dedicating hours of their daily lives to living digitally.

Since then, I have thought he died a slow and peaceful death. But how wrong I was.

The platform appears to have a small, loyal and potentially growing community of “residents,” as they call themselves, who connect to experience what our future might look like in the metaverse.

So, for this week’s Tech Tent podcast, I’m diving again.

In terms of graphics, it is far from revolutionary.

It’s more like Roblox’s blocky, pixelated world than a hit game built around beautiful immersive environments.

But the difference here, of course, is that, like Mark Zuckerberg’s vision of the metaverse, Second Life is not a game. There are no game challenges, missions or storylines. It is just a place to hang out.

One resident I met was Rei.

Our avatars collided after teleporting to a sea world modeled after a strange 1960s Scottish fishing village in ruins. He told me he spent time in Second Life for about four months after he “got curious about all this metaverse stuff.”

Rei is not a fan of Zuckerberg’s vision of the metaverse.

“They will want to control everything. But I think people should be in charge and they should be completely open,” he told me.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of the newly renamed Meta company, addressed these concerns when he announced his grand plans.

“It’s a future that goes beyond any company. It will be done by all of us,” he said in his Facebook Connect keynote.

Other large companies, including Microsoft, Epic Games, Roblox, and even Nike, have announced plans to somehow enter the metaverse.

Rei’s concern about a metaverse monopoly is shared by many, including Anya Kanevsky, vice president of product management at Linden Lab, the company that manages Second Life.

Anya, who has been involved since 2003, has observed with interest how several tech giants have started talking about the idea of ​​an online life.

“I’m a little concerned about the dystopian nature the conversation seems to be taking on right now,” she says.

“The entry of a slightly oversized and oversized player into the space seems to signal people who are not the owners, that someone else will set the rules and run the show and they will be just the consumers.”

Second Life, therefore, is very similar to Roblox – a place where users create environments and invite others to play – although it has far fewer participants.

Roblox’s record of concurrent players is estimated to be around 5.5 million compared to Second Life’s 90,000.

Mark Zuckerberg says he too wants to put a community of users at the center of his metaverse, but he has no residents yet.

Instead, he has pledged to hire 10,000 employees across Europe to build his worlds.

Some argue that it’s not even about giving users more control – a metaverse should be built entirely by communities.

John Carmack, the head of consulting technology at Oculus, Meta’s division of virtual reality headsets, believes the idea of ​​building a metaverse “isn’t actually the best way to end up with the metaverse.”

Like reported by Ars Technica, said: “I doubt a single candidacy can get to that level of taking over everything. I just don’t think a player – a club – ends up making all the right decisions for that.”

Second Life history also has more lessons to teach Zuckerberg and others.

At its peak, the site attracted negative headlines after high-profile virtual riots, in-game currency-based Ponzi schemes, and even childcare issues.

Even in my brief exploration this week, I caught a glimpse of the moderation challenges Second Life faces. These would be amplified if a metaverse became mainstream.

Searching for events or places with certain keywords such as “porn” or “drugs” is blocked.

However, the search for “sex” led me to virtual strip clubs where I was offered digital lap dances in exchange for money around the world.

“The approach to governance in a virtual world is complex,” says Kanevsky.

“Some of them can be automated, but a lot of them have to have the human touch. It’s not just about escape behaviors, nice clothes and gorgeous avatars.”

Back in Second Life, I asked Rei one last question before disconnecting: why does she keep coming back?

He replied: “I like to dream with my eyes”.