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''Second Life'' is an online multimedia platform that allows people to create an
avatar
Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearanc ...
for themselves and then interact with other users and user created content within a multi player online
virtual world
A virtual world (also called a virtual space) is a computer-simulated environment which may be populated by many users who can create a personal avatar, and simultaneously and independently explore the virtual world, participate in its activities ...
. Developed and owned by the
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
-based firm
Linden Lab
Linden Research, Inc., doing business as Linden Lab, is an American technology company that is best known as the creator of ''Second Life''.
The company's head office is in San Francisco, with additional offices in Boston, Seattle, Virginia an ...
and launched on June 23, 2003, it saw rapid growth for some years and in 2013 it had approximately one million regular users. Growth eventually stabilized, and by the end of 2017 the active user count had declined to "between 800,000 and 900,000". In many ways, ''Second Life'' is similar to
massively multiplayer online role-playing game
A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game.
As in role-playing games (RPGs), the player assumes the role of a Player charac ...
s; nevertheless, Linden Lab is emphatic that their creation is not a game: "There is no manufactured conflict, no set objective".
The virtual world can be accessed freely via Linden Lab's own
client software
In computing, a client is a piece of computer hardware or software that accesses a service made available by a server as part of the client–server model of computer networks. The server is often (but not always) on another computer system, in ...
or via alternative third-party viewers. ''Second Life'' users, also called '
residents', create virtual representations of themselves, called ''
avatars
Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearance ...
'', and are able to interact with places, objects and other avatars. They can explore the world (known as the grid), meet other residents, socialize, participate in both individual and group activities, build, create, shop, and trade
virtual property and services with one another.
The platform principally features 3D-based user-generated content. ''Second Life'' also has its own virtual currency, the Linden Dollar (L$), which is exchangeable with real world currency.
''Second Life'' is intended for people ages 16 and over, with the exception of 13–15-year-old users, who are restricted to the ''Second Life'' region of a sponsoring institution (e.g., a school).
History
Philip Rosedale
Philip Rosedale (born September 29, 1968) is an American entrepreneur who founded Linden Lab, which develops and hosts the virtual world ''Second Life''.
Biography
Early life
Rosedale was born in San Diego, California, in 1968. He took an inter ...
formed Linden Lab in 1999 with the intention of developing computer hardware to allow people to become immersed in a virtual world. In its earliest form, the company struggled to produce a commercial version of the hardware, known as "The Rig", which in prototype form was seen as a clunky steel contraption with computer monitors worn on shoulders. That vision changed into the software application Linden World, in which people participated in task-based games and socializing in a three-dimensional online environment.
[
] That effort eventually transformed into the better known, user-centered ''Second Life''.
[
] Although he was familiar with the
metaverse
In science fiction, the "metaverse" is a hypothetical iteration of the Internet as a single, universal, and immersive virtual world that is facilitated by the use of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) headsets. In colloquial usage, ...
of
Neal Stephenson
Neal Town Stephenson (born October 31, 1959) is an American writer known for his works of speculative fiction. His novels have been categorized as science fiction, historical fiction, cyberpunk, postcyberpunk, and baroque.
Stephenson's work exp ...
's novel ''
Snow Crash
''Snow Crash'' is a science fiction novel by the American writer Neal Stephenson, published in 1992. Like many of Stephenson's novels, it covers history, linguistics, anthropology, archaeology, religion, computer science, politics, cryptography, ...
'', Rosedale has said that his vision of virtual worlds predates that book, and that he conducted early virtual world experiments during his college years at the
University of California, San Diego
The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...
, where he studied physics.
''Second Life'' began to receive significant media attention in 2005 and 2006, including a cover story in ''
BusinessWeek
''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...
'' magazine featuring the virtual world and ''Second Life'' avatar
Anshe Chung
Anshe Chung is an avatar (online personality) of Ailin Graef in the online world ''Second Life''. Referred to as the "Rockefeller of Second Life" by CNN, Graef has built an online business that engages in development, brokerage, and arbitrage o ...
.
By that time, Anshe Chung had become ''Second Life''s poster child and symbol for the economic opportunities that the virtual world offers to its residents. At the same time, the service saw a period of exponential growth of its user base.
One of the principal developers,
Cory Ondrejka
Cory Ondrejka was the Chief Technology Officer of Linden Lab, makers of Second Life. With Philip Rosedale, Ondrejka co-founded Second Life and played a significant role in the architecture of the product. After leaving Linden Lab, Ondrejka became ...
, was forced to resign as
chief technology officer in December 2007, with Rosedale citing irreconcilable differences in the way the company was run. Nevertheless, the platform continued to grow rapidly, and by January 2008, residents spent a total of 28,274,505 hours "inworld" and on average 38,000 residents were logged in at any moment. The maximum concurrency (number of avatars inworld) recorded was set at 88,200 in the first quarter of 2009.
''Second Life'' was honored at the
Technology & Engineering Emmy Award
The Technology and Engineering Emmy Awards, or Technology and Engineering Emmys, are one of two sets of Emmy Awards that are presented for outstanding achievement in engineering development in the television industry. The Technology and Engineer ...
s for advancing the development of online sites with user-generated content in 2008, adding to the media attention. Rosedale accepted the award. although he had announced plans to step down from his position as Linden Lab CEO and to become chairman of
Linden Lab
Linden Research, Inc., doing business as Linden Lab, is an American technology company that is best known as the creator of ''Second Life''.
The company's head office is in San Francisco, with additional offices in Boston, Seattle, Virginia an ...
's board of directors instead in March 2008 . Rosedale announced
Mark Kingdon as the new CEO effective May 15, 2008.
In 2010, Kingdon was replaced by Rosedale, who took over as interim CEO. After four months, Rosedale abruptly stepped down from the Interim CEO position. It was announced in October 2010 that Bob Komin, Linden Lab's chief financial officer and chief operating officer, would take over the CEO job for the immediate future.
With the platform's failure to continue its high rate of growth after 2009, Linden Lab announced layoffs of 30% of its workforce in 2010. Some 21.3 million accounts were registered by this point, although the company did not make public any statistics regarding actual long-term consistent usage and numbers of dormant accounts.
Despite speculation as to the actual size of the user base, ''Second Life'' continued as a commercial success. In 2015, ''Second Life'' users cashed out approximately $60,000,000 (60 million US dollars) and ''Second Life'' had an estimated GDP of $500,000,000 (500 million US dollars), higher than some small countries.
Recognizing improvements in computing power and particularly in computer graphics,
Linden Lab
Linden Research, Inc., doing business as Linden Lab, is an American technology company that is best known as the creator of ''Second Life''.
The company's head office is in San Francisco, with additional offices in Boston, Seattle, Virginia an ...
began work on a successor to ''Second Life'', a VR experience called ''
Sansar'', launching a public beta in July 2017. Uptake was low and Linden Lab halted development in 2020 to focus their attention fully on ''Second Life''. The rights to ''Sansar''
's assets were sold to Wookey Search Technologies, who are expected to continue development on the title without Linden Lab. ''Second Life'', the usage of which peaked in the first decade of the 21st century, has been cited as the first example of the
metaverse
In science fiction, the "metaverse" is a hypothetical iteration of the Internet as a single, universal, and immersive virtual world that is facilitated by the use of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) headsets. In colloquial usage, ...
, a concept which has been taken up by other major corporations such as
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
in 2021. As a notable precursor (which retains a small and loyal following), it provides several examples of virtual reality social issues and lessons learned.
Classification
During a 2001 meeting with investors, Rosedale noticed that the participants were particularly responsive to the collaborative, creative potential of ''Second Life''. As a result, the initial objective-driven, gaming focus of ''Second Life'' was shifted to a more user-created, community-driven experience.
''Second Life''s status as a
virtual world
A virtual world (also called a virtual space) is a computer-simulated environment which may be populated by many users who can create a personal avatar, and simultaneously and independently explore the virtual world, participate in its activities ...
, a computer game, or a
talker
A talker is a chat system that people use to talk to each other over the Internet. Dating back to the 1980s, they were a predecessor of instant messaging.
A talker is a communication system precursor to MMORPGs and other virtual worlds such as '' ...
, is frequently debated. Unlike a traditional computer game, ''Second Life'' does not have a designated objective, nor traditional game play mechanics or rules. It can also be argued that ''Second Life'' is a multi-user virtual world, because its virtual world facilitates interaction between multiple users. As it does not have any stipulated goals, it is irrelevant to talk about winning or losing in relation to ''Second Life''. Likewise, unlike a traditional talker, ''Second Life'' contains an extensive world that can be explored and interacted with, and it can be used purely as a creative tool set if the user so chooses. In March 2006, while speaking at Google TechTalks, Rosedale said: "So, we don't see this as a game. We see it as a platform."
