Second Life

“Second Life (abbreviated as SL) is an Internet-based virtual world launched on June 23, 2003, developed by Linden Research, Inc (commonly referred to as Linden Lab)…” - Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Life)

Users of the system, the residents, are represented in-world by their Avatar, a 3D figure who can walk , talk, change clothes , have a home and even a job within the virtual world. Currently there are number of virtual worlds accessed via the internet , Second Life is probably the most successful and promising for the future development. The number of users of SL has steadily risen such that there are now 12 million registered avatars and many billions of records in the various databases holding in-world information. SL runs on a grid of linked servers and databases which keep track of what is happening in-world. E.g. where your avatar is, how it is interacting with objects in-world. What do you own and what you are wearing.

After registering on www.secondlife.com your unique account will be created. This account will record your financial transactions and maintains your Linden Dollar (L$) balance. Your account can be linked to your PayPal Account. Linden Dollars are not monopoly money. It is real cash but in L$ rather than Rupees. Money can be moved in and out of SL very easily and as such Avatar has an account , the buying and selling of items is terribly easy, perhaps too easy. All objects in-world are owned by an Avatar, so when ownership changes it is easy to transfer the appropriate number Linden Dollars. To purchase you have to just click the mouse and money will be transferred.

Each avatar has virtual bag of objects carried around at all times visible by owner Avatar only. Your inventory can contain clothes, LSL(Linden scripting language) scripts ,animations etc. Objects can be of any type from finger rings,cloths,shoes,turbans etc. You can wear objects.

Avatars are human, so they can walk , but SL is very large now and growing day by day so walking everywhere would be tedious and time-consuming. So you can fly by just pressing the page-up. You can fly over buildings, you can fly from region to region. But flying also is tedious and time consuming so by just double clicking on a landmark in your inventory you can teleport from anywhere to instantly. Because teleporting is so easy and quick vehicles are not widely used.

Majority of residents use SL for leisure for leisure and education. There are number of café’s ,nightclubs , shopping malls and beaches along with busy educational campuses and colleges. SL life allows students to study in the comfort of their bedroom.3D environments like SL will develop and increase in popularity and use in coming years as SL has great business opportunity also.