This just in via Jacki Morie: Apparently IBM and Linden Lab have partnered to create Trans-Ludic Avatars that players can take across virtual worlds.
I'm personally quite skeptical about this enterprise. I'm under the impression that the main motivation for this is so executives don't have to create a new avie every time they enter a new world. I personally like having different avatars in different worlds. I would not, for instance, want to move my There avatar to Second Life and vice versa. I'm not entirely clear on the utility of this. I suppose it makes sense if you are switching games, to be able to take your stats, etc. with you, but identities are context-sensitive. As I've often said, avatar identities are socially constructed, so who you become in each world is highly contingent on the social context. I'll be curious to see how this plays out.
Across virtual worlds, huh?
So if it's Linden Labs and IBM, that would mean crossing from Second Life into...???
I could be funny given IBMs past success with virtual worlds and say "...into failure" but I'm being serious as to how they hope to accomplish this with only SL and IBM.
I'll tell you this much... Bartle'll have a FIELD day with this if his comments on this very same idea at IMGDC2.0 are any indication!
Posted by: Ricardo Rademacher | July 09, 2008 at 12:48 AM