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Second Life

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This article explains the virtual world. For the theory of multiple lives, see Reincarnation.
Second Life
Second Life
Developer(s)Linden Lab
Publisher(s)Linden Lab
Designer(s)Linden Lab
EngineProprietary
Platform(s)Mac OS X (10.3.9 or higher)

Windows

Linux i686
Release2003
Genre(s)Virtual world
Mode(s)Multiplayer (online only)

Second Life (SL) is a privately owned, partly subscription-based 3-D virtual world, made publicly available in 2003 by San Francisco-based Linden Lab,[2] and founded by former RealNetworks CTO Philip Rosedale. Users can visit this virtual world almost as if it were a real place. They explore, meet new people, participate in individual and group activities, and, if they decide to visit often, they learn new skills and mature socially (in the sense of learning the culture of the virtual world).

The Second Life "world" is simulated by a large array of servers, known collectively as "the grid," that are owned and maintained by Linden Lab.[3] A Second Life client program provides its users (often referred to as Residents)[4] with tools to view and modify the SL world and participate in its virtual economy. The economy operates as a real market. Residents buy and sell to one another, and the virtual currency is exchangeable for US$. As of December 2006, ten to twenty thousand users are in SL at any one time.

At 8:05:45 AM PDT, October 18, 2006, the number of registered accounts in Second Life reached one million.[5] Eight weeks later, on December 14, 2006, this number doubled to two million[6], and that rapid growth continues. However, there is a difference between registered accounts and unique, returning users. Many accounts are created by users who log in once or a few times and never return, and some regular users have multiple active accounts. One analysis of the economy of Second Life suggests that the number of regular users is around 100,000.[7]

Second Life as the Metaverse

Second Life is one of several virtual worlds that have been inspired by the the cyberpunk literary movement, and particularly by Neal Stephenson's novel Snow Crash. The stated goal of Linden Lab is to create a world like the Metaverse described by Stephenson, a user-defined world of general use in which people can interact, play, do business, and otherwise communicate. [citation needed] Despite its prominence, Second Life has notable competitors, among them Active Worlds, considered by some to be the founding company of the 3D internet concept in 1997, [citation needed] There, and newcomers such as Entropia Universe and the Dotsoul Cyberpark.

External websites such as SL Census (domain now parked) allow Residents to locate each other from outside of the virtual world, and SLURL allows external links through the Second Life World Map to locations in-world.

Residents

Main article: Resident (Second Life)

Residents are the users of Second Life, and their appearance is their avatar. A single person may have multiple accounts, and thus appear to be multiple Residents (a person's multiple accounts are referred to as alts). Also, a single Resident's appearance in SL can vary dramatically from day to day, as avatars are easily modified.

Creation

One of the distinguishing characteristics of Second Life is that the residents, not Linden Lab, create most of the content of the world. The resident avatars are one example.

There is a 3D modeling tool in SL that allows any resident with the right skills to build virtual buildings, landscape, vehicles, furniture, and machines to use, trade, or sell. This is a primary source of activity in the economy. Any resident can also make gestures from small animations and sounds from the standard library. Outside SL, users can use various graphics, animation, and sound tools to create more elaborate items, and upload them into the world. Once the creation is in the world of SL, the system makes efforts to help protect the intellectual property of the content creator.

Second Life also includes a rich and powerful scripting language, called Linden Scripting Language, or LSL. This is used to add autonomous behavior to many of the objects in SL, such as doors that open when approached.

See also Resident (Second Life).

Intellectual property rights in Second Life

In Second Life, the resident that creates some item and the resident that owns an item retain certain rights, simulating and in some ways enhancing the intellectual property rights available in the real world. The creator can mark an item as "no copy," which means that no copies of it can be made by others, "no mod," which means that others may not modify the item's characteristics, and "no trans," which means that the current owner may not give it to another. In addition, these rights can be set for future owners. That is, an item that is copyable and transferable might become non-transferable once it has been transferred. For example, A' creates, and gives to B. B can give to as many Cs as he wishes, but the Cs will not be able to give.

