Second Life is one of several virtual worlds that have been inspired by the cyberpunk literary movement, and particularly by Neal Stephenson's novel Snow Crash. The stated goal of Linden Lab is to create a world like the Metaverse described by Stephenson, a user-defined world of general use in which people can interact, play, do business, and otherwise communicate.[6] Second Life's virtual currency is the Linden Dollar (Linden, or L$) and is exchangeable for US Dollars in a marketplace consisting of residents, Linden Lab and real life companies.
While Second Life is sometimes referred to as a game, it does not have points, scores, winners or losers, levels, an end-strategy, or most of the other characteristics of games. In all, more than five million accounts have been registered, though many are not active, and some Residents have multiple accounts. Despite its prominence, Second Life has notable competitors, including Active Worlds, There, and newcomers such as Entropia Universe, Dotsoul Cyberpark, Red Light Center, and Kaneva.
History
Second Life was founded by former RealNetworks CTO Philip Rosedale through Linden Lab.[7] The initial alpha test version, named LindenWorld, was made available in 2002 to Residents with content creation experience,[8] and the beta version was made publicly available in 2003.[9] The beta versions had a different economic focus from that of Second Life's current version; Linden Dollars were far more freely obtainable, and could not be exchanged for real money, and the real monthly fee did not escalate with the amount of land the Resident owned.
Some significant dates in the growth of Second Life are:
An analysis of the economy of Second Life before December 2006, published in The Guardian, suggested that the number of active Residents was "in the region of 100,000", and its churn rate was over 85%.[15] Second Life statistics claim that 144,108 customers spent money in-world in December 2006.[16]
As of February 2007, the number of online Residents follows a fairly regular daily pattern, reaching an approximate minimum of 17,000 (around 10 a.m. UTC) and maximum of 35,000 (around 10 p.m. UTC).[citation needed]
One study extrapolates 25 million total accounts, with 150,000 Residents simultaneously online, by March 2008.[17]
Features of the virtual world
Residents
Residents are the users of Second Life, and their appearance is their avatar (often abbreviated to av). The basic avatar is human in appearance, but avatars may be of either sex, have a wide range of physical attributes, and may be clothed or otherwise customized to produce a wide variety of humanoid and other forms. A single person may have multiple accounts, and thus appear to be multiple Residents (a person's multiple accounts are referred to as alts). However, the use of additional accounts requires the Resident to register them and pay a small fee, though you can just make multiple accounts saying "this is my first account" and not having to pay for it. This is done by many people. Also, a single Resident's appearance in Second Life can vary dramatically at will, as avatars are easily modified.
Communication and transport
Within Second Life, there are two main methods of text-based communication: local chat, and global "instant messaging" (known as IM). Chatting is used for public localized conversations between two or more avatars, and can be "heard" within 25 m. Avatars can also 'shout' ('audible' within 100 m) and 'whisper' ('audible' within 10 m). IM is used for private conversations, either between two avatars, or between the members of a group. Unlike chatting, IM communication does not depend on the participants being within a certain distance of each other. Voice communication is currently being developed.
The most basic method of moving around is by foot. To travel more rapidly, avatars can also fly up to about 170 m over the terrain (meaning 270 m if ground level is 100 m, 180 m if ground level is set to 10 m) without requiring any special equipment, and with scripted attachments there is currently no limit to how high an avatar can fly (although once past several thousand meters, the rendering of the avatar mesh starts to be affected).[citation needed]
Avatars can also ride in vehicles; many vehicles are available — there is a basic go-kart contained in the object library and there are many Resident-made vehicles available freely and for purchase including helicopters, submarines and hot-air balloons.[citation needed] Airborne vehicles can fly up to about 4000 m high (the maximum altitude allowed for any object).[citation needed]
For instantaneous travel, avatars can teleport (commonly abbreviated to "TP") directly to a specific location. An avatar can create a personal landmark (often called an LM) at their current location, and then teleport back to that location at any time, or give a copy of the landmark to another avatar.
There are some external websites that allow Residents to locate each other from outside of the virtual world, and SLurl.com allows external links through the Second Life World Map to locations in-world.
Economy and real estate
Second Life has its own economy and a currency referred to as Linden Dollars (L$). Though the exchange rate fluctuates, as of February 2007 it is reasonably stable at around L$ 270 to one US dollar.[18]
Residents create new goods and services, and buy and sell them in the Second Life virtual world. There are also currency exchanges where Residents can exchange US$ or other real world currencies for L$. These exchanges are open markets, except that Linden Lab sometimes changes in world Linden Dollar "sinks" or sells Linden dollars to attempt to keep the exchange rate relatively stable. A small percentage of Residents derive net incomes from this economy, ranging from a few hundred to several thousand US$ per month, while a larger percentage derive a gross income large enough to offset most of their expenditures in L$. The currency has become the subject of concern in economic circles in regard to possible taxation.[19]
Premium members can own land (up to 512 m2 without additional fees). Owning larger areas of land incurs an additional fee (which Linden Lab calls "tier") ranging from US$5 a month up to US$295 a month for an individual island.[20][21] Linden Lab used to sell land at a reduced rate to new Residents in small 512 m2 lots (e.g., 16 by 32 meters) through its First Land program, but this program ended on 20 February 2007 as the land was often being quickly resold at a profit rather than kept by the Resident.[22] It also sells 16 acre (65536 m2) regions. Once a Resident buys land he or she may resell it freely and use it for any purpose. The only exception to this is land purchased in "private sims" or "private islands", which are governed by Residents and not Linden Labs. These private islands have what are called covenants that may restrict use of the land, such as prohibiting any commercial activity, or even resale of the land itself.
