Thread: Second Life
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Old 24th July 2007, 01:36 PM   #2
lisa
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Posts: 917
Default Re: Second Life

I love Second Life. I use it both for recreation and, increasingly, for business. Cisco and several other companies have been simu-casting their tradeshow seminars, so while I can't afford that much travel in real-life, this lets me attend the lecture and network with other people in the industry, which has been really great.

I've also made a lot of friends, and had some pretty interesting adventures--from being rescued out of the ocean by a giant starship; to finding a mushroom forest through a rabbit hole in a futuristic china town; to fending off a midnight robbery by firing a couch out of a circus cannon. I've made so many crazy things too, like a lawn chair with rockets on it that you take take to space and watch the jellyfish.

Plus, if you're a good artist or coder, you can make a good bit of money at it. It makes my car payment every month, a Scion XB which I have an exact duplicate of in-world--sold by the real Scion on their Second Life island. On top of what I do personally, my company also recently starting doing custom builds. It's certainly not true for everyone--I know *many* people who make almost nothing--but I personally know several people who make a few thousand dollars a month just on item sales. One of my virtual neighbors makes enough he went "full time".

Of course, I'd be lying to say it's all roses: the client is buggy as all get-out, the frame rate\lag is always terrible, and there are a lot of weirdos out there too. There are parts of Second Life that make the internet look like it's never heard of smut, so you have to be careful where you're going. It's a lot like any big city, where there are nice parts of town and shady parts of town. Also, for all the amazing wonders--of which there are many--a great lot of the place is an urban wasteland, since not everyone is a gifted artist. The grid is too big to walk anymore--about eight times the size of Manhattan, according to Reuters--so if you want to find the good stuff, it's helpful if you can hook up with some people who know where they are going.

Basically, you get out of it whatever you want to put into it. If you like making things, exploring, dancing, or talking with people, then you'll probably get a lot out of it. SL really caters to people who like to be creative, which is why I like it so much. If you're looking for a beat-em-up or a pure gaming environment, however, you're probably better off with WoW.

SL is free to make an account. The free accounts aren't limited in any way except that you can't own land, and even then if you want to build you can always go to a public sandbox... why don't you just try it yourself to see if you like it?
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