In the Second Life forums, one can find cases where some technical method of copying or redistributing protected items has been discovered. In these cases, a heated discussion follows, with Linden Lab claiming to do the best it can to protect creators' rights. [citation needed]

Live music

Live music denotes the performance of vocal and instrumental music by Second Life Residents from their homes and studios, played into microphones, uploaded to audio streams, and played into Second Life for the enjoyment of other residents. This started with performances by Astrin Few in May 2004 [8] and began to gain popularity mid 2005 [9]. Linden Lab added an Event Category "Live Music" in March 2006 to accommodate the increasing number of scheduled events.[10]

Live musicians in Second Life are typically already musicians in the real world, using Second Life as a way to reach broader audiences.[citation needed] Most artists perform individually with vocal and one instrument using their Second Life Avatar Name.[citation needed]

Virtual world economy

Main article: Economy of Second Life

Second Life has its own economy and a currency referred to as Linden Dollars (L$). Residents create new goods and services, and buy and sell them in the Second Life virtual world. There are also currency exchanges where residents can exchange US$ or other real world currencies for L$. These exchanges are open markets, except that Linden Lab sometimes buys or sells Linden dollars to attempt to keep the exchange rate relatively stable.

A small percentage of residents derive net incomes from this economy, ranging from a few hundred to several thousand US$ per month. A larger percentage derive a gross income large enough to offset most of their expenditures in L$. However, most residents are pure consumers. [citation needed]

Virtual land

Main article: Real estate (Second Life)

Premium members can own land (up to 512m2 without additional fees). Owning larger areas of land incurs an additional fee (which Linden Lab calls "tier") ranging from US$5 a month up to US$295 a month for 65,536m2 of land or individual island.[11] [12]

Linden Lab sells land to new residents in small 512m2 lots (e.g., 16 by 32 meters) through its First Land program. It also sells 16 acre (65536m2) regions. Once they own it, residents may buy and sell their land to other Residents. some residents do this primarily to make a profit by selling the plots of land at a price higher than the original purchase cost.[citation needed]

Practical information

Pricing

It is possible, and quite common, to join SL for free. A free account has most of the rights and obligations of a paid account, lacking primarily the right to own land (with the concomitant obligation to pay "tier", a sort of property tax). Many activities in SL that are free, but others cost money, payable in Linden dollars (SL's in-world currency; see Economy). For example, goods and services may be charged for by other users — these charges are not set by Linden Lab, and so are not included under membership pricing, but are simply part of the economy of Second Life.

A Premium membership also includes a weekly stipend, somewhat offsetting the membership payment. Though the stipend is paid in Linden dollars, these are easily exchangeable for real currency.

Membership plans [13]

  • Basic — Free
  • Additional Basic — one time fee of US$9.95
  • Premium — There are three billing options for Premium accounts:
    • Monthly — US$9.95
    • Quarterly — US$22.50 (US$7.50/month)
    • Annually — US$72.00 (US$6.00/month)

All account types receive a signup bonus in Linden dollars if payment details are provided — L$250 for Basic and Additional Basic, L$1000 for Premium. Providing payment details for Basic accounts is optional.

The pricing plan has varied over time. Earlier versions did not feature free first-time Basic Accounts, or required a fee paid for every basic account beyond the first. During the beta period, Residents had the option of a lifetime subscription for a one-time payment of US$225.00. After the release of SL 1.2 and the introduction of tiered land payments, this turned into a lifetime tier-free ownership of 4096m2 of land.

Stipends

Eligible Residents receive stipends once a week - Basic and Additional Basic accounts have to log in during the weekly period in order to receive theirs, whereas Premium accounts receive the stipend regardless of account activity.

Basic and Additional Basic accounts are not currently eligible for a stipend:[14] [15]

  • Those registered before May 29, 2006 receive L$50/week
  • Those registered after May 29, 2006 receive no stipend

Stipends for Premium accounts have also changed over time:[16] [17]

  • Those registered before July 21, 2006 receive L$500/week
  • Those registered before November 1, 2006 receive L$400/week
  • Those registered on or after November 1, 2006 receive L$300/week.

Note that the stipends are paid in Linden dollars, and that the exchange rate from L$ to US$ floats according to a real market. So, L$300 today might be worth more than L$400 was last year.

Upgrades

Every few weeks, a new version of both the client and the servers is deployed, intending to fix problems and make improvements to usability, performance, and security. The SL user-base is growing rapidly, and this has stimulated both social and technological changes to the world. These kinds of changes will likely continue for the foreseeable future.[citation needed] Some old-timers are uncomfortable with these changes, but most seem to adapt in a short time after a period of uproar. [citation needed]

In August 2006, the group tools received many improvements:

  • Ability to be members of up to 25 groups; previous limit was 15
  • Minimum group membership count reduced to 2; previous requirement was minimum of 3
  • Improved communication
  • Sending objects to everyone in a group (also possible to implement with LSL)
  • Defining roles and capabilities of roles (roles will be similar to the current Officer and Member title system)

In November 2006, pricing increased for high-end users, that is, users who purchase large amounts of land. In the same month, the tools for managing lists of friends in SL were revamped, in particular in ways that increased individual privacy somewhat.