''Second Life'' used to offer two main grids: one for adults (18+) and one for teens. In August 2010, Linden Lab closed the teen grid due to operating costs. Since then, users 16 and over can sign up for a free account. Other limited accounts are available for educators who use ''Second Life'' with younger students.
There are three activity-based classifications, called "Ratings", for sims in ''Second Life'':
:# General (formerly "PG"—no extreme
violence
Violence is the use of physical force so as to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy. Other definitions are also used, such as the World Health Organization's definition of violence as "the intentional use of physical force or Power (social and p ...
or
nudity
Nudity is the state of being in which a human is without clothing.
The loss of body hair was one of the physical characteristics that marked the biological evolution of modern humans from their hominin ancestors. Adaptations related to ...
)
:# Moderate (formerly "Mature"—some violence,
swearing, adult situations, some nudity)
:# Adult (may contain overt
sexual activity
Human sexual activity, human sexual practice or human sexual behaviour is the manner in which humans experience and express their sexuality. People engage in a variety of sexual acts, ranging from activities done alone (e.g., masturbation) ...
,
nudity
Nudity is the state of being in which a human is without clothing.
The loss of body hair was one of the physical characteristics that marked the biological evolution of modern humans from their hominin ancestors. Adaptations related to ...
, and
violence
Violence is the use of physical force so as to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy. Other definitions are also used, such as the World Health Organization's definition of violence as "the intentional use of physical force or Power (social and p ...
)
Residents and avatars
![Second Life 11th Birthday Live Drax Files Radio Hour](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Second_Life_11th_Birthday_Live_Drax_Files_Radio_Hour.jpg)
There is no charge for creating a ''Second Life'' account or for making use of the world for any period of time. Linden Lab reserves the right to charge for the creation of large numbers of multiple accounts for a single person (5 per household, 2 per 24 hours) but at present does not do so. A Premium membership (US$11.99 monthly, US$32.97 quarterly, or US$99 annually) extends access to an increased level of technical support, and also pays an automatic stipend of L$300/week into the member's avatar account, and after 45 days that resident will receive a L$700 bonus, making it L$1,000 for that week. This amount has decreased since the original stipend of L$500, which is still paid to older accounts. Certain accounts created during an earlier period may receive L$400. This stipend, if changed into USD, means that the actual cost for the benefit of extended tech support for an annual payment of US$72 is only about US$14, depending on the currency exchange rates. However, the vast majority of casual users of ''Second Life'' do not upgrade beyond the free "basic" account.
Avatars may take any form users choose (human, animal, vegetable, mineral, or a combination thereof) or residents may choose to resemble themselves as they are in real life. They may choose even more abstract forms, given that almost every aspect of an avatar is fully customizable.
''Second Life'' Culture consists of many activities and behaviors that are also present in real life. A single resident account may have only one avatar at a time, although the appearance of this avatar can change between as many different forms as the Resident wishes. Avatar forms, like almost everything else in Second Life, can be either created by the user, or bought pre-made. A single person may also have multiple accounts, and thus appear to be multiple Residents (a person's multiple accounts are referred to as ''
alts'').
Avatars can travel via walking, running, vehicular access, flying, or teleportation. Because ''Second Life'' is such a vast virtual world, teleportation is used when avatars wish to travel instantly and efficiently. Once they reach their destination, they may travel in more conventional means at various speeds.
Avatars can communicate via local chat, group chat, global instant messaging (known as IM), and voice (public, private and group). Chatting is used for localized public conversations between two or more avatars, and is visible to any avatar within a given distance. IMs are used for private conversations, either between two avatars, or among the members of a group, or even between objects and avatars. Unlike chatting, IM communication does not depend on the participants being within a certain distance of each other. As of version 1.18.1.2 (2007-Aug-02), voice chat, both local and IM, was also available. Instant messages may optionally be sent to a Resident's email when the Resident is logged off, although message length is limited to 4096 bytes.
Identities in ''Second Life'' can relate to the users' personality or creating their own character. It is based on their decisions on how to express themselves. Most avatars are human, but they can choose to be vampires or animals. Sometimes, what they choose does not relate to their offline selves.
In ''Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human'', anthropologist
Tom Boellstorff
Tom Boellstorff is an anthropologist based at the University of California, Irvine. In his career to date, his interests have included the anthropology of sexuality, the anthropology of globalization, digital anthropology, Southeast Asian studie ...
notes that the interface of ''Second Life'' is designed with the purpose of disconnecting a player's virtual identity from their physical identity in mind.
As of 2015 ''Second Life'' has made it possible to display one's legal name in the player's profile or as their screen name, but when Boellstorff first published the book in 2008 users were required to select a last name from a pre-determined list of options. Boellstorff describes this mentality as being in direct contrast to the one held by other mainstream social media websites, where anonymity is shunned and users are encouraged to make the link between their online and physical presence clear.
Content
The ability to create content and shape the ''Second Life'' world is one of the key features that separate this from online games.
Built into the software is a
3D modeling
In 3D computer graphics, 3D modeling is the process of developing a mathematical coordinate-based representation of any surface of an object (inanimate or living) in three dimensions via specialized software by manipulating edges, vertices, an ...
tool based on simple geometric shapes that allows residents to build virtual objects. There is also a
procedural scripting language, Linden Scripting Language, which can be used to add interactivity to objects. Sculpted prims ("sculpties"),
3D mesh, textures for clothing or other objects, animations, and gestures can be created using external software and imported. The ''Second Life'' terms of service provide that users retain copyright for any content they create, and the server and client provide simple
digital rights management
Digital rights management (DRM) is the management of legal access to digital content. Various tools or technological protection measures (TPM) such as access control technologies can restrict the use of proprietary hardware and copyrighted works. ...
(DRM) functions.
However, Linden Lab changed their terms of service in August 2013 to be able to use user-generated content for any purpose. The new terms of service prevent users from using textures from third-party texture services, as some of them pointed out explicitly.
Economy
![User generated content in the virtual world Second Life](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/User_generated_content_in_the_virtual_world_Second_Life.png)
''Second Life'' has an internal economy and closed-loop virtual token called the "
Linden dollar
Linden may refer to:
Trees
* ''Tilia'' (also known as lime and basswood Basswood), a genus
** American linden, a common name for ''Tilia americana''
** Large-leaved linden, a common name for ''Tilia platyphyllos''
** Little-leaf linden, a common ...
(L$)". L$ can be used to buy, sell, rent or trade land or goods and services with other users. The "Linden Dollar" is a closed-loop virtual token for use only within the Second Life platform. Linden Dollars have no monetary value and are not redeemable for monetary value from Linden Lab. A resident with a surplus of Linden Dollars earned via a Second Life business or experiential play can request to refund their Linden Dollar surplus to PayPal. Linden Lab reports that the ''Second Life'' economy generated US$3,596,674 in economic activity during the month of September 2005,
and in September 2006 ''Second Life'' was reported to have a GDP of $64 million.
In 2009, the total size of the ''Second Life'' economy grew 65% to US$567 million, about 25% of the entire U.S. virtual goods market. Gross resident earnings are US$55 million in 2009 – 11% growth over 2008. In 2013, Linden Labs released an info graphic that showed that over 10 years $3.2 billion in transactions for virtual goods had exchanged between ''Second Life'' residents, with an average of 1.2 million daily transactions.
There is a high level of entrepreneurial activity in ''Second Life''. Residents of ''Second Life'' are able to create virtual objects and other content. ''Second Life'' is unique in that users retain all the rights to their content which means they can use ''Second Life'' to distribute and sell their creations, with 2.1 million items listed on its online marketplace.
At its height circa 2006, hundreds of thousands of dollars were changing hands daily as residents created and sold a wide variety of virtual commodities. ''Second Life'' also quickly became profitable due to the selling and renting of virtual real estate. 2006 also saw ''Second Life''s first real-world millionaire; Ailin Graef, better known as
Anshe Chung
Anshe Chung is an avatar (online personality) of Ailin Graef in the online world ''Second Life''. Referred to as the "Rockefeller of Second Life" by CNN, Graef has built an online business that engages in development, brokerage, and arbitrage o ...
(her avatar), converted an initial investment of US$9.95 into over one million dollars over the course of two and a half years. She built her fortune primarily by buying, selling, and renting virtual real estate.
Major tech corporations have tried to use ''Second Life'' to market products or services to ''Second Life''s tech-savvy audience. IBM, for example, purchased 12 islands within ''Second Life'' for virtual training and simulations of key business processes, but has since moved on to other platforms due to maintaining costs. Others, like musicians, podcasters, and news organizations (including
CNET
''CNET'' (short for "Computer Network") is an American media website that publishes reviews, news, articles, blogs, podcasts, and videos on technology and consumer electronics globally. ''CNET'' originally produced content for radio and televi ...
