Second life has been referred to as a game. But a game consists of scores, winners or losers, levels and strategies. There are games inside second life, but the game itself is not a game. Second life consists of avatars. These are digital creations of ones self. Another way I look at it is how the Nintendo Wii has the Mii’s. One feature of an avatar that i find to be interesting is how an avater can move around their digital surroundings. An avatar can walk, run and jump. A feature that is very interesting is that an avatar can also fly. Like in reality, an avatar can also drive a car. An avatar can use a vehicle for status, transportation and also racing. With racing in mind, there are also race tracks that have been built for racing. But if an avatar wants to travel anywhere instantaneously, an avatar can also teleport. An avatar can be created using a digital 3d tool as well. It allows a user to design their avatar anyway they want them to look. It allows a user to be creative and express their imaginations.

Just when you though your first life was too much to handle…they offered you a second one.  Second Life embodies the fantasies of its users; your second life is everything you want it to be.  Yet, amoung numerous opportunites to seek adventure and run a business, second life offers people the opportunity to hide behind a mask and socialize.  The average avatar, the virtual represenation of the person, looks nothing like its user.  Inherently wrong?, I think not, but to what extent can someone pretend to living an “imaginary” life before being a virtual puppeter moves from hobby to a livelihood?  As an online multiplayer environment with unlimited potential does Second Life pose the same problems that exist in other MMO’s like World of Warcraft.  Yahoo Game’s recently told the story of WOW causing such marital discord that a couple divorced.  Now I’m not saying that Second Life will increase the divorce rate in America, but I’m sure that it will impact the way relationships are conducted.  Does a digital date count as cheating, is intellectual property extended to the digital realm, these are questions that address real life issues and are taking on new meaning in Second Life.  A European software company Vollee thinks that second life shouldn’t end on the computer, but is developing a second life application for cell phones, so users can bring their second life into their first.  Second Life offers unlimited potential for creativity, entrepreneurship, and fantasy, but every action falls on a spectrum and that line begins to fade more and more as the distinction between reality and fiction becomes blurred.

Massively multiplayer online games have been in existence since the early days of the Internet. Ultima Online pioneered the way for other, more advanced games. To complement such games, sites were created to sell in-game currency, items, and even characters for real money. Ebay only helped to fuel this revolution. But the sale of in-game content in the real world has been traditionally looked upon as a bad thing. Game developers have tried to stop individuals from profiting from their actions in-game, but was this ever really such a bad thing to begin with? From the developers’ perspective, this could upset the in-game economy, but for a game such as Second Life, the game world thrives from this sort of action.

Given how long the sale of in-game content has been going on, I am very surprised it has taken someone this long to create a game where this behavior is encouraged. A game called Project Entropia attempted to make a simplistic version of working real money into a game possible, but never took off, but then again, it never offered the freedom of Second Life. Aside from possibly research information and product marketing (and even then they will only reach on a certain type of person and percentage of the population) I am not sure why a business would want to waste time with Second Life, but hey, if there is money to be made in Second Life, the entrepreneurs will milk it.

As disturbing as Second Life initially appears, it has the potential to do wonders for the trades and businesses of the real world. I’m finding that it can be as real as one allows or it can be kept at a healthy distance. Based upon my minimal understanding of the site, I perceive it as almost a trial run for various entrepreneurial ideas. This can be extended to any novel endeavors people may wish to attempt. For example, an average Joe aspires to become a teacher. Having a lack of confidence in his tangible abilities, he tests the educational waters in his Second Life with great success, and later applies his experience to the real world. While this is more an example of personal advancement than business success, one could also test a new business idea in a Second Life situation. Second Life offers the opportunity to create anything, literally. Shopping is highly encouraged and rapidly executed with millions of Lindan dollars (official currency of Second Life) exchanged in 2007. I would be interested to see the results of a tested business idea from a grover Business Plan Competition participant.

While Second Life does provide a trial-run frontier for business idea, it can also skip the practice and go straight to the real deal. Second Life claims that some of its users make all of the real world income from the site. I’m still unsure as to how exactly this is done. However, a different approach to the realities of Second Life has been taken by several religious organizations. For example, church’s have taken the initiative to open virtual meeting places within Second Life. In early 2007, LifeChurch.tv, a Christian church headquarterred in Edmond, Oklahoma, and with 11 real world campuses in the USA, created “Experience Island” and opened its 12th campus in Second Life. The church has claimed success thus far with its members experiencing, ” a less-threatening environment where people are much more willing to explore and discuss spiritual things.” This very real, spiritual approach to Second Life gives it Life a whole new spin against the imaginary business world discussed above.

While Second Life seems to have a eary and onimous perception, could it bridge the lotfy gap between fiction and reality for struggling entrepreneurs and even missionaries?

I found it interesting that Second Life was influenced by a novel, Snow Crash. It is remarkable that something which used to be science fiction is now becoming a reality. The concept behind Second Life seems to be significant. Snow Crash tells of a world called the Metaverse, a sort of successor to the internet. This virtual reality world functions in the novel much like a combination of a modern economy added to the internet. It is essentially a virtual-reality based internet.

SecondLife takes the concept in a slightly different direction, creating a product which is virtual reality in general. SecondLife seems to be a jump, as it does not consider itself to be a video game, nor is it a social networking community. Rather, it is a combination between the two. This step in the evolution of technology into the everyday lives of people might be significant in the near future.

After watching the video that was posted, a few thoughts spring to mind. One being that while in one sense the development of a site like second life is a little scary, it doesn’t seem like much of a stretch. Even before the age of Web 2.0 and video games, people have enjoyed the idea of being someone else or having a life different from the one you actually have as a form of entertainment. The game of Life anyone? While I know that Second Life is a far cry from the board game, it draws on the same desire. Games like Counterstrike, World of Warcraft, the various versions of Sims, and other interactive games allow us to be people other than who we really are and lead a different life in an alternate reality. As someone else said earlier, these games allow you to be the god of your own universe. While the frameworks of these games do allow for consequences, they come with luxuries like multiple lives and the all powerful restart option. The danger of things like Second Life arises when they become addictive, which they often do, to the point that they cause the user to withdraw from their real life and become more focused on the advancement of their alternate persona than their actual one.

From an entrepreneurial perspective, Second Life is genius. It allows for product testing and marketing strategies to be developed and tested on real people before putting large amounts of real money into a campaign or idea. In my very limited understanding of the site, it appears as though it can be used as a playground for the development and testing of new ideas, which seems like a cool idea to me. However, I would be worried if a company ever became profitable by dealing solely in the Second Life world.

Having never actually used the site, it’s hard to form concrete opinions one way or another on the issue but it seems to me that if people used if for the capabilities in terms of development that you don’t have in real life doesn’t sound so bad. However, the fact is that I’m sure some users are not using it to supplement their actual lives and businesses but to replace them. For example, spending so much time walking around meeting other “avatars” that you never leave your computer to meet with real people or abandoning efforts to market to real people to focus on “avatars”.

In conclusion, I think that some of the possibilities that the site offers are kind of cool, but as with all technology, it can become dangerous if allowed to consume too much of our real lives.