The BlackTrend's CEO Enrico Gallingani used the word Meta Economy in a conference about the Virtual Worlds to refer the economy growing in the Metaverse of Second Life with potential new marketing tools and business models.
Creation and copyright
One of the distinguishing characteristics of
Second Life is that the Residents, not Linden Lab, create most of the content of the world. The Resident avatars are one example of such
user-generated content.
There is a 3D modeling tool in Second Life that allows any Resident with the right skills to build virtual buildings, landscape, vehicles, furniture, and machines to use, trade, or sell. This is a primary source of activity in the economy. Any Resident can also make gestures from small animations and sounds from the standard library. Outside Second Life, Residents can use various graphics, animation, and sound tools to create more elaborate items, and upload them into the world. Once the creation is in the world of Second Life, the system makes efforts to help protect the exclusive rights of the content creator.
Second Life also includes a scripting language called Linden Scripting Language, or LSL. LSL is used to add autonomous behavior to many of the objects in Second Life, such as doors that open when approached. LSL has been used to create relatively advanced systems, such as the artificial life experiment on the island of Svarga, where a complete ecology runs autonomously (including clouds, rain, sunshine, bees, birds, trees and flowers).[23]
When objects are created (or instantiated) in-world and then transferred to the Resident's computer, they are said to "rez" — a reference to the Disney movie Tron. This also appears in LSL, where the command to create an object is llRezObject().[24]
A Resident who creates some item and the Resident that owns an item retain certain rights, simulating and in some ways enhancing the copyright available in the real world. The creator can mark an item as "no copy," which means that no copies of it can be made by others, "no mod," which means that others may not modify the item's characteristics, and "no trans," which means that the current owner may not give it to another.
Live music performances take place in Second Life, in the sense that vocal and instrumental music by Second Life Residents can be provided from their homes and studios. This is played into microphones, uploaded to audio streams, and played in-world for the enjoyment of other Residents. This started with performances by Astrin Few in May 2004[25] and began to gain popularity mid 2005. For example the UK band, Passenger, performed on the Menorca Island in mid-2006.[26] Linden Lab added an Event Category "Live Music" in March 2006 to accommodate the increasing number of scheduled events.[27]
Businesses and organizations in Second Life
A combination of Linden Lab granting Second Life Residents the copyright over their content,[28] and legal trading of the in-world currency "Linden Dollars" (L$)[29] has encouraged the creation of solely in-world businesses, the creation of legally registered companies that were previously solely in-world, and the in-world participation of previously unrelated companies and organizations.
In early 2007 the Swedish Institute stated it was about to set up an Embassy in Second Life.[30] The Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Carl Bildt, stated on his blog that he hoped he would get an invitation to the grand opening.[31]
Education in Second Life
Second Life has recently emerged as one of the cutting-edge virtual classrooms for major colleges and universities, including Harvard, Pepperdine, Elon University, Ohio University, Ball State, New York University, Stanford University, Delft University of Technology[32] and AFEKA Tel-Aviv Academic College of Engineering.[33] Second Life fosters a welcoming atmosphere for administrators to host lectures and projects online, selling more than 100 islands for educational purposes, according to a New York Times article.[34] The article quoted Rebecca Nesson, an instructor at Harvard who brought her Legal Studies class to Second Life in the second half of 2006. "Normally, no matter how good a distance-learning class is, an inherent distance does still exist between you and your students," she says. "Second Life has really bridged that gap. There is just more unofficial time that we spend together outside of the typical class session." Joe Sanchez, a researcher at the University of Texas at Austin evaluated the use of Second Life in education in an interactive qualitative analysis, finding that once students overcome the technical and interface difficulties with Second Life, they "indicate a preference to social learning activities and find it enjoyable to interact with other avatars while learning in this space".[35]
Pricing
It is possible, and quite common, to join Second Life for free. Many activities in Second Life are free, but others cost money, payable in Linden dollars (Second Life's in-world currency; see Economy and real estate). For example, goods and services may be charged for by other Residents — these charges are not set by Linden Lab, and so are not included under membership pricing, but are simply part of the economy of Second Life. There are two types of accounts in Second Life: "basic accounts" and "premium accounts". Basic accounts have no recurring fee, but lack the right to own land within Second Life. As of February 2007, the premium account fee is set at $9.95 per month, although this reduces to $6.00 per month if the fee is paid annually.[36] Premium accounts receive a weekly stipend (paid in Linden dollars) which somewhat offsets the membership payment. This stipend has reduced with time; as of February 2007, it is L$300 per week.[37][38] Basic accounts registered before 29 May 2006 receive a stipend of L$50 for every week in which they log into Second Life, but no stipend is provided to basic accounts registered after that time.[39]
Teen Second Life
Teen Second Life was developed in early 2005 to enable people aged 13-17 to play Second Life without entering false information to participate in the Main Grid. Both Grids at that time required the entry of credit card details, but the Main Grid made it mandatory that the credit card be the Resident's own, whereas the Teen Grid made it mandatory that it belonged to a parent. (Since then, the requirement for a credit card to register on the Main Grid has been removed. A credit card is no longer required to register on the Teen Grid, only a valid cell phone with SMS enabled.)