,
Reuters
Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world.
The agency was estab ...
,
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
's ''
The Infinite Mind
''The Infinite Mind'' was a national radio series that aired one hour a week, from 1998 to 2008. It was independently produced and distributed by the Peabody Award-winning Lichtenstein Creative Media. The program was first hosted by Frederick ...
'', and the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
) have all had a presence within ''Second Life''.
Virtual goods include buildings, vehicles, devices of all kinds, animations, clothing, skin, hair, jewelry,
flora
Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''.
E ...
and
fauna
Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is '' funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as '' biota''. Zoo ...
, and works of art. Services include business management, entertainment, and custom content creation (which can be broken up into the following six categories: building, texturing, scripting, animating, art direction, and the position of producer/project funder). L$ can be purchased using US dollars and other local currencies on the LindeX exchange provided by Linden Lab. Customer USD wallets obtained from Linden Dollar sales on the Lindex are most commonly used to pay ''Second Life''s own subscription and tier fees; only a relatively small number of users earn enough profit to request a refund to PayPal. According to figures published by Linden Lab, about 64,000 users made a profit in ''Second Life'' in February 2009, of whom 38,524 made less than US$10, while 233 made more than US$5000. Profits are derived from selling virtual goods, renting land, and a broad range of services.
Technology
''Second Life'' comprises the ''viewer'' (also known as the ''client'') executing on the user's personal computer, and several thousand servers operated by Linden Lab.
Client
Linden Lab provides official viewers for the operating systems
Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
,
macOS
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...
, and most distributions of
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...
where the more known
ChromeOS
ChromeOS, sometimes stylized as chromeOS and formerly styled as Chrome OS, is a Linux-based operating system designed by Google. It is derived from the open-source ChromiumOS and uses the Google Chrome web browser as its principal user interfac ...
has been excluded so far. The viewer renders 3D graphics using
OpenGL
OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a cross-language, cross-platform application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D and 3D vector graphics. The API is typically used to interact with a graphics processing unit (GPU), to achieve hardwa ...
technology. The viewer source code was released under the GPL in 2007
and moved to the LGPL in 2010.
There are now several mature third party viewer projects, like Firestorm as the most popular one, that contain features not available in the Linden Lab 'Official' client, target other platforms or cater to specialist & accessibility needs.
The main focus of third party development is exploring new ideas and working with Linden Lab to deliver new functionality.
An independent project, libopenmetaverse, offers a function library for interacting with ''Second Life'' servers. libopenmetaverse has been used to create non-graphic third party viewers.
There are several ''Alternate Viewers'' published by Linden Lab used for software testing by volunteers for early access to upcoming projects.
Some of these clients only function on the "beta grid" consisting of a limited number of regions running various releases of unstable test server code.
Server
Each full region (an area of 256×256 meters) in the ''Second Life'' "grid" runs on a single dedicated core of a multi-core server. Homestead regions share 3 regions per core and Openspace Regions share 4 regions per core, running proprietary software on
Debian
Debian (), also known as Debian GNU/Linux, is a Linux distribution composed of free and open-source software, developed by the community-supported Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock on August 16, 1993. The first version of D ...
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...
. These servers run scripts in the region, as well as providing communication between avatars and objects present in the region.
Every item in the ''Second Life'' universe is referred to as an ''asset''. This includes the shapes of basic 3D polygon objects formally known as ''Primitive Mesh'' (commonly known as ''primitives'' or ''prims'' for short), the digital images referred to as ''textures'' that decorate primitives, digitized audio clips, avatar shape and appearance, avatar skin textures, LSL scripts, information written on notecards, and so on. Each asset is referenced with a universally unique identifier or ''
UUID
A universally unique identifier (UUID) is a 128-bit label used for information in computer systems. The term globally unique identifier (GUID) is also used.
When generated according to the standard methods, UUIDs are, for practical purposes, un ...
''.
Assets are stored on
Isilon Systems
Dell EMC Isilon is a scale out network-attached storage platform offered by Dell EMC for high-volume storage, backup and archiving of unstructured data. It provides a cluster-based storage array based on industry standard hardware, and is scalabl ...
storage clusters,
comprising all data that has ever been created by anyone who has been in the ''Second Life'' world. Infrequently used assets are offloaded to
S3 bulk storage. , the total storage was estimated to consume 100
terabyte
The byte is a units of information, unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character (computing), character of text in a computer and for this ...
s of server capacity.
The asset servers function independently of the region simulators, though the region simulators act as a proxy for the client, request object data from the asset servers when a new object loads into the simulator. Region simulators areas are commonly known as ''sims'' by residents.
Each server instance runs a physics simulation to manage the collisions and interactions of all objects in that region. Objects can be nonphysical and non-moving, or actively physical and movable. Complex shapes may be linked together in groups of up to 256 separate primitives. Additionally, each player's avatar is treated as a physical object so that it may interact with physical objects in the world. , ''Second Life'' simulators use the ''
Havok 2011.2'' physics engine for all in-world dynamics. This engine is capable of simulating thousands of physical objects at once.
Linden Lab pursues the use of
open standard
An open standard is a standard that is openly accessible and usable by anyone. It is also a prerequisite to use open license, non-discrimination and extensibility. Typically, anybody can participate in the development. There is no single definition ...
s technologies, and uses
free and
open source software
Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. Open ...
such as
Apache
The Apache () are a group of culturally related Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, which include the Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Lipan, Mescalero, Mimbreño, Ndendahe (Bedonkohe or Mogollon and Nednhi or Carrizaleño an ...
,
MySQL
MySQL () is an open-source relational database management system (RDBMS). Its name is a combination of "My", the name of co-founder Michael Widenius's daughter My, and "SQL", the acronym for Structured Query Language. A relational database o ...
,
Squid
True squid are molluscs with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight arms, and two tentacles in the superorder Decapodiformes, though many other molluscs within the broader Neocoleoidea are also called squid despite not strictly fitting t ...
and
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...
.
The plan is to move everything to open standards by
standardizing the ''Second Life'' protocol.
Cory Ondrejka
Cory Ondrejka was the Chief Technology Officer of Linden Lab, makers of Second Life. With Philip Rosedale, Ondrejka co-founded Second Life and played a significant role in the architecture of the product. After leaving Linden Lab, Ondrejka became ...
, former CTO of ''Second Life'', stated in 2006 that a while after everything has been standardized, both the client and the server will be released as free and open source software.
In January 2021, Linden Labs completed the migration of all of its services and databases to
AWS servers.
OpenSimulator
In January 2007, OpenSimulator was founded as an
open-source
Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...
simulator project. The aim of this project is to develop a full open-source server software for ''Second Life'' clients. OpenSIM is
BSD
The Berkeley Software Distribution or Berkeley Standard Distribution (BSD) is a discontinued operating system based on Research Unix, developed and distributed by the Computer Systems Research Group (CSRG) at the University of California, Berk ...
Licensed and it is written in
C# and can run under
Mono
Mono may refer to:
Common meanings
* Infectious mononucleosis, "the kissing disease"
* Monaural, monophonic sound reproduction, often shortened to mono
* Mono-, a numerical prefix representing anything single
Music Performers
* Mono (Japanese b ...
environment. From 2008, alternative grids began to emerge and many of these allow cross visits from other grids through the hypergrid protocol using OpenSimulator.
Applications
Arts
''Second Life'' residents express themselves creatively through virtual world adaptations of art exhibits, live music, live theater and
machinima
Machinima, originally machinema () is the use of real-time computer graphics engines to create a cinematic production. Most often, video games are used to generate the computer animation. The word "machinima" is a portmanteau of the words ''ma ...
, as well as other art forms.
Competitive entertainment
A wide variety of recreational activities, both competitive and non-competitive, take place on the ''Second Life'' Grid, including both traditional sports and video game-like scenarios.
Education
''Second Life'' is used as a platform for education by many institutions, such as colleges, universities, libraries and government entities. Since 2008, the University of San Martin de Porres of Peru has been developing ''Second Life'' prototypes of Peruvian archeological buildings, and training teachers for this new paradigm of education. The
West Virginia University
West Virginia University (WVU) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Beckley, Potomac State College ...
(WVU) Department of Special Education has used ''Second Life'' widely in education, and it provided teaching certification and certificates of degree in seven different distance education programs. WVU started a pilot program in the college's computer lab in spring 2011.
