I tried Second Life a year ago and I wasn’t really sure what it was before. It was more like a 3D chat system than a game.

What is Second Life?

According to the site: Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by a total of 6,985,668 people from around the globe.

• From the moment you enter the World you’ll discover a vast digital continent, teeming with people, entertainment, experiences and opportunity. Once you’ve explored a bit, perhaps you’ll find a perfect parcel of land to build your house or business.
• You’ll also be surrounded by the Creations of your fellow residents. Because residents retain the rights to their digital creations, they can buy, sell and trade with other residents.
• The Marketplace currently supports millions of US dollars in monthly transactions. This commerce is handled with the in-world unit-of-trade, the Linden dollar, which can be converted to US dollars at several thriving online Linden Dollar exchanges.

Graphics

Second Life’s graphics is really dependent on how the residents make it. You see in Second Life residents are given the power to create and design their own objects. The building tool is not as powerful as 3D Studio Max but it serves it purpose well seeing that it’s easy to learn although becoming an expert takes time and lots of practice.

Character Creation Fun

Before, I didn’t appreciate Second Life’s character creation process. I felt it was too complex but after having lots of fun creating various villains and heroes in City of Villains/Heroes I’m enjoying SL’s character creation. You can even create and save various looks for your avatar. There are even some avatars who change genders from male to female and vice versa. Freaky!!! That’s not all, you can change the way your avatar looks anywhere and anytime you feel like it.

Day and Night

Who cares? You can override it. If it’s night time and it’s too dark for you then change it back to noon. I always set my world lighting to noon.

Sound

Just like with graphics. Sounds vary from sim to sim. Some sims may have great sounds or may have objects that have great sound and some sims have crappy sounds.

Gameplay

Second Life is not really a game. It’s like the internet only in 3D. It has sites or places to visit. Like the internet, it has shops, banks, games, chat rooms, social clubs, etc. So, if you think you are going to slash monsters or shoot spaceships in Second Life then you are in the wrong place although SL has thm in-world. An example of a game in SL is Dark Life which is a roleplaying game.

In SL, you move around visiting various places and meeting people. You can even have virtual sex in SL. It’s cybersex in 3D! LOL! Business minded residents even established shops and malls in-world.

Lag and Community

Second Life has a great in-world community. You can meet and find new friends everywhere and anywhere in SL. Go to a club and chat with the avatars in there, soon you’ll have a long list of friends.

Lag is a big problem only in popular areas of SL and sometimes the lag some users experience are not really lag but bad frame rate because of a bad PC or a PC which is below the minimum specification to run SL. So, if you are lagging just find a new place to visit. Other areas, even with many people, don’t lag too much!

Fun Factor

In Second Life, you define what is fun for you. If having cyber sex is your idea of fun then go ahead and visit the many free sex areas scattered all over SL. If meeting new people and chatting with them is your idea of fun then there are lots of clubs you can visit. If you like games and other roleplaying stuff then just hit search and you will find them.

Right now, I enjoy creating shirts and undershirts for my avatar and I’m selling them too at SLExchange. That’s fun for me, trying to make money, hehehehe!

Price

Second Life’s basic account is FREE and it has everything a premium account has except the ability to buy and own land but who wants to own land anyway when you can rent land from the many real estate companies in SL if you truly want to have a place of your own.

Conclusion

Second Life is worth a try. Just remember that SL is more like the internet in 3D than a game. So, if you want to break from the grind of your current MMORPG or MMOG then try Second Life. Who knows, you might even like it!

By the way, if you are under 18 then I strongly suggest that you download and install Teen Second Life.

Click here to visit Second Life’s Official Website!