Open standards

Linden Lab is an avid user of open standards technologies, and already uses such Open-source technologies such as Apache and Squid.[18] The plan is to move everything to open standards by standardizing 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.[19]

  1. Throughout 2006 the built-in instant messaging system will be replaced with Jabber[20]
  2. The current proprietary LSL virtual machine will be replaced with Mono[21]
  3. uBrowser, an OpenGL port of the Gecko rendering engine, which has been used in the client since version 1.10.1 [22] to display the Help documentation, will also be used to display webpages on any of the surfaces of any 3D object the user creates.

Clients

Linden Lab provides a user client for Windows and OSX. There are also clients for some distributions of Linux. Support for the Linux client is open source. On forums.secondlife.com, owners of Intel-based Macintosh systems have reported that the Mac OS X client and the Windows client running under Boot Camp run about equally well.[citation needed] OS X clients are Universal applications. Because the universal binary is about twice the size of the Windows binary, it takes longer to download.[23]

Client upgrades are usually mandatory; the old client will not work with the new version of the server software.

Second Life protocol

Main article: libsecondlife

In May 2006 it was revealed that the Second Life protocol had been reverse-engineered. A wiki was set up to further the effort.[24]

Since Linden Labs has allowed third party programs to access Second Life,[25] a project called libsecondlife has been established. Among functions developed are a map API, recently-removed the ability to create objects larger than normally allowed, and other unforeseen capabilities.[citation needed]

Teen Second Life

Main article: Teen Second Life

Teen Second Life was developed in early 2005 for people aged 13-17 to play Second Life, without entering false-information to participate in the Adult Grid. The Teen Grid and the 18+ Main Grid are different in several ways. In particular:

  • As its name suggests, the Teen Grid is for teenage users. Overage users found to be fraudulently accessing the Teen Grid (e.g. by being over 18 and lying on the registration form) face banning from all areas of Second Life (website, Teen and Main Grid) designated teen only.[26]
  • The Teen Grid is a fraction of the size of the Adult Grid, and has significantly fewer Resident owned estates.[27] [28]
  • The Teen Community Standards prohibit mature content, including strong language and nudity.[29]

Businesses and Organizations in Second Life

Main article: Businesses and Organizations in Second Life
For information on Residents, and Residents who have achieved notoriety through Second Life, see Resident (Second Life)

A combination of Linden Lab granting Second Life Residents IP rights over their content,[30] and legal trading of the in world currency "Linden Dollars" (L$)[31] has encouraged the creation of solely in-world business and user-groups, the creation of legally registered companies that were previously solely in-world, and the in-world participation of previously unrelated companies and organisations.[citation needed]

Issues and criticisms

Due to constant development, and as an open environment accessible by almost anyone with access to the internet,[32] a number of difficult issues have arisen around Second Life. Issues range from the technical (Mac OS X client, Budgeting of server resources), to moral (Pornography), to legal (Legal position of the Linden Dollar, Linden Lab lawsuit). In September 2006, there were also issues with customer security.

Unverified Users

Prior to June 6, 2006, all users were required to verify their identities by providing Linden Lab with a valid credit card or PayPal account number, or by responding to a cell phone SMS text message. [33] (Users providing payment information were not charged if their account type cost nothing to create.) After that date, it became possible to create an account with only an e-mail address; even standard verification methods such as e-mail reply verification are not used.[34] This is an ongoing controversial topic as residents have argued that, since all security is based on an avatar's name, allowing free registration effectively eliminates it:[citation needed] if someone is banned from a particular area, or revealed to be a trickster or scam artist, they can simply create a new account with a different avatar name. Their new name is not on the ban lists and there is no way for anyone in world to know they are the same person again.

Linden Lab has the ability to ban unverified users from Second Life based on a hardware hash of their local PC,[35] preventing them from returning with other accounts, but this is an extreme measure and only rarely taken[citation needed], and may be inappropriate if multiple users use the same computer.

