SecondLife, a Virtual World

SecondLife is my reason for not blogging for the past almost two months. Thus, this review.

SecondLife (tm owned by Linden Labs) is a virtual world where folks get to look hotter than they do in first life. There are almost no fat people in SecondLife and that includes me. In SecondLife, my hair actually does something, I am tall and thin and blonde and hawt enough to be working as a stripper earning mucho Lindens.

Lindens are the monetary exchange units there. People can buy lindens with their real money or can earn lindens by camping (doing a catwalk, dancing, cleaning, or sitting around), getting a virtual job, or going into business for themselves or with partners.

Some folks buy virtual land in SecondLife-- like me-- and others don't. Some folks go on luscious virtual shopping sprees and others-- me again-- rely on freebies to outfit our avatars. There is plenty to do on SecondLife. Within the past month and a half or so I've taken some classes, joined some groups, hung out with other avatars, gone camping, did some discussions, went to some A.A. meetings, built some houses (that look like someone with brain damage built them, accurate on all accounts), and gone exploring. I've danced and rollerskated, flown and crashed numerous times.

The minuses are easy to delineate: some folks can spend too much real money having a virtual good time; there are avatars there who spam, try to convert you to their religion, or pick you up for a freebie session of virtual sex; sexual organs (vaginas and penises) are available as freebies but to get the really good ones (that respond to virtual probing) one has to pluck down some Lindens, and all of the orientation islands are totally whacked out and confusing. Oh yeah, and there is the same superficiality that plagues the rest of the worldwide waste-- we don't really know just who we may be communicating with most of the time.

So is SecondLife worth the annoying grid lock-ups and crashes? Maybe. Each individual will have to answer that one individually. It depends. Guardedly neutral on this one folks.