Embassies
The
Maldives
Maldives (, ; dv, ދިވެހިރާއްޖެ, translit=Dhivehi Raajje, ), officially the Republic of Maldives ( dv, ދިވެހިރާއްޖޭގެ ޖުމްހޫރިއްޔާ, translit=Dhivehi Raajjeyge Jumhooriyyaa, label=none, ), is an archipelag ...
was the first country to open an embassy in ''Second Life''. The Maldives' embassy is located on ''Second Life's'' "Diplomacy Island", where visitors will be able to talk face-to-face with a computer-generated ambassador about visas, trade and other issues. "Diplomacy Island" also hosts Diplomatic Museum and Diplomatic Academy. The Island is established by DiploFoundation as part of the Virtual Diplomacy Project.
In May 2007,
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
became the second country to open an embassy in ''Second Life''. Run by the
Swedish Institute
The Swedish Institute ( sv, Svenska institutet, ) is a government agency in Sweden with the responsibility to spread information about Sweden outside the country. It exists to promote Swedish interests, and to organise exchanges with other co ...
, the embassy serves to promote Sweden's image and culture, rather than providing any real or virtual services.
The Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs,
Carl Bildt
Nils Daniel Carl Bildt (born 15 July 1949) is a Swedish politician and diplomat who was Prime Minister of Sweden from 1991 to 1994. He was the leader of the Moderate Party from 1986 to 1999. Bildt served as Sweden's Minister for Foreign Affairs ...
, stated on his blog that he hoped he would get an invitation to the grand opening.
In September 2007, Publicis Group announced the project of creating a
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...
island as a part of a project Serbia Under Construction. The project is officially supported by Ministry of Diaspora of Serbian Government. It was stated that the island will feature the
Nikola Tesla Museum
The Nikola Tesla Museum ( sr-cyr, Музеј Николе Тесле, Muzej Nikole Tesle) is a science museum located in the central area of Belgrade, Serbia. It is dedicated to honoring and displaying the life and work of Nikola Tesla as well as ...
, the
Guča Trumpet Festival
The Guča Trumpet Festival ( sr, Фестивал трубача у Гучи, Festival trubača u Guči), also known as the Dragačevski Sabor ( sr, Драгачевски сабор or ''Dragačevo Fair (Fete, Gathering or Assembly)'', ), is an an ...
and the
Exit Festival. It was also planned on opening a virtual info terminals of Ministry of Diaspora.
On Tuesday December 4, 2007,
Estonia
Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...
became the third country to open an embassy in ''Second Life''. In September 2007,
Colombia
Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...
and
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...
opened embassies. As of 2008,
North Macedonia
North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Socialist Feder ...
and the Philippines have opened embassies in the "Diplomatic Island" of ''Second Life''. In 2008,
Albania
Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...
opened an embassy in the Nova Bay location. SL Israel was inaugurated in January 2008 in an effort to showcase Israel to a global audience, though without any connection to official Israeli diplomatic channels. In 2008
Malta
Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...
opened an embassy on ''Second Life''.
Religion
![AnglicancathedralofSecondLife](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/AnglicancathedralofSecondLife.png)
Religious organizations have also begun to open virtual meeting places within ''Second Life''. In early 2007,
LifeChurch.tv
Life.Church (pronounced "Life Church", formerly known as LifeChurch.tv, Life Covenant Church, and Life Church) is an American evangelical multi-site church based in Edmond, Oklahoma. Craig Groeschel is the founder and senior pastor of Life.Chu ...
, a Christian church headquartered in
Edmond, Oklahoma
Edmond is a city in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, United States, and a part of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area in the central part of the state. The population was 94,428 according to the 2020 United States Census, making it the fifth largest cit ...
, and with eleven campuses in the US, created "Experience Island" and opened its twelfth campus in ''Second Life''. In July 2007, an Anglican cathedral was established in ''Second Life''; Mark Brown, the head of the group that built the cathedral, noted that there is "an interest in what I call depth, and a moving away from light, fluffy Christianity".
The First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Second Life was established in 2006. Services have been held regularly, making the FUUCSL Congregation one of the longest-running active congregations in ''Second Life''.
The Egyptian-owned news website
Islam Online
IslamOnline is a global Islamic website on the Internet providing services to Muslims and non-Muslims in several languages. Its motto is "credibility and distinction".It was founded by Yusuf al-Qaradawi.
Contents
The website consists of forum ...
has purchased land in ''Second Life'' to allow
Muslims
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraha ...
and non-Muslims alike to perform the ritual of
Hajj
The Hajj (; ar, حَجّ '; sometimes also spelled Hadj, Hadji or Haj in English) is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city for Muslims. Hajj is a mandatory religious duty for Muslims that must be carried ...
in virtual reality form, obtaining experience before actually making the pilgrimage to
Mecca
Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red ...
in person.
''Second Life'' also offers several groups that cater to the needs and interests of
humanist
Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.
The meaning of the term "humani ...
s,
atheist
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
s,
agnostic
Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable. (page 56 in 1967 edition) Another definition provided is the view that "human reason is incapable of providing sufficient ...
s, and
freethinkers
Freethought (sometimes spelled free thought) is an epistemological viewpoint which holds that beliefs should not be formed on the basis of authority, tradition, revelation, or dogma, and that beliefs should instead be reached by other methods ...
. One of the most active groups is SL Humanism which has been holding weekly discussion meetings inside ''Second Life'' every Sunday since 2006.
Relationships
Romantic relationship
Romance or romantic love is a feeling of love for, or a strong attraction towards another person, and the courtship behaviors undertaken by an individual to express those overall feelings and resultant emotions.
The ''Wiley Blackwell Encycl ...
s are common in ''Second Life'', including some couples who have married online. The social engagement offered by the online environment helps those who might be socially isolated. In addition,
sex
Sex is the trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing animal or plant produces male or female gametes. Male plants and animals produce smaller mobile gametes (spermatozoa, sperm, pollen), while females produce larger ones ( ova, of ...
is often encountered. However, to access the adult sections requires age verification. There are also large
BDSM
BDSM is a variety of often erotic practices or roleplaying involving bondage, discipline, dominance and submission, sadomasochism, and other related interpersonal dynamics. Given the wide range of practices, some of which may be engaged ...
and
Gorean
Gorean subculture is a fandom based on the philosophy espoused in John Norman's long-running sword and planet novel series ''Gor, Chronicles of Counter-Earth''.
Background
Gorean subculture developed independently of Norman's involvement, part ...
communities.
''Second Life'' relationships have been taken from virtual online relationships into personal, real-world relationships. Booperkit Moseley and Shukran Fahid were possibly the first couple to meet in ''Second Life'' and then marry in real life. Booperkit travelled to the United States to meet Shukran and he returned to England with her after one week. They married in 2006, had twin boys in 2009, and are still married. Some couples meet online, form friendships, and eventually move to finding one another in the real world. Some even have their weddings on ''Second Life'', as well as in a real-world setting.
Relationships in virtual worlds have an added dimension compared to other
social media
Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...
, because avatars give a feeling of proximity making the voyeur experience more intense than simply a textual encounter. The complexities of those encounters depend on the engagement levels of the people behind the avatars, whether they are engaging disassociatively (entertainment only), immersively (as if the avatar was them), or augmentatively (meaning they engage for a real-life purpose).
Science
''Second Life'' is used for scientific research, collaboration, and data visualization. Examples include SciLands, American Chemical Society's ACS Island, Genome, Virginia Tech's SLATE, and Nature Publishing Group's Elucian Islands Village.
Social network
''Second Life'' can be a real-time, immersive social space for people including those with physical or mental disabilities that impair their first lives, who often find comfort and security interacting through anonymous avatars. (Indeed, some academics believe using ''Second Life'' might even help improve motor ability for people with
Parkinson’s disease
Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a chronic condition, long-term neurodegeneration, degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disea ...
.). An example of how ''Second Life'' has been used by disabled people is
Wheelies
Wheelies is a disability themed virtual nightclub on the online platform ''Second Life''. Created by Simon Stevens, it was awarded the Revolutionary Award in 2008 by Gordon Brown.
History
Launched in September 2006, "Wheelies aims to make gues ...
, the widely publicised disability themed nightclub founded by
Simon Stevens
Simon Laurence Stevens, Baron Stevens of Birmingham, (born 4 August 1966) is a British public policy adviser, former CEO, and independent member of the UK House of Lords. He served as the eighth Chief Executive of the National Health Service ...
.
Music streams
ShoutCast and Icecast Internet radio stations can be streamed into a land parcel in ''Second Life''. Streaming codecs are currently MP3 as AAC and OGG are not currently supported. There ar
internet radio providersthat offer these services or select from
listcompiled by Lindal Kidd and is updated whenever by whoever as there's no officiant for it. At the time of this writing, media on a prim (MOAP) is not a reliable enough way of displaying media and such, sites listed work best with Parcel Media or Parcel Audio.
