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Second Life

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Second Life
File:Second Life logo.svg
The Second Life logo
Developer(s)Linden Research, Inc
Publisher(s)Linden Research, Inc
Designer(s)Linden Research, Inc
EngineProprietary, free, and open source software[1][2]
Physics: Havok
Audio: FMOD
Platform(s)Windows

Mac OS X (10.3.9 or higher)

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

Second Life (abbreviated as SL) is an Internet-based virtual world launched in 2003, developed by Linden Research, Inc (commonly referred to as Linden Lab), which came to international attention via mainstream news media in late 2006 and early 2007.[4][5] A downloadable client program called the Second Life Viewer enables its users, called "Residents", to interact with each other through motional avatars, providing an advanced level of a social network service combined with general aspects of a metaverse. Residents can explore, meet other Residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, create and trade items (virtual property) and services from one another.

Second Life is one of several virtual worlds that have been inspired by 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 in which people can interact, play, do business, and otherwise communicate.[6] Second Life's virtual currency is the Linden Dollar (Linden, or L$) and is exchangeable for real world currencies in a marketplace consisting of residents and Linden Lab.[citation needed]

While Second Life is sometimes referred to as a game, this description does not fit the standard definition. It does not have points, scores, winners or losers, levels, an end-strategy, or most of the other characteristics of games.

In all, more than 20 million accounts have been registered, although many are inactive, some Residents have multiple accounts, and there are no reliable figures for actual long term consistent usage. Despite its prominence, Second Life has notable competitors, including There, Active Worlds, Kaneva, and the erotic-oriented Red Light Center.

Features of the virtual world

Residents and avatars

Main article: Resident (Second Life)

In computing, in the context of Second Life, the term Resident is applied to "people who have a stake in the world":[7]

It was pretty early in the development of Second Life. One of my jobs was to come up with the different words we wanted to use, including the name! The naming discussions were usually between me, Philip, Hunter and Peter (both of whom aren't here any more) with feedback from everyone else.

When it came to what to call the people in the world, we knew we didn't want to call them 'users', although that would be the most typical thing for software. However, the word 'users' doesn't do a very good job of describing the two-way nature of Second Life, where the people involved are providing content and contributing to the experience.

We also thought about 'members' (boring!), 'citizens' (too political!), and 'players' (too game-y).

'Residents', however, seems most descriptive of people who have a stake in the world and how it grows.

— Robin Harper (aka Robin Linden), [7]

The term is not generally applied under the following conditions:

  • People who have only created an account, but never logged in
  • People who have had accounts created on their behalf for promotional events
  • People who have created an account, and logged in a few times then stopped using the account

A slight exception to the application of the term would be when referring to a person who holds multiple accounts. In this case, their primary account is referred to normally with the others interchangeably referred to as Resident or Alt. No exceptions are made for those with Basic or Premium accounts, however Residents who have held active accounts since the beta or periods and have purchased Lifetime subscriptions for US$225 are referred to as Charter Members.

Appearance and identity

Residents are the users of Second Life, and their appearance is their avatar (often abbreviated to av, avi or ava). The basic avatar is human in appearance, but avatars may be of either sex, have a wide range of physical attributes, and may be clothed or otherwise customized to produce a wide variety of humanoid and other forms.

Avatars may be completely creative or can be made to resemble the person whom they represent. [8] A single person may have multiple accounts, and thus appear to be multiple Residents (a person's multiple accounts are referred to as alts). However, the use of additional accounts requires the Resident to register them and pay a small fee, though after May 2006, there is no verification process preventing users from creating multiple "first" accounts using false information, a common practice. [9] Also, a single Resident's appearance in Second Life can vary dramatically at will, as avatars are easily modified.

While in-world appearance may bear no resemblance to the player's real-world looks, a player's identity is generally less anonymous in this than in other virtual worlds. Any avatar and any object in the world can establish whether or not real payment info is on file for your avatar,[10] although they cannot access any personal details from this payment information. (This was implemented to provide age verification and also to enable users to distinguish between established paid-for accounts and free alts which can be thrown away at any moment.) Some in-world services also require you to disclose your real name or other personal data to another source, although this must be done voluntarily and you can choose not to use the services which require this.

Your creations are likewise far less anonymous in this virtual world. The Linden servers register your avatar as the content creator of the design of any thing you create, in an explicit virtual copyright notice that travels with the thing you create. [11]

Chat

Within Second Life, there are two main methods of text-based communication: local chat, and global "instant messaging" (known as IM). Chatting is used for public localized conversations between two or more avatars, and can be "heard" within 20 m. Avatars can also 'shout' ('audible' within 100 m). IM is used for private conversations, either between two avatars, or among the members of a group. Unlike chatting, IM communication does not depend on the participants being within a certain distance of each other. As of version 1.18.1.2, voice chat is also available on the main grid[12] using technology licensed by Vivox,[13] a provider of similar services to other MMO worlds.

There are some external websites that allow Residents to locate each other from outside of the virtual world, and SLurl.com allows external links through the Second Life World Map to locations in-world.

Common abbreviations

Av - Avatar

Griefer - An av who is harassing other avs by using any of offensive language, bumping or generating garbage objects to leave on land, or any number of other activities which significantly disrupt another resident's inworld experience.

IM - Instant Message for when you want to have a chat 1:1 with another av and not have others hear you.

IM Hell - When a AV is flooded with so many IMs that others around him or her might think she went AFK because she or he can't respond quick enough.

IRL - In real life

L$ - Linden $ or Linden dollars which is the basic currency of Second Life, also often referred to simply as "L".

LL - Linden Labs

LM - Landmark a geographic location in Second Life which gives a location by Simulation, latitude, longitude and vertical distance.

