Ever wanted to be somebody else or make real money playing on a computer? Through a virtual world called Second Life (SL) anyone can be a real-estate agent, entrepreneur or even a virtual prostitute.
First launched to the public in 2003, SL has grown as high-speed Internet has become more popular and more accessible.
According to secondlife.com, it is a "3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents." It is based at Linden Lab in San Francisco.
There are residents who make a real-life income from their SL creations and businesses, according to the business opportunities section of the Web site.
The only limitation for creations is the resident's imagination. Residents make clothes, hair styles, jewelry and shoes, which are very popular in the malls that have been built in-world. Some residents use scripting tools to build items such as slot machines and games and sell them to business owners. Bars are also popular businesses where drinks are sold and people can hang out and casually dance or, in mature places, dance for tips.
"There are thousands of in-world businesses ranging from clothing stores to bars to real estate developers and hundreds of other entrepreneurial pursuits," said Catherine Smith, Linden Lab director of marketing.
There is an in-world currency exchange, called Lindex that converts Linden dollars (the SL currency) to U.S. dollars. The exchange rate is currently at 273 Linden per one U.S. dollar. The exchange can go both ways and you can pay U.S. dollars in order to acquire Lindens.
"Many people make five figures and many, many others make very nice supplemental incomes," said Jessie Nabob, a SL personality and owner of a bar in a SL city called Dark City. "Ansche Chung is the most famous, she makes a quarter million a year just buying and selling virtual real estate."
Residents move throughout the world through teleporting and flying to their destinations.
The current total population is 1,517,471 and growing.
According to Smith, the population is about 55 percent men and 45 percent women.
Access to the world is free through a basic membership, but if you want to build a home or business, a premium membership is required. It costs $9.95 monthly, $22.50 quarterly or $72 annually. If only a few additional benefits are desired, an additional basic membership is available for a one-time fee of $9.95.
People create their own first name and choose a last name. Then, they are able to customize the look of their avatar, which can be changed at any time.
CNN.com reported that some professors at major universities such as Harvard and New York University are taking advantage of SL by using it for classroom discussions within the virtual world. The one downfall reported was that flying avatars created a distraction for students in discussion groups, but Smith said that it is just a matter of learning the technology and practicing it.
"Educators are using SL as a means to better interact with their students," she said. "As with any technological tool, there's a learning curve involved and it does take a bit of practice to use effectively, but we don't see this as an obstacle of any kind."
Frank Shaffer, a sophomore music major said he could see how classroom discussions through SL would benefit some students.
"I think it would be good for some people because they would be in a more comfortable environment," Shaffer said.
As for the rest of the virtual world, he said it sounds "crazy."
The potential for online predators is there, but Smith said it is hard to find out a person's true identity.
"With SL you can maintain a significant degree of anonymity," she said.
According to Nabob, the most interesting thing about SL is the cultures.
"You will find many, many, many subcultures here," she said.
There are specific system requirements in order for it to work properly. One of the many requirements is that there is a cable or DSL Internet connection.
It also requires (for Microsoft-based personal computers) at least an 800 MHz Pentium III processor, a video/graphics card and 256 MB of memory space. The rest of the system requirements, recommendations and alternatives are listed at secondlife.com.
