Living a Second Life

Posted Oct 7, 2006 at 5:23PM EST by QJ Staff

Listed in: Titles, Off Topic Tags: Linden Lab, mmorpg rumors, UK

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Second Life, established in 2003 by the San Francisco-based Linden Lab, is proving to be an increasingly alluring alternative to the real world. It's MMORP without the G (at least that's what some people say). The online life simulation provides users a platform to get away with things they can't (usually) get away with on more Game-based online worlds.

Just like real life, the weirdos and their fetishes proliferate in this world. Even internet-jesus Warren Ellis, found himself in a very interesting situation in Second Life. In fact the "game" is so flexible that it lets you create virtual businesses, get married, have virtual sex, buy your own virtual tracks of land (huuuge tracks of land), and even file virtual divorces.

You live out this existence: you go buy or build your own virtual place for you to live in put virtual stuff into, and then go out... to get more virtual stuff. It's a never ending cycle of stuff!

There is however more to Second Life - SL as some users call it - than being a huge cyber-reflection of consumer-run, sex-crazed real life. The Universities are staking out places in Second Life to offer virtual courses. There are (virtual) places where experts can gather and simulate and test the efficiency of anti-Terrorist countermeasures. Doctors are starting to use it to simulate schizophrenic hallucinations to convey to students how patients suffer. Even the Politicians have gotten in the SL train.

Earlier this year, former Virginia governor Mark Warner flew into a virtual town hall in SL to be questioned by a journalist and a crowd of avatars about real-world issues (like Iraq for example).

What is most extraordinary about Second Life, for you business-minded people out there, is that its Linden dollars are convertible into real US dollars or UK pounds at various online currency exchanges (one US dollar is currently worth $ 259L). This enables some people to make a real living from Second Life. Music for example is already a big business in SL. In fact, the British band the Hedrons is set to do a virtual concert in Second Life.

Check out the thumbnail on the top right. See? People can earn mega moolah selling accessories and other 3D what-nots like those on SL. The game must really be what it's called: second life.

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