SecondLife.com

I signed up for Second Life about a year ago. Back then, my life was so great that I literally wanted a second one. Absolutely everything was the same...except I could fly.

Big stories about it all over the national news. Yes, you can make real money. I'd imagine if you really wanted to make money at it you'd have to do it full-time or have some serious time on your hands. IBM has invested 10mil.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1570708,00.html

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.10/sloverview.html

http://jimmyzimmerman.com/blog/2006/11/making-money-in-second-life.html

"Building and selling objects is not the only way of making money on Second Life. There is a large service and entertainment market inside Second Life. Second Life entrepreneurs can buy land and build amusement parks, dance clubs, theaters, etc. and charge for admission. Businesses can build facilities to host meetings and other events. Sun Microsystems recently hosted a Q&A session on an upcoming Java release in their Second Life amphitheater. Dell Computers has also purchased an island that will feature a Dell history museum. Reuters now employs a reporter to report on activity inside of Second Life.

How many times have you heard someone say while playing Monopoly, “If this money were real, I’d be rich!” Second Life is like playing Monopoly with real money. It features a lot more complexity, and it is built on a real economy.

When I first heard of Second Life, I thought it was ridiculous and nothing more than a networked Sims game. However, the more I research, the more I realize that the coming about of virtual worlds and economies is almost as significant as Columbus’ discovery of The New World. Second Life has its own economy with a real exchange rate. Over $500,000 USD changes hands inside of Second Life every day."

Alan

I've never tried it, but from what people say about it, it seems unbelievably pathetic. You can do all the things that you don't have the courage to do in real life, like interact with 13 year olds.

(Right before I posted, I realized that sounds perverted. I didn't mean it that way, but seriously, I don't know anyone with an otherwise active and fulfilling life that enjoys this. What's appealing about hanging out online pretending to be someone you could have been in real life if you'd worked hard, and talking to lonely teenagers?)

yetanotherchick wrote:

What's appealing about hanging out online pretending to be someone you could have been in real life if you'd worked hard, and talking to lonely teenagers?

Sounds like SecondLife stole Letsrun's idea.

According to the sites I listed and other resources there are college courses who also meet on SecondLife. There are buisnesses like Virgin and Dell who have virtual shops on SL where you can actually buy stuff.

I think virtual worlds could be the next wave of computer usage. At first computers were used to streamline a number of office tasks (filing, typewriting, storage, etc.). Then the internet came along and you could actually interact with your computer and exchange information. Now personal computers are so powerful that they can simulate virtual worlds effortlessly.

In the next few years SL or other virtual worlds could takeover what messenger services and chat rooms (yahoo msg, msn msg, etc) provide now. I could see businesses use virtual worlds instead of conference calls.

Basically anything you can do commercially on the internet now I can see someone doing in a virtual world. This gives the user a second layer of interaction.

In the future I could see LetsRun.com as a virtual world with a room full of people yapping at each other and beating each other up!..:) We could then challenge each other to races on a virtual track. Of course you would buy spikes and racing attire and even 'training' in the virtual world. In fact someone with enough computer knowhow could probably set this up now.

In fact you could create an entire Virtual Sports World. Your avatar would have abilities based on whichever sport you choose. These abilities could then be upgraded with equipment and training that you buy in-world. This Virtual Sports World could then be a small part of a larger Virtual World like SL where you could enter sports clubs to chat up the other avatars and even better...BET MONEY on the outcome of the avatar sport events.

Anyone with enough computer knowhow want to join up on this venture?...:)

Alan

yetanotherchick wrote:

I've never tried it, but from what people say about it, it seems unbelievably pathetic. You can do all the things that you don't have the courage to do in real life, like interact with 13 year olds.

(Right before I posted, I realized that sounds perverted. I didn't mean it that way, but seriously, I don't know anyone with an otherwise active and fulfilling life that enjoys this. What's appealing about hanging out online pretending to be someone you could have been in real life if you'd worked hard, and talking to lonely teenagers?)

Well, on one hand, you're right. I would imagine most people who play around on Second Life for entertainment purposes are people who are too timid, ugly, untalented, lazy, etc to make their real life as exciting as their Second Life alter-ego.

However, I think there is something appealing about the opportunity to try out a different persona in cyberspace, even for those who are successful and happy in real life. For instance, I might be quite happy with my real job, but I'm curious to know what it would be like to take on an entirely different persona just for fun and pretend to be a rockstar, without quitting my real job and sacraficing my career, family, etc. At any rate, I think you're being too judgemental. It's just a game and I think there are probably plenty of normal, healthy people out there who play it. It depends on how far one takes it. But even then, who are we to judge? If someone prefers virtual existence to "reality", fine for them. The world is becoming more and more virtual with each passing year. In a few decades, virtual reality could be the new reality.

? wrote:

Sounds like SecondLife stole Letsrun's idea.

I just laughed for 245 hours.

hahaha. wrote:

I just laughed for 245 hours.

I'm actually a comedian in my second life. Thank you, I will be here all week.

I would take steroids, EPO, and HGH to become a multiple gold medal winning athlete in Second Life. Of course, I'd never consider such things in REAL life...

I think the problem with SecondLife is that some people have the perception that the only people who use SecondLife are people who are "losers who don't like their real life". That is that there's no middle ground where you can enjoy both your real life and your SecondLife and where you don't have time for both your real life and your virtual life. Sounds very familiar to me to the stigma associated with internet use when it first began.

The idea of interactive virtual worlds has been around since at least the 1950s with 3D movies. The concept of a 3D Movie was to give the customer a more three-dimensional experience. What it lacked was the interactive component. Anyone remember the Virtual Boy from Nintendo back in the early 90s? Interactive virtual gaming.

For the most part three dimensional worlds have been restricted to game use. In the same way your first message boards or e-mail was restricted to government, education and business use. Anyone remember the UofOregon t-and-f list?

Now you can buy virtually anyting online, but what if it was more interactive? What if you could walk into your own virtual world that you set up to the exact specifications of your real house? Then you could "purchase" virtual representations of stuff you are thinking of buying (TV, Sofa, new appliances, etc) and put them where you want them in your virtual world. Of course you could return these purchases for a refund or you could actually "buy" the real thing (recieving a discount based on the money you spent purchasing the virtual representation). So, you have this virtual house full of exact virtual replicas of stuff you want to really purchase for your real house. Now, you can walk into the virtual store and purchase the real stuff and have the real stuff delivered to your house. Just think....Christmas shopping at the store without leaving your house. Instead of guessing how something looks and the size from an online picture you can have an exact virtual replica in a virtual world to judge from.

Alan

Runningart2004 wrote:

The idea of interactive virtual worlds has been around since at least the 1950s with 3D movies. The concept of a 3D Movie was to give the customer a more three-dimensional experience.

Alan

As always, thank you for your insight.