Work spaces
''Second Life'' gives companies the option to create virtual workplaces to allow employees to virtually meet, hold events, practice any kind of corporate communications, conduct training sessions in 3D immersive
virtual learning environment
A virtual learning environment (VLE) in educational technology is a web-based platform for the digital aspects of courses of study, usually within educational institutions. They present resources, activities, and interactions within a course stru ...
, simulate business processes, and prototype new products.
In 2020, CEO of ''Second Life'' Ebbe Altberg announced a
microsite
A microsite is an individual web page or a small cluster of pages which are meant to function as a discrete entity (such as an iFrame) within an existing website or to complement an offline activity. The microsite's main landing page can have its ...
for ''Second Life'' to serve as a space for digital meetings to take place amidst global
social distancing
In public health, social distancing, also called physical distancing, (NB. Regula Venske is president of the PEN Centre Germany.) is a set of non-pharmaceutical interventions or measures intended to prevent the spread of a contagious disea ...
, self-isolation, and quarantine orders during the
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
pandemic.
Notable events and influence
Ban of Woodbury University
![Woodbury University SL Campus 100411](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Woodbury_University_SL_Campus_100411.jpg)
Linden Lab has twice, in 2007 and 2010, banned a California educational institution,
Woodbury University
Woodbury University is a private university in Burbank, California, with a satellite campus in San Diego.
History
The school was founded in 1884 as Woodbury's Business College by its namesake, F. C. Woodbury, formerly a partner in Heald's Busi ...
, from having a representation within ''Second Life''. On April 20, 2010, four simulators belonging to the university were deleted and the accounts of several students and professors terminated, according to ''
The Chronicle of Higher Education
''The Chronicle of Higher Education'' is a newspaper and website that presents news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty and student affairs professionals (staff members and administrators). A subscription is required to rea ...
''. Edward Clift, dean of the School of Media, Culture and Design at Woodbury University, told ''The Chronicle of Higher Education'' that their campus "was a living, breathing campus in ''Second Life''", including educational spaces designed mostly by students, such as a mock representation of the former
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
and a replica of the
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government ...
. According to Clift, the virtual campus did not "conform to what Linden Lab wanted a campus to be".
The article in ''The Chronicle of Higher Education'' concluded with: "Meanwhile, many people in ''Second Life'' expressed on blogs that they were glad to see the virtual campus go, arguing that it had been a haven for troublemakers in the virtual world."
''The Alphaville Herald''
In 2004, the newspaper ''
The Alphaville Herald
''The Alphaville Herald'' is an online newspaper covering virtual worlds, founded by the American philosopher Peter Ludlow in 2003.
History
''The Alphaville Herald'' was established by the American philosopher Peter Ludlow, known by his pseu ...
'', founded and edited by the philosopher
Peter Ludlow
Peter Ludlow (; born January 16, 1957), who also writes under the pseudonym Urizenus Sklar, is an American philosophy of language, philosopher of language. He is noted for interdisciplinary work on the interface of linguistics and philosophy— ...
, migrated to ''Second Life'', and in the following years the newspaper played a prominent role in reporting on ''Second Life'' and in the public discussion of the game. The newspaper, which was known as ''The Second Life Herald'' from 2004 to 2009, was later edited by the Internet pioneer
Mark P. McCahill. According to scholars Constantinescu and Decu, ''The Alphaville Herald'' was the first "virtual free press," pioneering
mass communication
Mass communication is the process of imparting and exchanging information through mass media to large segments of the population. It is usually understood for relating to various forms of media, as its technologies are used for the dissemination o ...
in virtual worlds.
2007 "Virtual Riot"
In January 2007, a "virtual riot" erupted between members of the
French National Front (FN) who had established a virtual HQ on ''Second Life'', and "anti-racism" activists, including
Second Life Left Unity, a socialist and anti-capitalist user-group. Since then, several small Internet-based organizations have claimed some responsibility for instigating the riots.
Marketing
Corporate marketers, especially during the height of ''Second Life'' in the cultural zeitgeist of 2005–2010, have been accused of being overly credulous of the actual reach and influence of ''Second Life''. Journalists have theorized this might be partially due to blithely accepting total account statistics rather than harder-to-discern active player counts. Reasons for account "inflation" can include in-world systems which encourage the creation of bogus extra accounts such as "traffic bots" which simply remain stationary in a store, causing the system to rank the store as popular because there are people there, as well as simply idle and long inactive accounts. One article in ''Wired'' featured a marketer for Coca-Cola who found ''Second Life'' to be essentially deserted when personally inspecting it, yet still funded a marketing campaign there anyway from fear of missing out.
Griefing and denial of service attacks
''Second Life'' has been attacked several times by groups of residents abusing the creation tools to create objects that harass other users or damage the system. This included
grey goo
Gray goo (also spelled as grey goo) is a hypothetical global catastrophic scenario involving molecular nanotechnology in which out-of-control self-replicating machines consume all biomass on Earth while building many more of themselves, a sce ...
objects which infinitely reproduce, eventually overwhelming the servers; ''orbiters'' which throw an avatar so far upwards they cannot get back down in a reasonable timeframe without teleporting; ''cages'' which surround avatars, preventing them from moving, and similar tools. Although combat between users is sanctioned in certain areas of the world, these objects have been used to cause disruption in all areas. Attacks on the grid itself, such as Grey Goo, are strictly forbidden anywhere on the grid. It was possible to perpetrate
denial-of-service attack
In computing, a denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) is a cyber-attack in which the perpetrator seeks to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users by temporarily or indefinitely disrupting services of a host connect ...
s (DoS) on other users simply by scripting objects that spew screen filling characters from anywhere on the grid to another avatar's location, thereby disabling a clear view to the virtual world. Bugs in the client and server software were also exploited by griefers to kick users, crash servers, and revert content before being patched out.
The Emerald client and in-world logging scripts
The Emerald client was developed by a group of users based on Snowglobe, an opensource fork of the ''Second Life'' client. Several groups alleged that the Emerald viewer contained
Trojan code which tracked user details and demographics in a way that the developers could later recover. One of these groups was banned from ''Second Life'' by Linden Lab after publishing their discovery.
Shortly afterward, a member of the Emerald team was accused of a
DDOS
In computing, a denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) is a cyber-attack in which the perpetrator seeks to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users by temporarily or indefinitely disrupting services of a host
A ...
attack against another website. In response, Linden Lab revoked Emerald's third-party viewer approval and permanently banned several of Emerald's developers. Due to what happened with Emerald, Linden Lab instituted a new third-party viewer policy.
The support staff and one of the developers of the Emerald project, who was not banned, left to work on a new viewer project, Phoenix (using some of the Emerald codebase, but without
Off-the-Record Messaging nor any potentially malicious code). The Phoenix team are now the developers behind Firestorm Viewer, a fork of ''Second Lifes "viewer 2.0" open source client.
Criticism and controversy
''Second Life'' has seen a number of controversies, as well. Issues range from the technical (
budgeting of server resources), to moral (
pornography
Pornography (often shortened to porn or porno) is the portrayal of sexual subject matter for the exclusive purpose of sexual arousal. Primarily intended for adults, ), to legal (
legal position of the Linden Dollar, ''
Bragg v. Linden Lab''). Security issues have also been a concern.
Regulation
In the past, large portions of the ''Second Life'' economy consisted of businesses that are regulated or banned. Changes to ''Second Life''s terms of service in this regard have largely had the purpose of bringing activity within ''Second Life'' into compliance with various international laws, even though the person running the business may be in full compliance with the law in their own country.
On July 26, 2007, Linden Lab announced a ban on in-world gambling due to federal and state regulations on Internet gambling that could affect Linden Lab if it was permitted to continue. The ban was immediately met with in-world protests.
In August 2007, a $750,000 in-world Linden Dollar bank or
Ponzi scheme
A Ponzi scheme (, ) is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors. Named after Italian businessman Charles Ponzi, the scheme leads victims to believe that profits are comin ...
called
Ginko Financial Ginko Financial was an alleged Ponzi scheme on the social networking video game Second Life. It offered accounts denominated in Linden Dollars, which would be paid extremely high interest rates (at one point 0.145% per day or 69.7% per year), osten ...
collapsed due to a
bank run
A bank run or run on the bank occurs when many clients withdraw their money from a bank, because they believe the bank may cease to function in the near future. In other words, it is when, in a fractional-reserve banking system (where banks no ...
triggered by Linden Lab's ban on gambling. The aftershocks of this collapse caused severe liquidity problems for other virtual "Linden Dollar banks", which critics had long asserted were scams. On Tuesday, January 8, 2008, Linden Lab announced the upcoming prohibition of payment of fixed interest on cash deposits in unregulated banking activities in-world.
