Second Life

Second Life is an Internet-based virtual world, developed by Linden Research, Inc, which became internationally popular in late 2006. Its users, called Residents, can explore, meet other Residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, have virtual sex, and create and trade items and services from one another.

While Second Life is often thought of as a game, but this is not really appropriate since it does not have scores, winners or losers, levels and other properties of regular games. However, there are many games within Second Life.

Residents are human in appearance, they can be either male or female, they can have a wide range of physical characteristics, and they can be either clothed or take a wide variety of humanoid and other forms.

Within Second Life, there are two ways of communication: local chatting, and global instant messaging (known as IM). IM is used for private conversations. There are many websites that can be used to help Residents find each other from outside Second Life.

Second Life has its own economy and its currency is Linden Dollars (L$). Residents create goods and services, and buy and sell them in the virtual world. Also, Residents can exchange real world currencies for L$.

There are two types of accounts: basic and premium. Basic accounts are free of charge, but their Residents cannot own land on Second Life. Residents of Premium accounts pay $9.95 per month, including a monthly fee for a small piece amount of land (worth $5 a month), which must be bought either from another player or from Linden Lab by auction.

By Laure Bashour