Second Life

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{{Infobox CVG |title = Second Life |image = Image:Second Life.png |developer = Linden Lab |publisher = Linden Lab |designer = Linden Lab |engine = proprietary |version = 1.9 |released = 2003 |genre = MMO |modes = Multiplayer |ratings = |platforms = Mac OS X, Windows, Linux (alpha) |media = download |requirements = 256 MB RAM, 32 MB VRAM |input = Keyboard, Mouse }} Image:Seclife-logo1.gif Second Life is a privately-owned, subscription-based massively-multiplayer online real-life game (MMORLG) created in 2003 by San Francisco-based Linden Lab. Founded by former RealNetworks CTO Philip Rosedale, Second Life gives its users (referred to as "residents") tools to add to and edit its world and participate in its economy. The majority of the content in the Second Life world is resident-created. Linden Lab actively promotes the concept that residents retain the intellectual property rights to objects they create (although they are required to offer Linden Lab an open license to it [1]).

Contents

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Avatars

Residents of Second Life are represented in the environment by an avatar, which may be customized in a variety of ways. Often this is humanoid in shape, but not always. Residents can attach objects to their avatars to further customize them--the attachments can be something as simple as a pair of glasses, or something as complex as a costume to make the avatar look like something else entirely, such as a cartoon character or a Clone Trooper. It is also possible for residents to upload and implement animations in BVH format for their avatars. These animations can be made with the free program Avimator that is made specifically for SL, Poser, or they can be acquired via motion capture.

Common applications of altering character appearance have included animals, robots, mechs, furries|Zoophiles and avatars totally non-humanoid. "Tinies", a form of highly customized/tweaked avatar that is roughly one-third normal avatar height, were introduced into Second Life in 2005 and are rapidly gaining popularity.

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Objects

Second Life includes a built-in object editor tool that allows residents to create complex objects out of a set of basic building blocks known as primitives (prims). The environment includes a set of textures that users can apply to their objects, and residents can upload and apply their own images as well (for a 10 Linden dollar fee). Uploaded images can be in JPEG, Windows bitmap (BMP), or Truevision TGA format. JPEGs, although smaller in file size, are not recommended since images will be converted to JPEG2000 format anyway. TGA files have the advantage of alpha channel transparency.

Residents can apply scripts to created objects, thereby controlling the behavior of the objects within the environment. Second Life uses its own scripting language, called Linden Scripting Language (LSL). LSL has a syntax similar to C, and allows objects to interact with the Second Life world, as well as the Internet (via email and XML-RPC). Second Life uses Havok for simulated physics, though not all objects in the world respond to physics. An upcoming update will supposedly include Havok 2 support, an improvement that Second Life residents have awaited since its announcement by Linden Lab before June, 2002.

All objects and 3D information are streamed in real-time to all clients. This allows for real-time editing of 3D objects so any resident can view what is being created, as it is being created. The interface for creating and editing objects is integrated with the world and requires no external program to use, but the editing of textures requires external software from third parties (e.g. Adobe Photoshop, Corel Paint Shop Pro, or The GNU Image Manipulation Program - the GIMP).

Although there is no additional charge for creating objects in Second Life, there is a $L10 cost for every image, sound, or animation that is uploaded.

With all the diverse content, there has been a large rise in objects created to simply spam the world. Also, with hackers like DeuteriumOxide breaking down script barriers and other restrictions on usable items, latency and low framerates can drag down even the fastest of systems. Whether or not Linden Labs is aware of the issue, there has been little progress in updating the game engine to cope with such issues.

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Requirements

Second Life is available for PCs (1 GHz Pentium III or better, with at least 512MB RAM) with Windows XP (SP2) or Windows 2000 (SP4) and Macs (1GHz G4 or better, with at least 512MB RAM) with Mac OS X 10.3.8 or higher. A Linux alpha client (i686) that has been tested on Debian, Fedora Core, and Knoppix is currently available for download and testing, and runs with a few limitations.

The graphics require either an nVidia GeForce 2 or better graphics card or an ATI Radeon 8500 (9000 for Macs) graphics card. Second Life also requires a 21MB (Windows) or 32MB (Mac OS X) client download, and will consume up to 1GB of disk space for cache. A broadband Internet connection is required, and dial-up users cannot participate because of the kbps rating. Current system requirements are posted at the web site.