All banks without real-world charters closed or converted to virtual joint stock companies by January 22, 2008. After the ban, a few companies continue to offer non-interest bearing deposit accounts to residents, such as the
e-commerce
E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain manageme ...
site XStreet, which had already adopted a zero-interest policy 3 months before the Linden Lab interest ban.
Technical issues
''Second Life'' has suffered from difficulties related to system instability. These include increased system latency, and intermittent client crashes. However, some faults are caused by the system's use of an "asset server" cluster, on which the actual data governing objects is stored separately from the areas of the world and the avatars that use those objects. The communication between the main servers and the asset cluster appears to constitute a
bottleneck
Bottleneck literally refers to the narrowed portion (neck) of a bottle near its opening, which limit the rate of outflow, and may describe any object of a similar shape. The literal neck of a bottle was originally used to play what is now known as ...
which frequently causes problems. Typically, when asset server downtime is announced, users are advised not to build, manipulate objects, or engage in business, leaving them with little to do but chat and generally reducing confidence in all businesses on the grid.
Another problem is inventory loss, in which items in a user's inventory, including those which have been paid for, can disappear without warning or permanently enter a state where they will fail to appear in-world when requested (giving an "object missing from database" error). Linden Lab offers no compensation for items that are lost in this way, although a policy change instituted in 2008 allows accounts to file support tickets when inventory loss occurs. Many in-world businesses will attempt to compensate for this or restore items, although they are under no obligation to do so and not all are able to do so. A recent change in how the company handles items which have "lost their parent directory" means that inventory loss is much less of a problem and resolves faster than in recent years. "Loss to recovery times" have gone from months (or never) to hours or a day or two for the majority of users, but inventory loss does still exist.
''Second Life'' functions by streaming all data to the user live over the Internet with minimal local caching of frequently used data. The user is expected to have a minimum of 300kbit/s of Internet bandwidth for basic functionality. Due to the proprietary communications protocols, it is not possible to use a network proxy service to reduce network load when many people are all using the same location, such as when used for group activities in a school or business.
Quality assurance
Criticism of
quality assurance
Quality assurance (QA) is the term used in both manufacturing and service industries to describe the systematic efforts taken to ensure that the product(s) delivered to customer(s) meet with the contractual and other agreed upon performance, design ...
of ''Second Life'' states that
Linden Lab
Linden Research, Inc., doing business as Linden Lab, is an American technology company that is best known as the creator of ''Second Life''.
The company's head office is in San Francisco, with additional offices in Boston, Seattle, Virginia an ...
focuses too much on bringing new features to the production environment instead of fixing long-standing bugs that, in the worst case, cause financial loss for the users. On April 30, 2007, an open letter signed by over 3,000
users was sent to Linden Lab to protest the
quality assurance
Quality assurance (QA) is the term used in both manufacturing and service industries to describe the systematic efforts taken to ensure that the product(s) delivered to customer(s) meet with the contractual and other agreed upon performance, design ...
process of the company.
Linden Lab has responded to the open letter.
Frame rate
Computer hardware and Internet connections capable of smoothly rendering high quality content in other
MMOG
A massively multiplayer online game (MMOG or more commonly MMO) is an online video game with a large number of players, often hundreds or thousands, on the same server. MMOs usually feature a huge, persistent world, persistent open world, alt ...
s may perform poorly in ''Second Life'', resulting in low
frame rate
Frame rate (expressed in or FPS) is the frequency (rate) at which consecutive images (frames) are captured or displayed. The term applies equally to film and video cameras, computer graphics, and motion capture systems. Frame rate may also be ca ...
s and unresponsive controls on even minimal graphical configurations. The problem is especially prevalent when large numbers of avatars congregate in one area. The problem is largely due to the fact that the world is entirely user created, and the majority of content created by users is made without any sort of basic graphical optimization. As a result, objects with both unnecessarily high polygon counts, and unnecessarily high resolution textures are prevalent. It is not uncommon for users to have to download and use upwards of a dozen times the amount of resources than would actually be required for the equivalent visual result. Certain areas have guidelines for script usage, which helps reduce lag by reducing resources used server-side, but does nothing to alleviate the primary issue above.
Congestion
A single region (65,536 m
2 of land hosted on a single
CPU) is set to accommodate a limited number of Residents (40 on 'mainland' regions, up to 100 on private islands), causing some popular locations such as teleportation points to become inaccessible at times. It is possible for an area of land a Resident has paid for to become inaccessible because another area in the same region has exhausted the avatar limit.
Customer security
On September 8, 2006, Linden Lab released a news bulletin that revealed their ''Second Life'' database had been compromised and customer information, including encrypted passwords and users' real names, had likely been accessed.
However, it was later revealed that the hacker had in fact been focused on trying to cheat the in-world money system
and their access to personal information was believed incidental, although a full alert was still raised for safety's sake.
Fraud and intellectual property protection
Although ''Second Life''s client and server incorporate
digital rights management
Digital rights management (DRM) is the management of legal access to digital content. Various tools or technological protection measures (TPM) such as access control technologies can restrict the use of proprietary hardware and copyrighted works. ...
technology, the visual data of an object must ultimately be sent to the client in order for it to be drawn; thus unofficial third-party clients can bypass them. One such program,
CopyBot
''Second Life'' is an online multimedia platform that allows people to create an avatar for themselves and then interact with other users and user created content within a multi player online virtual world. Developed and owned by the San Fra ...
, was developed in 2006 as a debugging tool to enable objects to be backed up, but was immediately hijacked for use in copying objects; additionally, programs that generally attack client-side processing of data, such as
GLIntercept, can copy certain pieces of data. Such use is prohibited under the ''Second Life'' TOS and could be prosecuted under the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a 1998 United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or s ...
.
Linden Lab may ban a user who is observed using CopyBot or a similar client, but it will not ban a user simply for uploading or even selling copied content; in this case, Linden Lab's enforcement of intellectual property law is limited to that required by the "safe harbor" provisions of the
DMCA
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a 1998 United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or s ...
which used to require a regular mail DMCA complaint. However, since 2019 an electronic DMCA complaint form is also available.
A few high-profile businesses in ''Second Life'' have filed such lawsuits, none of the cases filed to date have gone to trial, and most have been dismissed pursuant to a settlement agreement reached between the parties. Another case where settlement and dismissal was gained may be found in the matter of Eros, LLC v. Linden Research, Inc. As of October 7, 2010, the case was transferred to private mediation and the plaintiffs filed for dismissal of charges on March 15, 2011.
Most users in the world as paying, private individuals are, likewise, effectively unprotected. Common forms of fraud taking place in-world include bogus investment and pyramid schemes, fake or hacked vendors, and failure to honor land rental agreements.
A group of virtual landowners online have filed a class action lawsuit against the company, claiming the company broke the law when it rescinded their ownership rights. The plaintiffs say a change in the terms of service forced them to either accept new terms that rescinded their virtual property ownership rights, or else be locked out of the site.
OpenSpaces
Linden Lab, for a period, offered ''Openspace'' regions to users: regions which were purchased in packs of four, with all four running on a single CPU core, intended to be placed next to an existing region to create the effect of larger size. The fee for 4 Openspaces was identical to that for a single private region. However, in March 2008, this rule was modified to permit Openspaces to be bought individually and placed elsewhere, as well as increasing the prim load each one could handle. Openspaces were made available for a US$415 downpayment plus a US$75 monthly fee.
In October 2008, Linden Lab announced that the Openspaces being used for this purpose were being misused; there was in fact no technical throttle limiting their usage. Linden Lab raised the monthly fee per Openspace to US$125, the same cost as half a region; added an avatar limit of 20; and renamed it to Homestead.
A week after the initial announcement Linden Lab stated its intention to add technical limits. A revised Openspace product, with far fewer prims, a no-residency rule, and costing the same monthly amount, was announced.
In May 2009, Linden Lab announced they were "grandfathering" Openspace sims (now rebranded as "Homesteads"), after a protracted protest movement caused a major amount of negative publicity and funded potential litigation.
Sex
Some media attention has been given to sexual activity involving avatars with a childlike appearance.
The United Kingdom and Germany are among the countries investigating new laws
to combat simulated child pornography. The USA has attempted to pass several laws forbidding simulated child pornography; however, each one has been struck down by the US Supreme Court as an infringement on the First Amendment right to free speech.
As of May 2007, two such countries, Germany and Belgium, have launched a police investigation into age of consent-related offenses in ''Second Life'' (including both trading of non-virtual photography and involuntary virtual sexual activity with childlike avatars by means of virtual
identity theft
Identity theft occurs when someone uses another person's personal identifying information, like their name, identifying number, or credit card number, without their permission, to commit fraud or other crimes. The term ''identity theft'' was co ...
). Linden Lab responded by issuing a statement that any "depiction of sexual or lewd acts involving minors" was a bannable offence.
