a second life for produsers?

As we know, the term ‘produsage’ refers to the new “hybrid form of simultaneous production and usage”. (Bruns)

This concept of ‘produsage’ is particularly evident when we consider online, user-led MMORPG's such as The Sims and Second Life. Instead of following traditional game structures, these MMORPG’s are becoming increasingly dependent on the gamers themselves, rather than the game producers, to create content. In fact, Herz , (as cited in Bruns), reports that that “some 90% of content in The Sims is now created by its users.” It is clear that the computer games paradigm has shifted significantly from its traditional boundaries to now “providing a rich narrative and social environment in which multiple gamers cooperate in creating their own narrative paths, based on cues placed in the game by its developers or other users” (Bruns)

Produsage has been taken a step further in the Second Life game created by Linden Lab in San Francisco. Not only are users encouraged to create their own content, but they can also sell it online for real money. In this case, the in-game economy is directly linked to that of the outside world with produsers spending their cold, hard cash in exchange for Second Life’s currency (Linden Dollars). According to the game’s website the value of the Linden Dollar fluctuates based on supply and demand but “over the last few years, rates have remained fairly stable at approximately 250 Linden Dollars (L$) to the US Dollar” (Second Life, 2008) The purchase of these Linden Dollars is almost essential when beginning to use the program as they allow gamers to purchase virtual items to increase their social status online, and gain the necessary tools to build a virtual business (if desired). Once they are underway, the sky is the limit for produsers who can create and sell any content they can dream up.

When we take this into account, it can be seen, as Bruns suggests, that the notion of produsage in online games such as Second Life should be viewed as a producer/consumer hybrid also. Online gaming has been redefined by the commoditisation of content and we must now consider the economic, legal and ethical dilemmas this presents.

Bruns (p4) explains that “the community-based development of any form of content necessarily requires members of the produsage community to adopt more permissive approaches to legal and moral rights in intellectual property than is the norm in traditional, corporate content production. While content producers by legal default hold copyright in their work, this is not feasible for content produsers, who after all are participating in a collaborative, ongoing, and iterative process of content development which explicitly requires its participants to work on the content already contributed by their predecessors.”

With the existence of these real-world issues, many argue that online MMORG’s (such as Second Life), can cause users to confuse the distinction between their virtual game-world and physical reality. When we consider Second Life’s economy however, it is clear that the program cannot really be considered virtual at all. The economy is entirely real with real-life value in real-life dollars.

When produsers are using real money to run real businesses and buy real products... can Second Life really be considered a game? Or, as the name suggests,...an actual second life?


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Second Life. 2008. Economy http://secondlife.com/whatis/economy.php (accessed April 25, 2008).

Bruns, A. n.d. The Future Is User-Led: The Path towards Widespread Produsage http://produsage.org/files/The%20Future%20Is%20User-Led%20(PerthDAC%202007).pdf (accessed April 23, 2008).

Bruns, A. n.d. Produsage:Towards a Broader Framework for User-Led Content Creation http://blackboard.qut.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=courses&url=/bin/common/course.pl?course_id=_29175_1 (accessed April 23, 2008).