Issues and criticisms
Because it is under constant development, and is an open environment that can be used by almost anyone with broadband internet access,[40] Second Life has encountered a number of challenges. These range from the technical (Budgeting of server resources) and moral (pornography) to legal (legal position of the Linden Dollar, Linden Lab lawsuit).
Prior to June 6, 2006, all Residents were required to verify their identities by providing Linden Lab with a valid credit card or PayPal account number, or by responding to a cell phone SMS text message.[41] (Residents providing information were not charged if their account type cost nothing to create.) After that date, it became possible to create an account with only an e-mail address; even standard verification methods such as e-mail reply verification are not used.[42] Access to Teen Second Life still requires credit card details. Linden Lab has the ability to ban Residents from Second Life based on a hardware hash of their local PC,[43] preventing them from returning with other accounts.
In January 2007, two articles were published on the Internet which compared the economy of Second Life to a pyramid scheme.[44][45] In the same month, a "virtual riot" erupted between members of the French extremist party National Front who had established a virtual HQ on Second Life, and opponents, including Second Life Left Unity, a socialist and anti-capitalist user-group.[46][47][48][49] Since then, several small internet based organizations have claimed some responsibility for instigating the riots.[50]
Parody
Second Life is parodied by the website "Get a First Life" by Darren Barefoot, extolling the virtues of meatspace/real life.[51] Instead of sending the site creator a cease and desist letter, Linden Lab sent him a humorous "Permit-and-Proceed" letter.[52] Material from the site includes false links to such topics as "Go Outside [-] Membership is Free" and "Fornicate Using Your Actual Genitals."
Technical information
The flat, Earth-like world of Second Life is simulated on a large array of Debian servers, referred to as the Grid.[53] The world is divided into 256x256m areas of land, called Regions. Each Region is simulated by a single server, and is given a unique name and content rating (either PG or Mature).
Software
The Second Life software comprises the viewer (also known as the client) executing on the Resident's computer, and several thousand servers operated by Linden Labs. There is an active beta-grid that has its own special client, which is updated very regularly, and is used for constant software testing by volunteers. This testing software was introduced to eliminate the short amounts of time between real updates, and increase its overall quality. The beta-grid reflects the standard main-grid, except that the actions taken within it are not stored by the servers, it is for testing purposes only. Every few months, the standard software is replaced by the beta-grid software, intended as a big upgrade. The Second Life user-base is growing rapidly, and this has stimulated both social and technological changes to the world; the addition of new features also provides periodic boosts to the growth of the economy.
Linden Lab pursues the use of open standards technologies, and uses free/open source software such as Apache and Squid.[54] The plan is to move everything to open standards by standardizing the Second Life protocol. Cory Ondrejka, Vice President of Product Development, has stated that a while after everything has been standardized, both the client and the server will be released as free/open source software.[55]
- The current in-house virtual machine will eventually be replaced with Mono,[56] which will reportedly produce a dramatic speed improvement.
- uBrowser, an OpenGL port of the Gecko rendering engine, which has been used in the client since version 1.10.1[57] to display the Help documentation, will also be used to display webpages on any of the surfaces of any 3D object the Resident creates.
Linden Lab provides viewers for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and most distributions of Linux. Viewer upgrades are usually mandatory; the old viewer will not work with the new version of the server software. However, Linden Labs is working on a more flexible protocol that will allow clients and servers to send and take whatever data they may require, hence differing versions would nonetheless be able to work together.
As of January 8, 2007, the Viewer is distributed under version 2 of the GNU General Public License,[1][2] with an additional clause allowing combination with certain other free software packages which have otherwise-incompatible licenses. Currently not all of the required dependencies have been released. See https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Open_Source_Portal for details.
The OS X viewer is a universal binary and is about twice the size of the Windows and GNU+Linux binaries.[58]
Second Life protocol
In May 2006 it was announced that the Second Life protocol had been reverse-engineered. A wiki was set up to further the effort.[59]
Since this project produced some useful software, Linden Labs modified the TOS to allow third-party programs to access Second Life,[60] enabling the project to be formalized under the name libsecondlife. Among functions developed are a map API, the ability to create objects larger than normally allowed (recently disabled), and other unforeseen capabilities.[citation needed]