In France, a conservative family union,
Familles de France, sued Linden Lab in June 2007, alleging that ''Second Life'' gave minors access to sexual content, including
bondage,
zoophilia
Zoophilia is a paraphilia involving a sexual fixation on non-human animals. Bestiality is cross-species sexual activity between humans and non-human animals. The terms are often used interchangeably, but some researchers make a distinction b ...
and
scatophilia
Coprophilia (from Greek κόπρος, ''kópros'' 'excrement' and φιλία, ''philía'' 'liking, fondness'), also called scatophilia or scat ( Greek: σκατά, ''skatá'' ' feces'), is the paraphilia involving sexual arousal and pleasure ...
, as well as gambling, and advertisements for alcohol, drugs or tobacco. Linden Lab pointed out that the virtual world is not meant for children (people under the age of 18) because of the mature content and interactions within ''Second Life''. However, minors aged between 13 and 17 can access ''Second Life'', but they will be restricted to what they can see or do based on age. The ''Second Life'' world is split into sections/worlds and each one is given a maturity rating similar to films: General, Moderate and Adult. Minors aged 13–17 can access areas with a General Rating only.
''Second Life'' Main Grid regions are rated either "General", "Moderate", or "Adult" (previously "PG", "Mature", or "Adult").
Builds, textures, actions, animations, chat, or businesses that are of an adult nature are regulated by the ''Second Life'' Terms of Service
to only occur in simulators with a Moderate or Adult rating. General rated sims exist as an alternative for residents who do not wish to reside in areas where adult-oriented activities and businesses are permitted.
Linden Lab has created an Adult rated "mainland" continent named Zindra in response to its other "mainland" continents being mostly General.
Unauthorized copying of content
''Second Life'' features a built-in
digital rights management
Digital rights management (DRM) is the management of legal access to digital content. Various tools or technological protection measures (TPM) such as access control technologies can restrict the use of proprietary hardware and copyrighted works. ...
system that controls the movement of textures, sounds, scripts, and models with the ''Second Life'' servers at Linden Lab. At some point, though, this data must be sent to a user's computer to be displayed or played—an issue fundamental to any system attempting to apply restrictions to digital information.
In November 2006 controversy arose over a tool called
CopyBot
''Second Life'' is an online multimedia platform that allows people to create an avatar for themselves and then interact with other users and user created content within a multi player online virtual world. Developed and owned by the San Fra ...
, developed as part of
libsecondlife
''Second Life'' is an online multimedia platform that allows people to create an avatar (computing), avatar for themselves and then interact with other users and user created content within a multi player online virtual world. Developed and ...
and was intended to allow users to legitimately back up their ''Second Life'' data. For a brief period, an unmodified CopyBot allowed any user to replicate SL items or avatars (although not scripts, which run only on the servers at Linden Lab). Later changes to the SecondLife protocols prevented unmodified copies of CopyBot from working. Nevertheless, the basic issue of users being able to duplicate content that is sent to them remains.
Residents who copy content belonging to other users face being banned from ''Second Life'', but Linden Lab has so far never sued any of these users for copyright infringement; since the resident creators (and not Linden Lab) retain ownership of the rights, it is not clear whether Linden Lab would legally be able to do so. Linden Lab does, however, comply with DMCA
takedown notice
Notice and take down is a process operated by online hosts in response to court orders or allegations that content is illegal. Content is removed by the host following notice. Notice and take down is widely operated in relation to copyright infri ...
s served to them against resident content; serving a DMCA Takedown Notice is the normal procedure recommended by Linden Lab for having copyrighted content illegally resold on ''Second Life''.
Any user who uploads, publishes or submits any content keeps the intellectual property rights of that content, however both Linden Lab and other users gain their own rights from your content. Linden Lab receives a content license from anything a user uploads to the server. Section 7.3 of the ''Second Life'' terms of service states; "you hereby automatically grant Linden Lab a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, sub-license able, and transferable licence to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the content solely for the purpose of providing and promoting the service".
A user who uploads their content to a public area also gives a content licence to other users as well, which allows other users to replicate and record for use in Machinima (as outlined in section 7.4, Snapshot and Machinima Policy).
Regardless of what rights and licences are given, Linden Lab takes no responsibility for the outcome of any dispute between users or the server regarding content. Section 10.2 states; "you release Linden Lab (and its officers, directors, shareholders, agents, subsidiaries, and employees) from claims, demands, losses, liabilities and damages (actual and consequential) of every kind nature, known and unknown, arising out of or in any way connected with any dispute you have or claim to have with one or more users, including whether or not Linden Lab becomes involved in any resolution or attempted resolution of the dispute". Section 10.3 repeats a similar passage but regarding the responsibility of Linden Lab during any data or technical fault.
Litigation
''Bragg v. Linden Lab''
In 2006, attorney Marc Bragg sued Linden Lab, claiming that it had illegally deprived him of access to his account after he discovered a loophole in the online land auction system which allowed regions to be purchased at prices below
reserve
Reserve or reserves may refer to:
Places
* Reserve, Kansas, a US city
* Reserve, Louisiana, a census-designated place in St. John the Baptist Parish
* Reserve, Montana, a census-designated place in Sheridan County
* Reserve, New Mexico, a US vi ...
. Although most users and commentators believed that Bragg would have no chance of winning, a number of legal developments occurred as a result of the case, including a court ruling that parts of the ''Second Life'' Terms of Service were
unenforceable
An unenforceable contract or transaction is one that is valid but one the court will not enforce. Unenforceable is usually used in contradiction to void (or ''void ab initio'') and voidable. If the parties perform the agreement, it will be valid, ...
, due to being an unconscionable
contract of adhesion
A standard form contract (sometimes referred to as a ''contract of adhesion,'' a ''leonine contract'', a ''take-it-or-leave-it contract'', or a '' boilerplate contract'') is a contract between two parties, where the terms and conditions of the co ...
. The case eventually ended with Bragg's virtual land and account being restored to him in a confidential
out-of-court settlement
In law, a settlement is a resolution between disputing parties about a legal case, reached either before or after court action begins. A collective settlement is a settlement of multiple similar legal cases. The term also has other meanings in t ...
. Since the settlement created no legal precedent, it left users with confusion as to what legal rights they truly had with respect to their virtual land, items, and account. Many of Bragg's legal arguments rested on the claim—advertised on Linden Lab web site—that virtual land within ''Second Life'' could be "owned" by the purchasing user, which was removed shortly after the settlement.
''Eros, LLC and Grei v. Linden Lab''
Eros, LLC and Shannon Grei brought forth a
class action
A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class actio ...
suit in US District Court in Northern California against Linden Research, Inc on September 15, 2009 (Case4:09-cv-04269-PJH). Court papers allege the defendants knowingly and profitably turned a blind eye to
copyright
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...
and
trademark
A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others ...
violations within the Second Life service.
[Mistral, Pixeleen: "Strokerz Toyz/Eros LLC Takes Linden Lab to Court in Class Action Lawsuit!!!" Alphaville Herald, September 15, 2009](_blank)
[Wired.com: "[PDF] E-f iling, " Wired.com](_blank)
.
''Evans et al. v. Linden Lab''
In 2010, a group of banned SL users filed suit against Linden Lab and CEO Philip Rosedale, in the same Pennsylvania Federal District Court that the Bragg case was adjudicated in, with the same judge, to deal with further land seizures and account suspensions by the Lab against various customers. Due to the Terms of Service agreement changes since the Bragg case, defendants attorneys successfully argued to move the suit to federal court in California, where the case lingered for several years. The judge did rule that there was a basis to turn the litigation into a class action, and that there were two classes under which claimants could file claims. The primary class was those who suffered economic damages to their livelihoods, through loss of their business revenues in ''SL''. The secondary class was those who suffered property losses from loss of land, money on hand, and virtual goods in avatar inventories. In May 2013, attorney for defendants negotiated a settlement agreement with one of the lead attorneys that, in plain language, agreed to refund region setup fees for private island owners, pay land owners 2 Linden Dollars per square meter of virtual land, refund all L$ and USD amounts in the plaintiffs' accounts at the time of suspension, and allow the plaintiffs the option of either receiving $15US as compensation for loss of accounts and inventory virtual goods OR restoration of their accounts in order to sell their goods on the ''SL'' Marketplace. The settlement agreement went to final hearing in March 2014, with an objection from claimant Mike Lorrey as to the vagueness of certain terms in the settlement as to which fees exactly would be refunded. With the resolution of that objection, claimants who had filed claims prior to March 28, 2014, began to receive settlement money a few months later.
In popular culture
Since its debut in 2003, ''Second Life'' has been referred to by various popular culture media, including literature, television, film and music. In addition, various personalities in such media have themselves used or employed ''Second Life'' for both their own works and for private purposes.
