Virtual worlds – are they really the future?

In Second Life: The Official Guide, the authors suggest that Second Life, a game in which players create Sims-esque versions of themselves to live in a virtual world, represents "The Next Generation of Internet." They point to the fact that real life corporations, especially online retailers like Amazon.com, have begun using the game to sell things to real-life customers almost entirely within the game world. Also, the game has enjoyed a steady growth in its user base since its creation, boasting over 38,000 logged-in users at any given time (on average).

But does this game really represent the next stage of evolution for the internet? Will traditional web-pages eventually be replaced by in-game representations of the entities they represent? I think not.

The current trend in the progression of technology and the internet, is not the tendency of humans to live large portions of their lives within a specific virtual (but realistic) environment, but rather the tendency of technology and its accompanying interconnectivities to embed themselves into normal human life. Most people of the future will not need a virtual avatar to walk around in virtual rooms representing websites when those websites are readily available via wireless networks and are conveniently integrated into peoples' "real" lives. This trend is already fairly evident thanks to inventions like PDA's and iPhones; even normal cell phones are now considered hopelessly outdated if they do not provide the user with instant access to the internet anywhere and anytime. I suppose one could argue that our real lives are, through constant connection to the internet and data networks, become more like virtual ones. However, this is far from proving that games like Second Life will be taking over the internet; why get an avatar to do things you can do yourself?