My Second Life

My second life is far different than the life that I lead before close friends and family. I've changed my clothes, my attitude and even my name. Nobody knows who I really am, and that's the way that I like it.

Consider a life in which you are in control of every aspect of your existence at any second - from your age, your job, right down to your god-given bone structure. Where you are paid to go dancing with friends, to lounge for hours in a big comfortable chair. Oh, and did I mention that I can fly? I'm speaking, of course, about my Second Life.

Second Life is a three-dimensional interactive chat program designed by the engineers at Linden Research, Inc which was launched on June 23^rd of 2003. A user creates an account on the Second Life website and then downloads the Second Life client program onto their computer. Second Life is set up precisely like real-life cities, complete with stores, restaurants, dance clubs, strip clubs, and even gives its users the ability to buy and live in virtual homes. Users of Second Life, called residents, are able to walk and fly freely around the cyberworld, socialize, buy and sell property and even acquire jobs. Residents can set up profiles that will tell other users more about themselves and can choose what information they would like to include. I like to think of it as "The Sims meets Myspace."

I first started experimenting with Second Life in November of 2007 after one of my communications-study professors introduced us to it. She suggested that we explore Second Life and keep a mental log of our experiences over the course of a few weeks, and I've got to say that was one of the best assignments I've ever been given. I must say, it was quite a shock to the system and is one of the most fascinating communication related programs I've seen to date. What will follow will be my findings in Second Life throughout my first days as a newbie, an almost diary-like account of my thoughts as I ventured through the vast virtual world for the first time.

Getting myself started, I looked up some blogs and websites of people who were already members of Second Life in order to get a better idea of what I would be getting myself into. I found several positive reviews, and many screenshots of virtual 3D stores, clubs and office buildings filled with people. This thrilled me. Having been a member of PalaceChat for years before Second Life was developed, I knew that the more people are around you, the more fun you tend to have. Convinced now and genuinely interested, I visited the Second Life site, registered myself with a brand new name and quickly downloaded the client program.

I found myself on Second Life's Avatar Island in a generic female body. This is the first place you are taken once you join Second Life and it is set up as an orientation site for new members. The first thing that I noticed was the sheer volume of fellow newbies; there were dozens of people in every direction. So far, so good, I'd thought. I went through each of the four tutorials offered on Avatar Island, designed to help new residents get acquainted with Second Life's controls, interface and the tools. Being somewhat familiar with this type of program, I caught on quickly and changed my doll's appearance and, unsure what else I would make her look like, made her look as much like my "first life" self as possible. While on the island I learned that not only could I look like whoever I chose to on any given day, but that these 3-demensional avatars could drive, dance better than I can in real life, and they can fly. So far, this Second Life was shaping up to be much more interesting than my first life in which I am clumsy, uncoordinated and had I been born with the ability to fly, I would have had one too many crash landings by now.

Wanting to get the absolute best out of my time in Second Life, I spent about two or three days milling around Avatar Island getting a good handle on the controls, how to move around, interact with others and getting my feet wet in the kiddie pool of Second Life. The interface is really very simple to use, but it does take some getting used to. That can't be denied. However, it makes the experience a lot more worth your while if you take the time to mess around with the controls and tools in the Second Life program. Getting from place to place is a lot easier if you know the simplest ways to do so. Finally, the time came that I was ready to leave the island and enter the "real world" of Second Life. I made my way to the large "Leave Avatar Island" sign in the center of the island, clicked upon it and followed the directions in the next exit-site and was on my way!

I eagerly waited for the new page to load. This was it; I would finally see what all the hype was about! Suddenly, the screen began to load. First grass, then sky, a patio, then myself and...nothing else. Nervous that I had done something wrong, I rotated the camera and looked around me. What I found was an eerily ghostlike abandoned courtyard with a single, idle zombie-like person faded out in the distance.

Where WAS everybody? There was no one around at all, no buildings, houses or busy storefronts that I had expected to see. Maybe this was some sort of limbo site that I had stumbled into - a virtual transfer station between Avatar Island and the rest of Second Life. However I was still shocked to not see a single other person (other than the rather frightening idle character in the corner). Second Life supposedly had somewhere around 10 million members - so where were they?

All right, I remember thinking: most members could be in other time zones. It could just be a slow time of day that I happened to start. I decided to take advantage of the emptiness by exploring what Second Life had to offer its inhabitants - wherever they were - and thought about where to go first. Having some experience with this type of place, I knew that for veterans, new people could be spotted from miles away. Not wanting to be ripped apart too badly on my first day, I pulled up the search menu and did a search for women's clothes. Having no idea which store was the best, I simply clicked on the first link in the list and off I went.

When the storefront loaded I took a quick scan of my surroundings. Now, this was a little bit more like what I was expecting. There were two or three people around me also heading into the store. They were dressed quite differently than I was, however, with much flashier and somewhat revealing clothes. I entered the store and looked around to see what they had to offer, and saw some items that I would consider wearing in real life. I hovered my mouse over a long orange sundress and prepared to click, but a little yellow hover-tag popped up: $760L (L standing for lindendollars, the Second Life currency). Clearly it was some sort of monetary value allotted to the dress, but I realized I wasn't quite sure how the money system of Second Life worked - it isn't exactly made crystal clear on the Second Life website. However, I figured there was probably some points system in which users could pay fake money in exchange for items to make it more like real life. But how did I earn these points? Was there some gameplay on Second Life that I wasn't aware of? I did a quick online search for Second Life's point-system and curiously enough, found nothing. I returned to the Second life client and did another search for "inexpensive women's clothes." A new list formulated, and I clicked the first one given to me. Just as an experiment, when I got there I clicked on the first item of clothing that I saw and hit "buy." A small box popped up asking if I was sure that I was ready to part with $5L. So I hit yes, ready to be a bit more familiar with the points system - whatever it was.