In September 2006, former
Governor of Virginia
The governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia serves as the head of government of Virginia for a four-year term. The incumbent, Glenn Youngkin, was sworn in on January 15, 2022.
Oath of office
On inauguration day, the Governor-elect takes th ...
Mark Warner
Mark Robert Warner (born December 15, 1954) is an American businessman and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Virginia, a seat he has held since 2009. A member of the Democratic Party, Warner served as the 69th governo ...
became the first politician to appear in a MMO when he gave a speech in ''Second Life''. Musicians followed suit, with
Redzone
Redzone was a multi-genre band from London, England. Founded by Ami Wilson (vocals, guitar, electric violin, synth, drums, effects, programming, production) and Justin Gagen (guitar, slide guitar, bass guitar, drums, effects, engineering, prod ...
being credited by ''Wired'' and Reuters as the first band to tour in ''Second Life'' in February 2007. Then, in June 2008, author
Charles Stross
Charles David George "Charlie" Stross (born 18 October 1964) is a British writer of science fiction and fantasy. Stross specialises in hard science fiction and space opera. Between 1994 and 2004, he was also an active writer for the magazine '' ...
held a conference in ''Second Life'' to promote an upcoming novel. ''Second Life'' was also featured prominently, and used as a tool to locate a suspect, in the television show ''
CSI: NY
''CSI: NY'' (''Crime Scene Investigation: New York'', stylized as ''CSI: NY/Crime Scene Investigation'') is an American police procedural television series that ran on CBS from September 22, 2004, to February 22, 2013, for a total of nine seaso ...
'' in 2007.
In the American sitcom ''
The Office
''The Office'' is a mockumentary sitcom created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, first made in the United Kingdom, then Germany, and subsequently the United States. It has since been remade in ten other countries.
The original series of ...
'',
Dwight Schrute
Dwight Kurt Schrute III () is a fictional character on ''The Office (U.S.)'' and is portrayed by American actor Rainn Wilson. Dwight's character was a salesman and the assistant to the regional manager, at the fictional paper distribution compan ...
(
Rainn Wilson
Rainn Percival Dietrich Wilson (born January 20, 1966) is an American actor, comedian, podcaster, producer, and writer. He is best known for his role as Dwight Schrute on the NBC sitcom ''The Office'', for which he earned three consecutive Emm ...
) is known to play the game, most notably in the episode "
Local Ad
"Local Ad" is the ninth episode of the fourth season of the American comedy television series ''The Office'', and the show's sixty-second episode overall. The episode was written by B. J. Novak, who also acts in the show as Ryan Howard, and di ...
".
Research
Much of the published research conducted in ''Second Life'' is associated with education and learning. Unlike computer games, ''Second Life'' does not have a pre-defined purpose and allows for highly realistic enactment of real life activities online.
One such study tested the usefulness of ''SL'' as an
action learning
Action learning is an approach to problem solving. It involves taking action and reflecting upon the results. This helps improve the problem-solving process as well as simplify the solutions developed by the team. The theory of action learning a ...
environment in a senior course for management information systems students.
Another presented a case study in which university students were tasked with building an interactive learning experience using ''SL'' as a platform. Both problem-based learning and constructionism acted as framing pedagogies for the task, with students working in teams to design and build a learning experience which could be possible in real life.
Situated learning has also been examined in ''SL'', in order to determine how the design and social dynamics of the virtual world support as well as constrain various types of learning.
The paper, "The future for (second) life and learning", published in the ''
British Journal of Educational Technology
The ''British Journal of Educational Technology'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Wiley on behalf of the British Educational Research Association. The journal covers developments in educational technology and articles cover the who ...
'', examines the potential of ''Second Life'' to further innovative learning techniques.
It notes trends within the ''SL'' innovation to date, including the provision of realistic settings, the exploitation of pleasant simulated environments for groups, and the links with other learning technologies. It also considers the creativity sparked by ''SL''s potential to offer the illusion of 3-D ‘spaces’ and buildings, and points to infinite imaginative educational possibilities.
![Health Info Island on Second Life](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Health_Info_Island_on_Second_Life.jpg)
Second Life has also offered educational research potential within the medical and healthcare fields. Examples include in-world research facilities such as the Second Life Medical and Consumer Health Libraries (Healthinfo Island—funded by a grant from the US National Library of Medicine), and VNEC (Virtual Neurological Education Centre—developed at the University of Plymouth, UK).
There have also been healthcare related studies done of ''SL'' residents.
Studies show that behaviors from virtual worlds can translate to the real world. One survey suggests that users are engaged in a range of health-related activities in'' SL'' which are potentially impacting real-life behaviors.
Another focus of ''SL'' research has included the relationship of avatars or virtual personas to the 'real' or actual person. These studies have included research into social behavior and reported two main implications.
The first is that ''SL'' virtual selves shape users' offline attitudes and behavior. The research indicated that virtual lives and physical lives are not independent, and our appearances and actions have both online and offline consequences.
The second deals with experimental research and supports the idea that virtual environments, such as ''SL'', can enable research programs in that people behave in a relatively natural spread of behavioral patterns.
The ''SL'' avatar-self relationship was also studied via resident interviews, and various enactments of the avatar-self relationship were identified. The study concluded that ''SL'' residents enacted multiple avatar-self relationships and cycled through them in quick succession, suggesting that these avatar-self relationships might be shaped and activated strategically in order to achieve the desired educational, commercial, or therapeutic outcomes.
Anthropologist Tom Boellstorff describes the anthropological applications of studying ''Second Life'' and its userbase in ''Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human.'' Boellstorff explores the relationship between anonymity and community when everyone in a community belongs to varying degrees of anonymity, and how this feeds into the idea of digital collectivity. He also comments on the phenomenon of data becoming "part of social context" that has been observed both inside and outside of ''Second Life'' as surveillance becomes more integrated into everyday life. He stresses the difference between the concepts of anonymity and pseudonymity, identifying ''Second Life'' users as belonging to the latter group of people - though their avatars are not directly linked to their real identities and reputations, they have forged new ones in this online space, a unique effect of creating an online persona in the digital age.
See also
*
CyberTown
Cybertown (CT) (formerly Colony City) was a free (changed to pay per year in 2002), family friendly, online community. There were places (chat rooms) available either through a 2D or 3D chat environment. Users were able to have jobs within the c ...
*
Libraries in virtual worlds#Second Life libraries
*
Simulated reality
The simulation theory is the hypothesis that reality could be simulated—for example by quantum computer simulation—to a degree indistinguishable from "true" reality. It could contain conscious minds that may or may not know that they live i ...
*
Social simulation game
Social simulation games are a subgenre of life simulation game that explore social interactions between multiple artificial lives. Some examples include ''The Sims'' and ''Animal Crossing'' series.
History
Influences and origins
When ''The Sims ...
*
Virtual reality
Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), educ ...
References
Further reading
* Hillis, Ken. (2009) ''Online A Lot of the Time''. Durham: Duke University Press (see Chapter 4).0
* Kaplan Andreas M., Haenlein M. (2009) Consumer use and business potential of virtual worlds: The case of Second Life, International Journal on Media Management, 11(3).
* Kaplan Andreas M., Haenlein M. (2009) The fairyland of Second Life: About virtual social worlds and how to use them, Business Horizons, 52(6).
* Olsen, Per; Li Gang, Qin (2011). ''Second Life Love''. A dialog between two partners in Second Life. New York: Lulu Press.
* Martin, Neo; ''Second Life Fraud''. Fraud and intellectual property protection in Second Life. New York: Public Journal
* Robbins, Sarah, and Mark R. Bell. ''Second Life for Dummies''. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Pub., 2008. Print.
* Rymaszewski, Michael. ''Second Life The Official Guide''. Sybex Inc, 2008. Print.
* Zerzan, John. ''Telos'' 141, ''Second-Best Life: Real Virtuality''. New York: Telos Press Ltd., Winter 2007.
* SK Alamgir Hossain, Abu Saleh Md Mahfujur Rahman, and Abdulmotaleb El Saddik, "Interpersonal haptic communication in second life", in Haptic Audio-Visual Environments and Games (HAVE), 2010 IEEE International Symposium on, October 16–17, 2010, Phoenix, Arizona, USA, pp. 1 –4.
* Taşçı, D., Dinçer, D. "The Creation Of Academic Consulting Environment in Virtual Worlds And An Assessment Of Challenges Faced By Learners in This Environment", Conference proceedings of "eLearning and Software for Education", 01, 2011, p. 290–296.
External links
*
{{Authority control
2003 software
2003 video games
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MacOS games
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Video games developed in the United States
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Video games using Havok
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