| Since it began as an experiment in virtual worlds back in 2003, Second Life has become one of the most interesting places to visit "" or live in "" online. Reuters has an office in this "virtual world", so do BBC, Penguin and a host of real-world companies. |
| There are currently 48,96,019 residents on the system, who use "Linden dollars" "" a virtual currency "" and generate economic activity that translates into real-time and real money. (In the course of just one 24-hour period last week, Second Life residents spent $1,603,632. Virtual money translates into real business.) |
| Signing up is simple: you download an application, choose an avatar "" a custom-designed virtual interface for yourself that could be anything from Manga-to-Manet inspired "" and are given a small weekly stipend of Linden $ to start you off. Second Lifers can earn money by selling products, taking jobs, or peddling intellectual property, or can buy Linden dollars online. |
| The 3D digital world "created, maintained and owned" by residents fascinates me because it's not your usual fantasy world. The idea behind Second Life, like other "mirror" worlds such as There (www.there.com) or Entropia Universe (http://www.entropiauniverse.com), is to create a microcosm of the world we already live in. |
| Second Lifers can go to the library "" which had a really nice art gallery opening last week, incidentally "" shop, go to singles mixers, worship at a wide selection of mosques, churches and temples, or create cities within this world, like Babbage Square, a riff on Victorian London. |
| "There" now has several dedicated newspapers, including the earnest Better Zones and Gardens, but for my virtual dollars, Second Life offers more and allows you to make far cooler avatars. |
| If you're a newbie to virtual worlds, it's hard to understand their pull. Why would anyone who has a real life want a second one, even if it's in a place like the business-oriented Entropia Universe? (Entropia was one of the first virtual worlds to do a property sale "" the first "Treasure Island" sold went for the equivalent of $26,500 in 2004, which was then the highest price ever paid for a virtual item. Entropia also hosted one of the weirdest virtual sales ever, when NEVERDIE paid $10,000 for a unique virtual egg.) |
| For some users, the appeal is simple "" the chance to create a second life more satisfying than your own, or to broaden the horizons of your own life. Some push it too far, like the man on Second Life whose wife caught him cheating with a super-sexy avatar "" he woke up the next morning to find that she had aged and downsized his SL avatar in revenge. |
| For some, it's a chance to test out your skills in a new environment "" Entropia and SL in particular have made some of its virtual residents thousands of real-world bucks, or provided them with new careers inside and outside the 'verse. |
| I'm not buying property today, but I do have to meet an author at the library in a few minutes, so I may just get myself a more business-like avatar. |
| This started as play, but now I'm thinking of something Philip Rosedale, founder of Second Life, said in an interview: "An enormous amount of intellectual energy is going to move into this world, and some of what we are doing in the real world will therefore be displaced. You can imagine New York City being kind of like a museum. |
| Still an incredibly cool place to go, but with no one working in those towers because work, creative work, where you are engaging with other people face-to-face, you are going to do in a virtual world... It is easier to do things there." It certainly, I think, rigging up a new outfit without moving from my keyboard, makes dressing for dinner a breeze. |
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