A guide to living a Second Life
by Blake Snow 
{ Oct 17th 2006 at 8:40PM }
Wired has compiled a guide to prospective and current Second Life doppelgangers that includes teleport links to the best in virtual shopping, nightlife, the (not-so) great outdoors, and socializing (wink, wink) in addition to the game's history and economy. With a userbase that grows by 36% a month, maybe the only question that remains is when -- not if -- you will you make the jump. From the newbie guide: "Today, Second Life is second home to [a million] people, and everyone from Duran Duran and Wells Fargo Bank to the Department of Homeland Security has funded real estate here. The national currency of Linden dollars is freely convertible to US dollars (and the exchange rate is quite favorable at the moment!), and an increasing number of residents are ditching their jobs back on Earth to make their living entirely within Second Life's economy."
See also:
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
defunq @ Oct 17th 2006 9:09PM
Enough with the second life already, it's overrated!
Hiro Protagonist @ Oct 17th 2006 9:14PM
Agreed, its buggy as hell.
PS: The irony.
Phillip Demro @ Oct 17th 2006 9:27PM
how long until this is considered illigal under the new :pier security" act. It is only a matter of time before this is shut down due to the fact that you can "play in your bathroom."
The ZeroCorpse @ Oct 17th 2006 9:27PM
I've tried it. It feels clunky and awkward, and it ain't pretty.
Stick it on a console and I'll consider it.
FSK405K @ Oct 17th 2006 9:32PM
or nude!
(Daily Show ref)
William @ Oct 17th 2006 9:51PM
Am I the only one who finds this absurdly... saddening and odd? I mean.. the Sims is one thing, but you shouldn't be able to live your life on a freaking computer, people are gonna lose soo much money and just waste his or her life in front of the damn monitor! God.. this is depressing.
ken @ Oct 17th 2006 10:38PM
Please! Make second life stop!! I'm sick and tired of hearing about this dumb thing (it's not a game). I think Joystiq people are involve with Second Life project one way or another. Nobody plays that dumb thing, just a bunch of bots.
Zixaphir @ Oct 17th 2006 11:21PM
I tried to jump into Second Life last week on the prospect of embracing 'casual' gaming. Man, I've been playing games since I was six, and I've never found myself so.... lost.
I mean, damn... aside from the no direction (which I can handle), after a simple tutorial of basic in-game interaction and character customization, you're just... dropped into the world at a seemingly random place with not even a nod in the right direction.
I'm thinking about giving it another go, but... damn, how do so-called 'casuals' "play" this game?
Nathan M @ Oct 17th 2006 11:42PM
Gah. I tried Second Life once, and it was laggy as hell. @_@
Lutraphobic @ Oct 17th 2006 11:54PM
It's not a game. It's a...3d chat room, with a bunch of goodies for your avatar. It's a really hard thing to explain, and even harder to get into. I personally think it's pretty fun, and go into Second Life every once in a while when WoW is boring me.
S.A. @ Oct 18th 2006 3:31AM
This is pretty crazy. Ive had thoughts about this before (crazy thoughts!). Its just really weird how you can live a whole life on your PC. You could pretty much wake up and play the game as it is your actual life, send your character off to bed and then go to bed yourself. Anyway, I tried the game for like 5 minutes the other day after reading about it online and it seemed pretty crappy, it may have been my crappy laptop but the graphics and everything were horrible, I could not tell where I was going. I tried to start fights with people but I didnt know how to.
Windmill @ Oct 18th 2006 4:38AM
Oh my goodness, shut the friggin up.
Seriously. I'm sick of this second life junk. I DO NOT CARE ABOUT SECOND LIFE. The vast majority of gamers on here DO NOT CARE ABOUT SECOND LIFE. If they want a MMO game, they'll be playing a FPS, a strategy, RPG or a combination of 2 or 3.
POST NEWS ON STUFF WE CARE ABOUT.
Seriously, HOW MUCH are they paying you to advertise this game of theirs???
Ricky @ Oct 18th 2006 12:05PM
Wow, whats with all the people hating this?
Its a game, so its on this site.
Yes its a game, if you call it a 3d chat program with extras, then you can call any mmo that.
Sure, it sucks to start off, but you can get help in starting and stuff, you either like it or dont.
If you dont like the game so much, why not play a game instead of crying about a game that you dont like..
StMadnes @ Oct 19th 2006 3:24PM
sounded to me like the gameplay offers you a chance to make some loot that you can transfer in US greenbacks. but can you really earn money playing this game?? that's what i want to know.
Windmill @ Oct 19th 2006 2:44AM
Because its disgusting to see joystiq act in such a manner. Lets face it. The sort of gamers who visit this site DO NOT PLAY SECOND LIFE. They just DON'T. Some might, but MOST DO NOT. They play WoW. They play runescape. They play maple story. They play guild wars. They may even play gunbound. They'll play warcraft. Etc. Etc.
And Joystiq know that.
Therefore, why are they posting about second life?
Simple. Its one big advertising compaign. They'll be getting sponsered by second life. Smart? Yes. Still, its disgusting.
DaveKap @ Oct 19th 2006 6:15AM
Haha, damn dude... take off the tinfoil hat.
As a person "in the know" about Linden Lab, the creators of Second Life, I can say without doubt that they do not pay Joystiq for advertising. What you don't understand is that Second Life is "The Metaverse", "The Good Matrix", or "The Next World Wide Web". Yeah, that's right, I said Second Life is gonna be the next Internet. I dare you to give me a better example of a place that lets you have the same kind of creativity, collaborative ability, and versatility as a 3D website that, currently, is represented by a parcel of land in Second Life.
Yes, I agree, Second Life is some clunky junk as far as framerate goes; but what you don't realize is exactly what Second Life enables you to do in their world compared to... oh... nothing else on Earth. Real-time streaming 3D that is constantly being edited by 999,999 other people? Not exactly something you can get completely download over and over again. Streaming is a requirement here. Add to this the fact that there's a fully functional server-side physics engine in play and a script engine running whatever objects you make... well, now I sound like an advertisement! Can't wait to hear your reply, "DaveKap is getting payed to post that!"
My point? If you just think Second Life is a gigantic 3D chat room, an MMORPG, meant for casual gamers, or some other generalistic category... you really don't know the half of it. The question really is "when?", not "if?". See you in there, even if it takes 10 years.