The 2007 Supernova Conference was held June 20-22nd in San Francisco, where think tanks in government, enterprise and technology put heads together to discuss the effect decentralization and connectivity are having on the way we do business. The panel "Virtual Life, or Virtual Hype?" featured discussion by Raph Koster of Areae, Ruben Steiger of an ad agency called Millions of Us, and essayist Clay Shirky, and was liveblogged and transcribed in several places around the web, including Wonderland, the official Conversation Hub page for the conference, and Mama Musings.

The panel addressed the fundamental question: Are virtual worlds life, or just hype? Koster says that almost all of 35 million users of virtual worlds (by his estimation) are playing games, and that while the user base for other purposes-- such as advertising, business and creative development-- is small, it's rapidly growing. He theorizes that there's some grains of concrete forecasting in the "metaversey" hype around the idea of the "3D internet," particularly in the real estate arena, but "right now, we're in a bubble," owing to a "misunderstanding about what their real purpose is."

Steiger wants to see the real-versus-hype battle as a "non-issue," pointing out that virtual worlds are primarily about social communities and connections, and they have merit as "an adjunct to established online communities."

When Shirky notes Second Life as the exception to gaming's dominance over the 3D world space, highlighting visual appeal as a major driving force behind broad adoption of virtual worlds, all of the panelists seem seemed to agree that a virtual world like Second Life, as a "sim of space," is a game, because as Steiger says, "Life is a game." Check out the links for more on the thought-provoking discussion, including theories on virtual real estate, 3D society and why Second Life doesn't monetize well.