Second Life: Five-Years of the Matrix/Virtual World
Do you ever wish you could fly, travel place to place without transportation, or meet other people from different countries?
There is a 3D, multiplayer, virtual world out there where you can do just that and it’s called Second Life. Second Life was created by Linden Lab and recently celebrated its fifth birthday.
Linden Lab was founded in 1999 by Philip Rosedale to create a revolutionary new form of shared experience which became known as Second Life. Second Life is a 3D virtual world created by its Residents (people like you) that’s bursting with entertainment, experiences, and opportunity. Right now, Second Life has a new CEO named, Mark Kingdon (his Second Life name is “M Linden”)
There are good and bad advantages of using Second Life. It is suitable for everyone from 17 to 70 years of age. It’s especially great for someone who cannot get out of their house because of their disability. However, there are some complaints for the hearing impaired people since Second Life began making use of voice chat about a year or two ago because they cannot hear or read lips. SL (as it is often abbreviated for Second Life) has created an environment that is not only fun to be in, but also profitable as well.
When a friend of mine first introduced me to SL I thought it was totally odd because matrices (a plural of matrix, which means mathematics between X, Y and Z) control everything. I felt like I was in “Outer Limits.” When you first join SL you create an avatar of anybody you want to be. An avatar (abbreviations include av, avi and "avvie") is a computer user’s representation of him or herself in the form of a three-dimensional model used in SL, chats, or computer games. My avatar‘s name in SL is “Wizzytoe McCulough”. Note: You can create your own first name, but SL gives you several last names from which to choose.
The good news about SL is that joining and setting up a basic account is both easy and free, providing a great opportunity to check it out. SL premium accounts allow you to have additional benefits such as having “land ownership” and getting help from SL tech support. It costs from $6-$9.95 (USD) per month depending on the length of the subscription. Basic Accounts can be upgraded to Premium Accounts at any time.
SL can be fun and addictive. You can go to many events and places such as dance clubs, fishing tournaments, sky diving places, beaches, galleries, zoos, and many others. You name it. You can meet friends from all over the world the same way, as one can, with other chat programs and networking websites. However, I wouldn’t recommend SL for someone who is under 16 years-old because there is some profanity, nudity and sexual content if your children teleport (travel) to the wrong place (such as nude beaches or stripper clubs). Remember there are some bad people everywhere on the Internet. So, be careful.
In this virtual world, people lead lives remarkably similar in depth to their "real" lives, or at least to the potential depth they could achieve in real life under different circumstances. I, for example, host a dance club called “Lighthouse Jazz”. Others become DJs, artists, builders, scripting coders, strippers, and waitresses/waiters. There are others who just want to browse and/or network. The nightclub owners, clients or the other “bosses” pay all of their employees in “Linden“ dollars. Once an avatar collects the Linden dollar equivalent of $150 U.S., he or she can exchange the virtual dollars for "real" dollars and deposit them in a real bank or Paypal. However, the exchange rate of Linden (L$) to United States (US$) is pretty poor, as of July 2, 2008, it’s approximately L$267 to US $1. Note: the Linden‘s dollar fluctuates similar to Euros. So, working in the real world is much more profitable than working in SL’s virtual world, but SL is more fun and relaxing.
One of the downsides of SL is “lagging.” Everyone has this problem with lagging because of the necessity of redrawing graphics, frames per second and/or Internet speed depends on the landmark location. However, I believe SL will get better in the future.
There are some tutorials regarding SL on YouTube by Torley. You can find them here. He is an excellent teacher for someone who is trying to learn about SL (beginners to advanced users).
Well, that’s it folks. I hope I tempted you to try SL. You may find your way into SL and you may never find your way back. ;-)
Macintosh Recommended Requirements:
- Cable or DSL
- Mac OS X 10.3.9 or better
- 1 GHz G4 or better
- 1 GB RAM or more
- ATI: X1600, X1900, X2400, X2600 or NVIDIA: 6800, 7600, 7800, 8800
Windows Recommended Requirements:
- Cable or DSL
- Windows 2000, XP, or Vista
- 1.5 GHz (XP), 2-GHz (Vista) 32-bit (x86) or better
- 1 GB RAM or more
- NVIDIA Graphics cards or ATI Graphics Cards
For a more detailed breakdown of system requirements click here.
Leigh-Anne Tompkins
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