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Pricing

Second Life currently has four pricing tiers (all prices in United States dollars):

  • Basic Access -- First-time Basic Accounts are free. Additional basic accounts have a one-time fee of $9.95 each.
  • Premium Monthly -- $9.95/month (billed monthly)
  • Premium Quarterly -- $7.50/month (billed quarterly)
  • Premium Annual -- $6.00/month (billed annually)

Basic memberships receive 50 Linden dollars (the in-world currency) each week they log on; Premium memberships receive 500 every week, regardless of logging in or not, and also have the ability to own up to 512m2 of land without additional cost. Owning larger areas of land ("parcels") attracts an increasing additional charge (known to users as "tier") ranging from $5 a month up to $195 a month for an entire 65536 square meter simulator.

A credit card, compatible mobile phone (the mobile phone option doesn't appear to be available in Europe yet), or PayPal account is required on all accounts for age verification, and 7-day free trials come with all paid accounts. Second Life requires users to be at least 18 years of age; access to Teen Second Life is limited to individuals between the ages of 13-17 and requires the consent of the individual's parent or legal guardian and a valid credit card.

It should be noted that the pricing plan for SL has varied over time. Previous versions did not feature free first-time Basic Accounts. Early pre-1.2 users had the option of a lifetime subscription for a one-time payment of $225, which, at the time of 1.2 launch and the introduction of tiered land payments, turned into a lifetime tier-free ownership of 4096m2 of land.

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Subcultures and Countercultures

Second Life is comprised of rich, diverse, user-driven subcultures and countercultures.

Some Second Life cultures revolve around established "groups." Groups can be created by any user as long as there are at least 3 members and a fee of 100 Linden dollars (2 weeks' stipend for a basic account). Users are given 3 days to recruit 3 members, or their investment is lost. The groups that each user belongs to are displayed in that user's profile.

Each group comprises officers and members, with titles determined by group leadership. The officer or member title may appear superimposed above the name of the user's avatar. Users may participate in up to 15 groups, and may choose which group's title to display at any given time. Group activity is usually centered on a particular interest, so creating groups can give people a common ground for discussion and provide an easy way to break the ice. Some groups maintain websites to bridge the gap between real life (referred to as "first life", or abbreviated to "RL" for "real-life") and Second Life (SL) interests.

Groups are allowed "ownership" of land and resources, so they comprise the closest thing to a corporation within the Second Life environment.

Aside from groups, many of the subcultures found in Second Life revolve around events. Events include many activities related to arts/culture, charity/support groups, commercial, discussion, education, games/contests, nightlife/entertainment, pageants, and sports.

Second Life is also being influenced by many internet phenomena which include the Moskau Dance, Ulae, and Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Many of these memes are in the form of gestures, which are animations that the avatar uses. Often humorous, these gestures are a cause of internet culture spread in Second Life.

Second Life blogs are also rapidly popping up across the Internet. Here, users detail their second lives, sometimes more extensively than their first lives.

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Economy

Second Life has its own economy and a currency referred to as Linden dollars (L$). Residents receive an amount of L$ when they open an account, and a weekly stipend thereafter, the amount depending on the type of account. Additional L$s are aquired by selling objects or services within the environment. Residents may purchase L$ directly or convert between Linden currency and US currency through Linden Lab's currency brokerage, the LindeX Currency Exchange. The ratio of US$ to L$ fluctuates daily as residents set the buy and sell price of L$ offered on the exchange. Linden Lab has stated that the Second Life economy generates an average of $500,000(US) in economic activity each week.

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Issues & Criticisms

A number of difficult issues have arisen within the operation of Second Life, both as an online game and a virtual world.