I was asked for billing information. Were they serious, I wondered? Who in their right mind would pay real money for virtual clothes? For virtual ANYTHING? This idea smacked me in the face and made my jaw drop. It was an absolutely absurd thought to me. But, like any seasoned internet user I knew there was undoubtedly a way around it, and this way was much simpler than I thought - freebies. By typing "freebies" into the Second Life client search, you'll get dozens of hits for entire buildings storing hundreds of free items - clothes, accessories, cars, and even houses. I clicked on one of the first search returns and landed smack in the middle of the Freebie Dungeon.

Unlike the stores where I'd been asked to pay for clothes, I looked around and found dozens of people surrounding me on all sides with more teleporting in by the minute. So this was where everybody was. Maybe I wasn't alone in my finding throwing money away on pixels to be utterly ridiculous! I might be young, but I'm not quite new-aged enough to justify spending any amount of money on virtual clothes - no matter what the exchange rate ($1USD = $20L, still not worth it in my opinion when you can get anything you need for free).

In the days and weeks that followed, I found things that both intrigued and absolutely disturbed me about Second Life.

I knew that Second Life had strip clubs, but what I didn't know until I happened to meet one, was that they also had paid escorts - call-girls. They certainly didn't skimp on the nitty-gritty elements of the real world, that's for sure. The paid escort business can bring up multiple issues with potential customers, the major one being that you don't know the real gender of the person that you hire. That's right, the hot girl you're talking to could be an overweight, balding 60 year-old man broadcasting live from his mother's basement. While this is quite a scary thought for anybody looking for someone to "hire," if you will, it works out quite well for the girls. While speaking with one of these ladies-of-the-night, I learned that on an average night several hundred lindendollars can be raked in, which puts an extra 5 bucks or so in the person's real life pocket (the current exchange for trading lindendollars for real money is $284L to $1USD). It might not be much, but considering the work, the anonymity and the fact that the only interactions exchanged are words, it's not bad for a call-girl (or boy).

For parents nervous that their children will be online and in Second Life exposed to such things, there is a Teen Area offered that is considerably more wholesome than the regular edition of Second Life. This is a place where youngsters between 13 and 17 years-old can interact safely in a censored environment. However, Second Life states in its terms of service that they are not at fault if a child in this age groups somehow gets into the regular Second Life grid, or if a child signs up for an account with fake birth date information. Also, just as Second Life cannot prevent children from lying on their sign-ups they cannot prevent adults from giving inaccurate information in order to have access to the Teen Area. This is a very scary thought, so always be very careful about whom you speak to and what you speak about.

Soon after my explorations began, I discovered "camping grounds." These camping areas are not what one would expect; they are heavily populated places where a person can get paid for sitting or dancing in a certain spot for a given period of time. These places don't pay much (usually only $1-3L per 15 minutes), but it is a good way to earn some quick money if you found something in a store on clearance for a lindendollar or two that you'd really like to have. These camping grounds are also great places to start talking to people, since idle avatars are usually kicked out. This means that there is a better chance that the person behind the avatar will be at their computer and be responsive.

I learned that people are usually very willing to help. While bouncing around the Second Life world, I stumbled into the Black Dragon Lounge. There, I met with a bouncer, a lounge dancer, and a member of lounge security. They very quickly invited me to come sit and talk with them and I graciously accepted the invitation. It was from these three people that I learned a lot about the Second Life controls, and the dancer offered me several outfits, skins and hair attachments - most of which were not freebies - she'd paid for them and was sharing them with me. That, I thought, was incredibly generous. Before I left these three new friends, I was offered a job in the lounge if it ever turned out that I needed one. This was way better than "first life," and it was here and in some of the surrounding areas that I met some of the most helpful people I've ever encountered on Second Life. If you're running into some trouble, have a question or simply can't figure something out, ask somebody. Everyone was new at some point, and people are more often than not very eager to help share what they know.

All in all, I think Second Life is a revolutionary program that will change the way people meet up with one another, communicate and even attend classes for school. It is fairly easy to use with a bit of practice and though it has some bugs to work out, it often goes down for maintenance and accepts error tickets so that these problems can be efficiently fixed. I think this is an incredibly fascinating community, however, I personally don't feel nearly as at home here as I did with PalaceChat. There is a little too much anonymity for my tastes, and it seems that everything and everyone is rushed. I also feel that unless you are in a place where money can be made, Second Life usually feels like a vast ghost town with nobody around - I'd rather stick with The Sims. Nevertheless, I do suggest that everyone who is even somewhat interested in communication technology, chat technology, or even just a fan of really neat graphics ought to try this out for a while.

Go ahead, take the plunge and create your second life!­­­