Second Life the game

Say "massively-multiplayer online game" to gamers and immediately a set of pre-conceived notions will pop into their heads. They imagine groups of characters, most likely in a fantasy setting, bashing monsters and watching their experience bar go up until they gain a level enabling them to bash bigger monsters in a new location. But such a definition of massively-multiplayer is extremely limited, and new game types are available now that technology, such as broadband, is widespread.

For instance, instead of waltzing around pre-constructed mazes killing foozles, what if games allowed players the ability to build and script their own objects and activities? What about worlds -- entire worlds -- genuinely created from the ground up by the players? In the text-only gaming universe, games like these were called MUSHes or MUCKs, and were just as popular as their monster-killing brethren. To date, no graphical equivalent to these types of games has taken off. Linden Lab, however, hopes to change everything with Second Life, an upcoming massively-multiplayer game exploring this undiscovered country of interactivity.

Imagine a world that reinvents itself every day, a social environment where everyone can build things and interact with them. It's a far cry from your typical MMOG, and some people might rightly argue that without any objectives it's not a "game" at all. Second Life, currently in beta and expected to be released this summer, definitely defies description. Always on the lookout for new types of games, GameSpy got a hands-on demo of the world and spoke with the team behind it.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

More information: http://www.gamespy.com/previews/dece.../secondlifepc/