Immersion or Augmentation
July 18, 2006 on 5:46 pm | In Uncategorized |I had lunch today with Kyle Machulis (Cube Linden). Turns out he had also wondered if there are 2 views of SL out there. Where you fall on these philosophies impacts things like how you live your second life and view upcoming features. The two are as follows:
Immersion: SL is its own thing and should not be contaminated by anything from the outside. SL should evolve at its own pace as we continue to gain a deeper understanding of how our metaverse should and could look.
Augmentation: SL adds things like real-time spatial design tools & a stronger sense of presence through avatarization in 3D space to the existing social software on the 2D internet. SL should evolve through leveraging existing tools and practices out these as well as continue to develop its uniqueness.
I have a hunch that these philosophies exist both with residents as well Linden Lab employees. That immersion should exist inside the company I attribute to things like the absence of an official exporter for off the shelf 3D software such as 3D studio Max or Maya. This I think indicates a desire to protect the in world creation process where possible and only accept external applications like Photoshop or Gimp for texture editing as a sort of necessary evil.
Immersion among resident is seen often among furries and others whose SL behaviors emphasize roleplay. Cube suggested that these groups of residents are not the ones you see creating headlines in these days. I would tend to agree and actually predict that they have gone from being the dominant part of the residents in the early days to a minority in the current vastly expanding SL population.
People that lean towards augmentation will be happy to see SL’s continued orientation towards the 2D web. In this camp you’ll find production companies that are currently busy successfully convincing existing businesses that they need to get onboard for the next generation of the internet. Also all the interesting stuff popping up inside and outside SL speak to this.
The notion of the two views has a familiar smell of you are following game studies. The notion of whether games are played inside a magic circle that should not be leaking is something that has been widely discussed over the first young years of this emerging field.
Maybe the notion of immersion vs. augmentation just represents a little SL twist on this. But it does seem to speak two different ways to get to race towards that metaverse the kids these days won’t shut up about.
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To clarify on one of the points…
Immersion among resident is seen often among furries and others whose SL behaviors emphasize roleplay
Well….. Yes and no. It’s at this point we hit augmentation of immersion, so to speak. In furries, take Luskwood or Furnation. You’ve got two incredibly viable commerical entities that have established their business practices on creating deeper immersion. Which then turns this into a crazy circle of more augmentation leading to more immersion.
Wow. That kinda makes my head hurt.
Now, augmentation is the minority compared to immersion, but it’s not quite so black and white, it’s just who sees what, where, and are they first to it.
Comment by Cube Linden — July 18, 2006 #
[…] The SLCreativity blog frames an important (in)world issue concerning “… 2 views of Second Life,” immersive vs. augmented. What are the implications for the built environment, not to mention for building the environment, in both real life (RL) and Second Life (SL). I’m going to attempt to re-frame the issue by considering it from the perspective of representing something. […]
Pingback by Metaverse Territories » Blog Archive » re: Immersion or Augmentation — July 19, 2006 #
Great post. You inspired a million ideas that I tried to elaborate here : http://tinyurl.com/ztvda
Comment by Kliger — July 19, 2006 #
The comparison between Immersion and Augmentation is really useful. I think there may also be a third category, simulation. I’m still working on how it fits between augmentation and immersion, though.
However, I do know that the line between Immersion and Augmentation seems to be related to two categories: 1)community and 2) activity
There are certainly communities which prefer one over the other. Educators in SL are primarily in the augmentation camp while the Furries (which you mentioned ) and the Goreans are in the Immersion camp. However, the Immersion folks are also engaged in a kind of simulation in a way as well.
There are also activities that seem to be aligned with one camp or another. Building seems to be augmentation because it’s not similar to how we build in RL. However, social interaction is more immersive.
Hmm…maybe a chart would be useful to track major communities and primary sorts of activities to see where they fit and find patterns?
Comment by Intellagirl — July 19, 2006 #
Excellent post. As a relatively new Linden whose background in virtual world technology lies in LambdaMOO, I lean towards the augmentation side. I think for me it comes down to a difference between escapism and self enhancement — do we draw away from ourselves in the real world or attempt to enhance our presence in the real world? I see tools that I have used for years such as IRC, craigslist, etc as ways of extending my reach in the real world rather than escaping it.
I understand why people might want to project, or role-play, and I certainly think it is useful and there is a lot to be learned from role-play. However, I don’t think role-play would be useful unless the person playing were able to bring something back from this experience into their real self. By working on Second Life I hope to create a tool which helps make people more confident and aware of themselves, and widens the real world reach of those who use it.
Comment by Donovan Preston (Linden) — July 20, 2006 #
Immersion in User Interaction
Let me buffer this with a little real life story, and how I used to love and adore human interaction. My life before retail.
I used to stand in the middle of the mall and look up at this magnificent stained glass window that was located in the roof, so the sunlight would cascade onto the floor below. I’d stare at it for a few minutes. People would walk by me and generally think I was a little weird and some would be curious as to what I was looking at. After a minute or so passed, one person would keep his distance from me and look up to the ceiling. After another minute, or so, one or two more people would join in. At this time, I was able to view my surroundings and see these random people staring at the stained glass window. It was as if they had never really noticed it before.
Once you get enough people looking up, more people will come to find out what’s in the sky - some place they’d never thought to look before. I believe this phenomenon occurs in Second Life as well. If you mind your own business in a sandbox ’sim’ and just one person comes to see what you’re doing, you’ll attract more people. Green dots on the map represent centers of activity and possibly creativity, or even festivity, which many people strive for.
