Poll: Is Second Life a Video Game

Certainly it is video-based and used for entertainment, two key qualities of video games. However, it lacks the structure of traditional games, and it has been appropriated for decidedly non-gaming purposes. Second Life residents can interview for real-world jobs through the program and the founders have had significant problems with gambling and other crimes committed in the virtual world. You have to pay bills. Other users will harass you from time to time, just like high school. Creating a building or landscaping takes time, sometimes longer than in real life. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Microsoft have offices in Second Life. The world has a virtual economy, which included a tax revolt early in its lifetime. Indeed, the "game" is all too real.

I believe that Second Life is no longer a video game, despite being entertaining for many of its users. Second Life is a social networking program with perks, is possibly even virtual reality, but it is no longer a video game, in my opinion.

You get to "play" as a fictitious character in a computer-generated world. That's a video game.

I haven't tried Second Life myself, and I was about to say "No". But then i recalled the various stories I read about the different areas/islands, and I foun myself switching to Yes and No.

It is a glorified chatroom and an architechtual building ground.

But it is also a game: you can play poker and other minigames (or could). You can roleplay all you want; and some of the roleplaying is quite advanced and very .... sexually oriented.

But there isn't the typically well definied missions and story driven plot (and ending) known from traditional games.