So, you’d like to live a second life, yes? You don’t have to be shy, because it certainly appears that everybody does, every now and then. The proof can be found in Linden Labs’ foray into virtual worlds, which most adepts merely refer to as “SL”. Second Life is the ultimate virtual world, and it comes across as a mixture between and the sweet&sour elements of computer and Internet addiction: imagine The Sims, MMORPGS (massive multiplayer online RPGS), MSN real-time messaging, and social networking sites (such as Facebook, MySpace, Hi5), all bundled-up into a single, juicy package. Sounds exciting? Well then rejoice for you have only learnt about the tip of the iceberg: according to USAtoday, “Philip Rosedale didn’t create Second Life to be a game or a toy. He thinks he is remaking the Internet — taking it on a giant leap forward, much like the invention of the Mosaic browser or World Wide Web.”

While this may sound like an unreasonable, megalomaniac goal, I can assure you … after just a few hours of personally exploring this virtual world that it’s probably not quite so. There is huge potential in this concept, and in fact I would be surprised if you haven’t yet heard about it. In fact, this post is not meant to inform you about SL, but rather to remind there might be some real fun in there. Not only that, but profit as well. Second Life is such an immersive world, that it features its own currency, the linden, and people are allowed (actually encouraged) to trade goods and services, just like in the real world. Not only that, but there are also banks, companies, and a full-fledged stock market. The software has become so hugely popular, that some companies actually employ marketing strategies focused upon this virtual world. For example, IBM has build this virtual representation of its headquarters, which you can actually visit within SL:

In a way, I do honestly believe that SL is a glimpse of what the Internet will be about, in the not-so-distant future. It makes a lot of sense that the global network will evolve into a virtual representation of the real world, following the technological developments in computation and VR. The future is just around the corner, and Second Life is here to prove it with a rising population of over 7 million people already! That’s more than a lot of the world’s countries, if you think of it! Enter this massive virtual world by visiting the official site at http://www.secondlife.com downloading the free software.

As far as I can see, spending real money to play (or rather, to “experience”) SL is an optional choice; even tough you can purchase linden dollars by making a deposit, there are several other ways to make money within the game, by interacting with the other users. You can actually get jobs in SL, which usually involve marketing gimmicks. For example, I heard that some banks are paying a linden dollar per each minute that you park you virtual avatar upon their virtual premises.

Amazing, right? Go ahead and activate your second life; do make sure to let me know what you think of it, as well. In case you’re an experienced user, it will be nice if you leave a comment discussing your own adventures and discoveries. On the other hand, if you don’t think this is interesting at all, maybe you should check out the parody website “Get a first life“. – as a curious side note, you might want to know that the parody sites author actually wrote Linden Labs, defying them to submit a “cease-and-desist” letter. The company not only turned down the provocation, but they actually endorsed the website, by allowing the author to use a modified version of the logo in his website, and marketing items branded with the logo. – How’s about that? Whether it’s about a second Life, a First Life, or any life at all, just make sure you get the most of it, and in any circumstance, don’t forget about your daily reminder of why we like it here!

Popularity: 1% [?]