“‘Open Source’ like Second Life is not suitable for Japanese people.”
Virtual Worlds News has a story on a new Japanese virtual world called “Meet-Me”.
We’ll doubtless be hearing about plenty more attempts like this to create 3D social networking spaces without all that pesky user-generated content.
Interesting comments in the original Japanese article:
Second Lifeの場合、開発元の米Linden Labは土地を提供するだけで、建物やデジタルアイテムなどは原則、すべてユーザーが作っている。meet-me開発を担当するフロムソフトの神直利社長は「Second Lifeのような“オープンソース”は日本人には向いていない」と指摘。建物や空間をあらかじめ作っておくことでユーザーが何をしていいか迷わない作りにするほか、ゲーム内イベントやアトラクションもある程度作っておき、受け身のユーザーも飽きずに楽しめるようにする予定だ。
In the case of Second Life, where developer Linden Lab only provides land, virtually all buildings and digital objects are produced by the users. Kami (Jin?) Naotoshi, the president of developers From Software, said, “‘Open Source’ like Second Life is not suitable for Japanese people.” By creating buildings and space beforehand, they intend to make things in such a way that users will not be confused as to what to do. And by creating events and attractions inside the game, they aim to make it so that passive users will be able to enjoy it without getting bored.
Long-term Japan residents tend to be skeptical of Japanese cultural exceptionalism; We’re too used to hearing things about Japanese uniqueness that are either mistaken or self-servingly bogus. Still, there’s no denying that in the fields of both games and social networks, home-grown things have succeeded where foreign things have failed.
But the key barrier to adoption in Japan is not “open source” vs “closed source”.
The great Japanese web success story of the last few years, Mixi, is built entirely around open content. The leader in the mobile field, iMode, got that way by creating an open platform that anyone could work with.
Not knowing what to do when you arrive in Second Life isn’t a particularly Japanese phenomenon, and has a lot to do with the awfulness of the “orientation” experience you have to go through when you arrive; In fact, this is the one area in Second Life that isn’t user-created - and it’ll probably get a lot better when they open it up.
Adult content in SL is another question altogether, but I think you’d have a hard time arguing that there was - ahem - some kind of uniquely Japanese aversion to porn.
Right now, I think the real barrier to adoption for Second Life in Japan is quite simply language; The Japanese version has been coming soon for months, and you can’t start using the non-Japanese version without wading through a load of English.
Sooner or later, Japan will have an open, accessible 3D social networking platform, driven by user-built content; And if Linden Labs don’t provide it, someone else will.