What is Second Life?

What is Second Life?

• Second Life is a three-dimensional virtual-reality world developed by Linden Research, Inc. (a.k.a. Linden Lab), a San Francisco company, and born on the Internet in 2003.
  
  
• Second Life is a computer-simulated environment which users inhabit. They interact with the environment via their on-screen representatives known as avatars. An avatar is a person in Second Life.
  
  
• A free downloadable Second Life Viewer enables residents to interact with each other through their avatars, providing an extraordinarily advanced level of social networking combined with general aspects of a metaverse.
  
  
• In Second Life, social relationships are represented by three-dimensional graphical characterizations of multiple users appearing together.
  
  
• The Second Life simulation has real world rules such as physics, gravity, topography, locomotion, real-time actions, and communication. Lots of communication!

Where did it come from?

• Second Life was inspired mainly by the cyberpunk literary movement, notably Neal Stephenson's science fiction novel Snow Crash.
  
  
• Stephenson invented the words metaverse and avatar.
  
  
• As described by Stephenson, a metaverse is a fictional three-dimensional virtual world created inside internetworked computers where humans, represented on-screen by avatars, interact with each other in a non-physically existing space that is a metaphor of the real world. The word metaverse puts together the words "meta" and "universe".
  
  
• Linden Lab's goal is to create a world like the metaverse described by Stephenson – a general-purpose user-defined world in which people interact, learn, teach, explore, serve, work, shop, play, conduct business, and communicate in a variety of ways about myriad things.

Second Life resident Mandee Maggs

Who's there?

• Second Life is the best known virtual world at this time with more than 14 million residents.
  
  
• That means more than 14 million accounts have been registered to date and membership is growing at nearly one million per month.
  
  
• Of the total at this time, some 500,000 persons are considered active residents.
  
  
• About one-quarter of the membership accounts are alternative avatars. Residents use these "alts" when they want to be two or more other people in Second Life at the same time.

What's it like?

• Second Life is a social environment where people learn, explore, work, shop and play.
  
  
• Residents meet other residents, socialize, explore together, participate in individual and group activities, undertake manufacturing and commercial wholesale and retail activities, create and trade their virtual property and services.
  
  
• It's very much like existing in real life (RL), but with the added ability to fly, teleport, and create and do whatever you can imagine.

Do I need money to be a resident?

• Membership in SL is free with an available advanced level called premium.
  
  
• Most users are operating with free accounts.
  
  
• The premium account costs $6-$9 a month and gives a resident the right to buy and hold land. The premium-account resident receives a $L300 per week stipend and gains access to more comprehensive user support.
  
  
• Inside Second Life, the virtual currency is the Linden dollar (referred to as lindens or L$).
  
  
• Linden dollars are exchangeable for US dollars (US$) in a marketplace consisting of residents, Linden Lab and RL companies. Linden dollars can be purchased in RL and transferred into SL. They can be sold for US dollars.
  
  
• The current exchange rate is around US$4 = L$1000.
  
  
• Shopping for any kind of goods and services you can imagine is one of the most-stated best features of Second Life. Even a person with a free membership still may need money to buy virtual stuff in-world.

Is it a game?

• Second Life is not a game. It does not have rules, points, scores, winners, losers, levels, an end-strategy, or most of the other characteristics of games.
  
  
• It is a semi-structured virtual environment where characters undertake activities for the purpose of personal empowerment and enjoyment.
  
  
• Second Life is an extraordinarily advanced level of social networking located in a general-purpose metaverse.

Learn More...

About Virtual Worlds:

• Center for the Study of Virtual Worlds »
  
• What is a Virtual World?  STO

About Second Life:

• Great Places in Second Life  UNCP
  
• A small photo gallery of Second Life  STO
  
• Second Life Photostream  Flickr
  
• Second Life on YouTube  YouTube
  
• Getting Started in Second Life  UNCP
  
• How to travel into Second Life?  STO
  
• News Media in Second Life  UNCP
  
• Using Second Life for Education  STO
  
• Education on the Second Life Grid  Linden Lab
  
• The Second Life Grid  Linden Lab
  
• Some notes from Second Life  UNCP
  
• Second Edition Blog  WordPress
  
• News of Second Life and Virtual Worlds  UNCP
  
• Second Life home page  Linden Lab
  
• How To Build in Second Life  UNCP
  
• Second Life: PG vs. Mature  UNCP
  
• Scholarly References about Second Life and Virtual Worlds  UNCP

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