Sometimes you’ll see an argument crop up about whether Second Life is a game or not, it’s not something I want to get into. However to some people it’s a game, to others it’s virtual world yadda yadda yadda. However one thing I do find odd about Second Life is that Second Life is still the product, Second Life should be the technology, the product should be umpteen other virtual worlds.

A few years ago Catherine used to talk about The Grid, at that stage I felt that Linden Lab were going to have a grid with other virtual worlds on it, Second Life as we know and love it on one, the teen grid where it was, business grids behind walls, yadda yadda yadda.

That of course didn’t quite happen, the teen grid got merged with the main grid and SL Enterprise got sold to the corporations. However I still think there’s some merit to the idea of business having Second Life worlds that aren’t branded as being part of Second Life as a whole, indeed they won’t even be part of the main grid, you’d have to signup on their site with a new account, schools and universities could do the same and by doing so they put up walls between their product and the main Second Life product, but then they could also link together with trusted grids to allow users to break down some of the barriers.

This would also leave Linden Lab in the position to create their own separate worlds with different rules of engagement, no user generated content, storylines, adventures and a different brand name for the product and yet it would still be using Second Life technology.

Instead of going to Second Life people would go to a business or sim owners world, the client splash screen would have adverts for that brand, updates about that brand, messages of the day about that brand. However for those who want to go to a Second Life game, they’d talk about going to “Awesome Adventure World” and in their own discussion forums the techie folk could point out it runs on Second Life technology.

This isn’t to say I feel the main grid should close, the main grid is where it’s currently all at and Linden Lab should nurture and cherish what they have, develop it and make that product an appealing product to current and new users who want that level of freedom and creativity, it remains a wonderful idea. However in terms of wider appeal and getting others interested in their own controlled spaces, Linden Lab could well consider making Second Life the technology the option for those who seek it, rather than Second Life being the only product in town on their servers.

The Marketplace could play an important role here too, for those merchants who want their goods to be available to users and creators of these other grids on Linden Lab servers, merchants could agree to sell their wares to these other places, on a case by case basis if need be and Linden Lab could impose restrictions on who could sell to these places, making payment info mandatory for example.

This of course isn’t easy and there would be issues with who provides support for billing or lost passwords, technical issues yadda yadda yadda but that happens every minute of every day in the computing world.