It is at this point in time - when you’ve gathered more than four people around you - that you can start a rather nice group conversation. This is where you begin meet people and create new friendships. This is what I came to love about Second Life. It doesn’t matter who you talk to or what common grounds you have with another person, if you can build to inspire another resident, then you are one step closer in adding to the community of Second Life; adding to the creativity of Second Life.
For some people, user to user interaction is tough. The people who walk by and think nothing of what I’m doing in the middle of the mall, and generally think I’m weird usually have a very taciturn relationship with people they’ve never met before. Likewise, in Second Life, many people hate being alone, yet they choose to stay secluded from the community in a very, “I don’t know you, I don’t want to talk to you,” approach. This is part of the general antisocial environment that people feel safe in.
To sum it all up, I would guess that many people come to Second Life without even thinking about what kind of social environment Linden Lab has set up. Those that can adapt to the social nature of Second Life will learn to enjoy and even love the world they play and build in. It’s the social immersion that keeps many people so attuned to the environment that surrounds them.
I tended to lean toward immersion more often than not, but I praised augmentation. Again, adaptation to the social environment is key to success in Second Life. As you meet other people, you need to learn where they stand on the Immersion and Augmentation line. If you adapt to them, you can talk to them on a level of sophistication that you never thought possible before. Get out there and talk to a random person, create an interactive and social environment, and build on top of that. You can’t go wrong, but on the off-chance that you do, restart and learn from your mistakes, that’s the beauty of Second Life.
Comment by Paul K — July 20, 2006 #
The debate you’re describing as augmentation vs. immersion is the one that I’ve had calling it “web v. world” or that people like Gwyn or Philip have called “country vs. platform” and Aimee Weber even made up a whole sort of nasty political chart putting her enemies as the oh-so-yesteryear “worlders” who were “immersed” and putting herself and her friends as the cool “platformers”.
Meh. It’s both, it is not either/or, and it is like moving through cold and hot currents as you swim in the ocean. Some people are tethered to the real world; some aren’t. Those making money off this platform rely on those green dots to be their server load tests, however, if nothing else, and often want them to serve as the colourful peasantry in a country they like to take other people on trips for, getting high consulting fees for the experience.
The problem with the Magic Circle at SL is that it has the game devs and the early adapters in it — they made a world, played in the world as sandboxers, made it their world/their imagination, then opened the doors, and when other people wanted stability, householding, and civilization instead of constant sandboxing and letting script-kiddies crash the grid and run war games and security robs, they pissed on them.
Now this same Magic Circle is making a fortune as Metaverse Consultants, stepping on the world that they’re now bored of. It’s not a pretty sight. However, worlds want to be made. They get made, inspite of those who step on them : )
I’m curious why you would feel that furries or other groups are “gone from the headlines”. They are the largest, organized groups in the world and pay its bills. SLCC wouldn’t exist without them.
Back up, fly around some more please Henrik.
>I understand why people might want to project, or role-play, and I certainly think it is useful and there is a lot to be learned from role-play. However, I don’t think role-play would be useful unless the person playing were able to bring something back from this experience into their real self.
Donavon Linden has the usual Calvinist-style view of virtual worlds. Unless they are “useful” and can prove their worth in terms that pay off in “real life,” however that is understood
What I’m really not liking about this entire discussion is the way Lindens shill for droves of people to come in and world it up, waterskiing and making villas and having fabulous experiences as beautiful people in exotic places, meanwhile privately looking down on them as has-beens who have no lives. Nice work if you can get it.
Intellagirl, I’m puzzled why building is augmentation. It’s immersion, because most people building are making *a world to inhabit and living in it*. You aren’t doing that perhaps, but I think probably the dirty little secret of the augmentation camp is that they made a world without noticing it — a world which is about the social scene and virtual interactivity of augmenters who have somehow persuaded themselves or their bosses or their spouses that they are doing something useful online that’s different and better than playing WoW. Is it?
Comment by Prokofy Neva — July 24, 2006 #
[…] I feel this ties in well with my earlier musings on Immersion or Augmentation and really speak to the strong sense of identity people have described to me during my conversations over the past weeks. […]
Pingback by Second Life Creativity » Thinking about identity — August 2, 2006 #
[…] I brought up the concepts of Immersion and Augmentation in an earlier post. Now I have been writing my thoughts on these mattes up in a longer piece. I feel that there are limits to how long I can get away with having my blog posts be, so if you are interested please go to Immersion vs. Augmentation. I would love some feedback right here in the blog or by mail. […]
Pingback by Second Life Creativity » Immersion vs. Augmentation II — September 3, 2006 #
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The problem with the Magic Circle at SL is that it has the game devs and the early adapters in it — they made a world, played in the world as sandboxers, made it their world/their imagination, then opened the doors, and when other people wanted stability, householding, and civilization instead of constant sandboxing and letting script-kiddies crash the grid and run war games and security robs, they pissed on them.
Now this same Magic Circle is making a fortune as Metaverse Consultants, stepping on the world that they’re now bored of. It’s not a pretty sight
Can you develop more your subject pls?
Pol
Comment by Pol Arbi - games online guy — April 20, 2007 #
[…] or augmentation” with Idris while we did this. I have been giving more thought to the “Augmentation versus Immesrion debates“ - another post! And, when I returned the next day to talk to LLPlatypus, from Converseon, […]
Pingback by UgoTrade » Blog Archive » “Real” Life Dreams and “Virtual” Realities — May 3, 2007 #