If Twitter is Pong, Second Life is…

…Computer Space!

Huh?

I’ve been reflecting lately on how Second Life has been usurped in the minds of many by Twitter as the social media thing-of-the-moment, at least in the mainstream. Each time I thought about it, I experienced a sort of cognitive dissonance – how could a rich and immersive, albeit somewhat clumsy environment be superseded by a useful but simple text-based communication tool that at it’s core is technically no more sophisticated than email or instant message programs we’ve had for years. Then I remembered my sixth grade project on the history of video games.

(Oh yes, I was as big a nerd in the early 80s as I am now. I also shed a tear last week when Gary Gygax passed away… but I digress.)

Now, most people think the first commercial video console was the now legendary Pong. However, preceding Pong by a year was Computer Space. The game play was somewhat similar to the later game Asteroids, and the molded plastic exterior was fashioned to look like something that you might see on a Martian space craft.

By all accounts, Computer Space confused the hell out of everyone. According to the website computerspacefan.com, “the controls were too difficult for the average bar patron, the idea of what you were supposed to do was not intuitive to people who were at that time only accustomed to pinball machines. The gameplay sucked.”

To me, this sounds eerily similar to Second Life. People don’t understand what to do with it. Not intuitive. Difficult to navigate.

While I personally still like Second Life, I’m starting to see that perhaps the time is not right for it. But the comparison to Computer Space does give me hope that in a few years, we will look back fondly at Second Life as the ancestor of robust virtual worlds that will be the modern equivalent of Space Invaders or Pac Man. Or Halo 3.

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