Mainstream games, even MMPORGS which focused less on graphics tech, still had to participate in the conventions and expectations of single-player and/or competitive games.

That makes 2nd life relate to my perspective, which at the time (early 2000s) already had shifted to that of a non-gamer, despite heavily playing video games as a child.

Maybe Second Life was not only an interesting continuation of Chat rooms, but also a precursor to the revival of casual and socially oriented games.

The nice continuation of the "game with no goals" was probably Minecraft.

The not-so-nice version is mobile and easy pay-to-win games which try to rent-seek on real or simulated social interactions (Farmville was an early version of this I guess).

I remember how awesome The Incredible Machine in "Free mode" was (one of my favorite games as a child), but still never picked up gaming again.

A good and modern version of second life might appeal to me though. I always followed the articles about this at the time, without any interest in playing, but fascinated by the content.

Since I skipped Minecraft and could imagine some kind of VR version of Reddit with shared screens etc, I don't think that Zucks Metaverse vision is completely of the track.

I know a person with a quest Headset who enjoys watching football matches with strangers from English (voice chat and shared immersive screen, avatars are not important as of now I guess)