Second Life Overview

Doctor Dobbs Portal

An excerpt from an article by Dana Moore and Raymond Budd:

What is so compelling about Second Life and other emergent virtual (nongame) worlds? In a 2006 interview, Linden Lab CEO Philip Rosedale explains that when entering Second Life, people's digital alter-egos (known as "avatars") can move around and do everything they do in the physical world, but without such bothers as the laws of physics. "When you are at Amazon.com [using current web technology], you are actually there with 10,000 concurrent other people, but you cannot see them or talk to them," Rosedale said. "At Second Life, everything you experience is inherently experienced with others." Think of what this would mean to a social site. Instead of posting entries and responses on slashdot.org or digg.com and then reading them from a web page or an RSS feed, imagine conversing in real time with actual peers on emerging stories from real Reuters or CNet news feeds. Imagine opening a storefront site for your next brilliant idea and having it literally be a storefront, where you could, in real time, interact with your user base and potential customers. Imagine a world in which you could multitask by first tending to personal activities from "home," turn attention to "work," then break for "lunch" in an RPG adventure or go to a virtual beach in the middle of the day.

That's the promise that Second Life suggests. But there are several other reasons why it should be on your developer radar: Commerce is built into Second Life. It has a real economy fueled by a real currency. Although most of the goods and services in Second Life are virtual, the money is real, and the intellectual property you create is yours. Thus, the programming you do in this world is convertible to real revenue. Residents spent over $200 million in this virtual world in 2006. Every object in Second Life is there because a software developer created it. Currently, the SL incarnation of the metaverse is the open frontier, the wild west. No large players dominate the landscape; by mastering Linden Scripting Language, you are on even footing with any developer anywhere. Potential customers are loyal to the environment and experience. It is estimated that second world "residents" currently spend 40 hours a month in-world, a little more than 10 percent of the amount of time the average American spends watching TV per month. Consider the positive impact for your company of that level of exposure to potential consumers. Second Life is inherently a social experience rather than a game-playing environment. It has been estimated that slightly fewer than 50 percent of SL residents are female; this far exceeds female immersion in game-playing environments. Any web-based business that can attract genders equally holds tremendous promise. Your creations are potentially infinitely scalable. You can create shade changing sunglasses or dirigibles, and after you sell the first copy, you'll still have an infinite number left.

Read more:
http://www.ddj.com/dept/64bit/198800545