The Art of Possibility

I recently attended the Virtual World Conference 2008 in New York City. It's been five years since the first State of Play conference in 2003, where it was all about big ideas. The possibility space for virtual worlds seemed enormous, and the challenge was all in how to build the structure and law to support this society with so much potential.

OK, maybe that was pretty idealistic.

But this most recent conference was largely a sad statement about what can happen when people start to channel their imaginations into commercial realities. Instead of thinking about how to shape and protect the civil rights of avatars the legal track was keynoted by "The Top 10 Things a Brand Should Know About Virtual Worlds". And the gentle folks from Mattel asserted that in fact a virtual world is a plaything.

"We fundamentally believe that virtual worlds are no different from CD-ROM games and are no different from toys," said Scothon. "It is a toy. It just doesn't come in plastic."

I continue to believe that there is genuine potential in the virtual world experience to change the way that we work, think, and connect around the globe. The art of possibility needs to be expanded and explored. We should be focused on understanding how this new way of coming together will allow us to build a global community with all the opportunity that suggests. Instead, the industry gets together and the focus is on building narrow experiences whose only purpose is "brand extension".

How disappointing.