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How Experiences In The Virtual World Can Improve Real Life

Posted by: Nate Berg
Thanks to: Justin Hollander
20 September 2007 - 8:00am

In this column, urban planning professor Justin Hollander asserts that online games such as “Second Life” have the potential to enable genuine public participation in civic affairs.

When I ask my university students about how to improve American cities, nobody ever says: “let’s play a computer game.” But that’s exactly what a growing number of civic entrepreneurs are doing. They are using the unprecedented technology now available online through Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs). Linden Lab’s program “Second Life”, with over 8 million subscribers, is by far the most popular and powerful of these MMOGs as a gaming environment and a place where people engage in both virtual work and play."

"In three dimensions and served live 24/7 on the Internet, Second Life virtual places have the potential to advance civic life in real places. In the '90s, the ability of the World Wide Web to connect distant people, across the globe, instantaneously was touted as a remedy for many civic ills. Second Life is in many senses the next generation of the World Wide Web and as its successor provides new and potent ways to advance civic life in unimaginable ways."

Full Story: Virtually improving real living
Source: The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, September 17, 2007
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Applying Engineering to Legislation

Submitted by dhofmann on Thu, 09/20/2007 - 10:29.

You could pass a law in a virtual world and let its inhabitants discover any loopholes and other unintended consequences before you propose it in the real world. If legislators worked like engineers who run simulations like this to test their designs, I think we would have fewer flawed laws.

Second Life as Test Bed.

Submitted by Dano on Thu, 09/20/2007 - 11:02.

I've thought about running scenario analysis in Second Life to test assumptions and feasiblity of indicators. Alas, not enough time in the day, but I'm glad to see that we're heading down that road.

Hopefully the players won't be treated like lab rats.

Best,

D

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