  • The nature of roles and enjoyment in the economy: Because there are no entry-level jobs, and creating content requires the user to have real-world talent, many users find themselves with very limited amounts of money and the source of enjoyment for such users is not clear. In many cases, the most popular locations in-world are those with "camping chairs" which pay users a small amount just for sitting on them (funded from the money paid by Linden Lab to the owners of popular areas).
  • The role of the in-world currency: Linden Lab have been criticized for marketing SL as a viable business channel for making real money, while at the same time including provisions in the Terms of Service which give Linden Dollars no legal value, so that (for instance) Linden Lab are not required to pay any compensation if they are lost from the database.
  • The effect of changes made by SL's developers upon the in-world economy: Certain changes made or proposed by the developers have had the effect of creating new markets, but also have on occasion destroyed or removed the value of existing ones, or given the market leader at a particular (often arbitrary) time unique advantages that entrench them as a market leader in the future, thus creating a coercive monopoly.
  • Favoritism: Some have complained that a group of residents referred to as the "FIC" (Feted Inner Core) use their connections with Linden Lab staff to trigger policy changes that are beneficial to themselves at the expense of others and that these policies by Linden Lab staff are arbitrary and selective. The phrase "Feted Inner Core" was coined by SecondLife resident Prokofy Neva. In addition, users who own large amounts of land (and thus pay larger subscriptions) are generally seen to have greater influence on Linden Lab due to the financial loss in removing them.
  • The balance between users' ability to edit the world and their ability to damage or disrupt it: Second Life has been attacked several times by groups of residents abusing the creation tools to create objects that infinitely reproduce, eventually overwhelming the servers.
  • The land sales system: Building any permanent in-world object requires the purchase of land and an increased monthly subscription. A number of people deliberately "play" the land market for profit, leaving other people who just want to build resentful of being forced to pay extra money to a middle man. Also, the high monthly charges have resulted in buildings being focused on those which can make money in-world, reducing the variety available.
  • Lack of zoning: With minor exceptions, Linden Lab has not placed any zoning or content restrictions on what land owners can place on their real estate. This has resulted in a wide variety of architectural variations, frequently with mixed success. The lack of zoning is also a prime target for graffiti, deliberately obstructive and/or offensive content with the intent of defacing the local view. Such proneness to vandalism has been leveraged on occasion as a low-level form of extortion, destroying the quality of the local view in an attempt to force neighbors to buy the offending parcel of land at greatly overpriced value.
  • Land cost: SL land is expensive and very limited in terms of prim count and size for what is charged for it. Compared to Active Worlds, SL's land is outrageously overpriced.
  • Abuse Reports/ Linden Help: Many abuse reports are filed but few seem to be resolved to any effect. It seems even priority is given to cases and its been known that some people get a turn around of 30 minutes or less for minor violations while others have to wait for days. All abuse report decisions are kept private, due to privacy concerns with other customers. Lindens in game do not really seem to help with abuse issues or problems most of the time.
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Notable Residents

Listed alphabetically by first name

Most Second Life users prefer to keep their first life and second life separate. This anonymity makes it difficult to determine the identity and number of users who live notable first lives.

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Second Life as the Metaverse

Second Life is one of several virtual worlds that have been inspired by the science fiction novel Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. The stated goal of Linden Lab is to create a world like the metaverse described in Snow Crash: A user-defined world of general use in which people can interact, play, do business, and otherwise communicate.

In many ways, though, Second Life more resembles the less polished environment of The Other Plane in Vernor Vinge's early novella True Names.

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Open Standards

Linden Lab is currently replacing several proprietary portions of Second Life with open standards; open source technologies such as Apache and squid are already being used. Throughout 2006, the built-in instant messaging system will be replaced with Jabber, and the current proprietary built-in virtual machine will be replaced with Mono. Linden Lab is also working on an Open GL port of the browser Mozilla, called uBrowser, that will be included in the SL client to enable using webpages as textures on the in-world 3D objects. The plan is to eventually move everything to open standards and standardize the Second Life protocol. Cory Ondrejka, Vice President of Product Development, has stated that a while after everything has been standardized, both the client and the server will be released as open source [2], probably in 2010+.

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Trivia

  • When objects are created or instantiated in-world, and then downloaded into the user's computer, they are said to "rez"--a reference to the Disney movie Tron. This also appears in the environment's internal scripting language, where the command to create an object is llRezObject().
  • Linden Lab itself is named after Linden Avenue, the street where the company's first office was opened. Many of the areas of SL are named after streets or alleys around the San Francisco area; the very first area of the world to be set up was (and still is) named Da Boom, a combined reference to DeBoom Alley in San Francisco and to the Big Bang.
  • Cultural anthropologist, Thomas Malaby at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, is studying both Second Life and Linden Lab to understand the "relationships among modernity, unpredictability, and technology, particularly as they are realized through games and game-like processes." (Source: http://www.uwm.edu/~malaby/ )
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Competitors

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Screenshots

Avatar customization in Second Life; over 200 settings to tweak

Building/modifying an object in Second Life with the in-world 3D modeling tools

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External Links

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Forums

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Books

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Blogs

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Newspapers

  • Metaverse Messenger - a free weekly newspaper about Second Life. It began publication on 9 August 2005. Its publishers are Katt Kongo and Phoenix Psaltery (the names of their "avatars" in Second Life). The Messenger is published as a full color, high resolution PDF file.
  • Second Life Herald - Originally established by Peter Ludlow in The Sims Online in the autumn of 2003, the Second Life Herald publishes daily stories on events in Second Life and other virtual worlds, combining a tabloid sensibility with an exploration of questions of free speech and governance in the expanding metaverse.
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Podcasts

  • SecondCast - A weekly panel discussion podcast about Second Life culture, content development, and upcoming events. The first episode of SecondCast was published February 19, 2006. The show is hosted by avatar Johnny Ming.
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Artists operating within Second Life

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