Trivia

  • When objects are created (or instantiated) in-world and then transferred to 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().[36]
  • Linden Lab itself is named after Linden Street, the street where the company's first office was opened.[citation needed] Many of the simulators of SL are named after streets or alleys around the San Francisco area; the very first sim 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.[citation needed]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Community: Linux Client Alpha". Linden Lab. Retrieved 2006-11-24. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  2. ^ Parker, Sam (June 23, 2003). "Second Life goes live". Yahoo!. Retrieved 2006-11-14. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  3. ^ "Grid". Second Life History Wiki. Retrieved 2006-11-14. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  4. ^ "Resident". Second Life History Wiki. Retrieved 2006-11-14. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  5. ^ Linden, Pathfinder (October 18, 2006). "When *precisely* did we hit 1 million Residents?". Linden Lab. Retrieved 2006-11-14. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  6. ^ Terdiman, Daniel (December 14, 2006). "'Second Life' hits second million in eight weeks". Cnet News. Retrieved 2006-12-14. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  7. ^ Johnson, Bobbie. "Are there really two million people using Second Life?". Retrieved 2006-12-21.
  8. ^ "SL Live Music: The Musicians". Retrieved 2006-12-27. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  9. ^ "Metaverse Messenger: Tuesday, August 9, 2006" (PDF). Metaverse Messenger. August 9, 2006. Retrieved 2006-11-25. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  10. ^ "Version 1.9, Build 18: Other Changes". SL History Wiki. Retrieved 2006-11-25. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  11. ^ "Land Pricing & Use Fees". Linden Lab. Retrieved 2006-11-24. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  12. ^ "Land: Islands". Linden Lab. Retrieved 2006-11-24. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  13. ^ "Membership Plans". Linden Lab. Retrieved 2006-11-24. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  14. ^ Linden, Robin (May 26, 2006). "Change to Stipend Policy". Retrieved 2006-11-24. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  15. ^ Linden, Chris (June 6, 2006). "Exciting Second Life Registration Changes". Retrieved 2006-11-24. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  16. ^ Linden, Philip (July 17, 2006). "Linden Dollar Economy Announcement". Retrieved 2006-11-24. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  17. ^ Linden, Robin (October 15, 2006). "SL Economy - Stipend change for new accounts". Retrieved 2006-11-24. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  18. ^ Greenemeier, Larry (October 17, 2005). "Open Doors To Innovation". InformationWeek. Retrieved 2006-11-14. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  19. ^ "LugRadio Episode 42- I'm an excellent driver". LugRadio. January 16, 2006. Retrieved 2006-11-24. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  20. ^ Walsh, Tony (January 17, 2006). "'Second Life' To Go Open Source… Eventually". Clickable Culture. Retrieved 2006-11-24. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  21. ^ Linden, Babbage (August 1, 2006). "Second Life in Mono". Linden Lab. Retrieved 2006-11-24. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  22. ^ "Version 1.10.1". SL History Wiki. Retrieved 2006-11-24. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  23. ^ Linden Lab. "Community: Downloads". Retrieved 2006-11-18.
  24. ^ "SL Protocol Wiki". libsecondlife. Retrieved 2006-11-24. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  25. ^ "libsecondlife FAQ". libsecondlife. Retrieved 2006-11-26.
  26. ^ "Teen Second Life Terms of Service". Linden Lab. Retrieved 2006-11-24. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  27. ^ "Map of Teen Grid". SL Maps. November 24, 2006. Retrieved 2006-11-24. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  28. ^ "Map of Main Grid". SL Maps. November 24, 2006. Retrieved 2006-11-24. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  29. ^ "Teen Second Life Community Standards". Linden Lab. Retrieved 2006-11-24. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  30. ^ "Second Life Terms of Service". Linden Lab. Retrieved 2006-11-18.
  31. ^ "LindeX: Currency Exchange". Linden Lab. Retrieved 2006-12-08.
  32. ^ "Second Life System Requirements". Linden Lab. Retrieved 2006-11-25. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  33. ^ "What if I don't have a credit card, SMS, or Paypal?". Linden Lab Knowledge Base. Retrieved 2006-05-16. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  34. ^ Linden, Daniel (2006-06-15). "Abuse Levees Holding". Official Linden Blog. Retrieved 2006-12-14. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  35. ^ Linden, Robin (2006-06-27). "[UPDATE] Open Registration". Official Linden Blog. Retrieved 2006-12-14. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  36. ^ "LSL Wiki: llRezObject()". LSL Wiki. Retrieved 2006-11-25. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)

Linden Lab

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