PM - Same as IM.

Prim - Short for Primitive Object which is the basic building block of Second Life objects.

rez - Short for "resolve", refers to creating or spawning an object in a game.

RL - Real Life

Sim - A Second Life simulation. These are independent Second Life simulations, each with their own characteristics, rules, ratings (PG or Mature), and themes.

SL - Second Life

Voice - Second Life's third party service, used for talking instead of traditionally typing.

TP - Teleport; a feature offered in Second Life to make traveling from one distance to another easier.

Motion

The most basic method of moving around is by foot (also running and jumping). To travel more rapidly, avatars can also fly up to about 170 m above the terrain (meaning 270 m if ground level is 100 m, 180 m if ground level is set to 10 m) without requiring any special equipment, and with scripted attachments there is currently no limit to how high an avatar can fly (although once past several million meters, the rendering of the avatar mesh starts to be affected).[14][15]

Avatars can also ride in vehicles; many vehicles are available—there is a basic go-kart contained in the object library and there are many Resident-made vehicles available freely and for purchase including helicopters, submarines and hot-air balloons. Airborne vehicles can fly up to about 4000 m high (the maximum altitude allowed for any object).

There is now a large and growing market for vehicles in Second Life; particularly for cars. Most are developed as transport or for status, but there is also a small group of residents who build their cars to race. This has led to the creation of tracks like the Mooz Speedway and MyControl Speedway.

For instantaneous travel, avatars can teleport (commonly abbreviated to "TP") directly to a specific location. An avatar can create a personal landmark (often called an LM) at their current location, and then teleport back to that location at any time, or give a copy of the landmark to another avatar. There's also a map window that allows direct teleportation anywhere.

Economy and real estate

Main article: Economy of Second Life
Main article: Real estate (Second Life)
The Main Grid land map in January 2008.

Second Life has its own economy and a currency referred to as Linden Dollars (L$). Residents regularly create new goods and services, and buy and sell them in the Second Life virtual world. There are also currency exchanges where Residents can exchange real world currencies for L$. Though the exchange rate fluctuates, as of February 2007 it is reasonably stable at around L$ 266 to one US dollar.[16] These exchanges are open markets, except that Linden Lab sometimes changes in world Linden Dollar "sinks" 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, while a larger percentage derive a gross income large enough to offset most of their expenditures in L$. The currency has become the subject of concern in economic circles in regard to possible taxation.[17]

Premium members can own land (up to 512 m² without additional fees). Owning larger areas of land incurs an additional fee (which Linden Lab calls "Land Use Fee", but most users refer to as "Tier", because it is charged in tiers) ranging from US$5 a month up to US$195 a month for "an entire region", but in reality it is actually charged for owning up to 65536 m² regardless of how many regions this land is based in. This pricing refers to "mainland", i.e., land that is on an Estate owned by Linden Lab. There are also Private Estates, see below. Some residents own more than 65536 m² of mainland, for which they pay $97.50 per month for each additional 32768 m² increment.[18] Linden Lab used to sell land at a reduced rate to new Residents in small 512 m² lots (e.g., 16 by 32 meters) through its First Land program, but this program ended on 20 February, 2007 as the land was often being quickly resold at a profit rather than kept by the Resident.[19] It also sells 16 acre (65536 m²) regions. Once a Resident buys land he or she may resell it freely and use it for any purpose within the Second Life Terms of Service, provided that it is not used for a Mature purpose in a PG (Parental Guidance) sim.

There is a separate type of land known as Private Estate, consisting of one or more Private Islands or Regions, which has a completely separate set of regulations and pricing. The initial purchase of each private region can only be made by one Resident and not jointly by a group of Residents, and that Resident is termed the Estate Owner. The Owner may in turn appoint Estate or Region Managers, which may even be a Resident without a Premium Account. Individual regions may be joined together into a single Estate to ease the process of land management. Land purchased in Private Estates actually remains in the ownership of the Estate Owner as far as Linden Lab is concerned and so they will not involve themselves in disputes between Estate Owners and other Residents. This means, for example, that an Estate Owner can take back land that has been paid for and Linden Lab will not arbitrate in the dispute. As Linden lab only acknowledge the Estate Owner as a land owner, no other Resident pays Linden Lab for the use of land on a Private Estate, although the Owner will usually charge a Land Use Fee. As a consequence, land may be owned by a Resident without a Premium Account and without impacting on the tier level of their Linden Lab Land Use Fee. Each Private Region costs US$1675 to purchase, followed by US$295 maintenance fee for each subsequent month.[20]

Users can also bid on pieces of land, known as 'parcels'. These auctions take place in many different locations and at varying times. All a user has to do is scroll through the various parcels which are listed for sale, choose the appropriate one and commence bidding. As with a conventional auction, the highest bid wins. If a user is successful, their credit card will have the necessary funds deducted subsequent to the sale of the parcel, and will also be automatically charged an appropriately increased Land Use Fee.[21]

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 of such user-generated content.

There is a 3D modeling tool in Second Life that allows any Resident with the right skills to build virtual objects: 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 Second Life, Residents can use various graphics, animation, and sound tools to create more elaborate objects, and upload them into the world.

Second Life also includes a scripting language called Linden Scripting Language, or LSL. LSL is used to add autonomous behavior to many of the objects in Second Life, such as doors that open when approached. LSL has been used to create relatively advanced systems, such as the artificial life experiment on the island of Svarga, where a complete ecology runs autonomously (including clouds, rain, sunshine, bees, birds, trees and flowers).[22]

When objects are created (or instantiated) in-world and then transferred to the Resident's computer, they are said to rez[23]—a reference to the Disney movie Tron. The slang "rez" also appears in the LSL language, where the command to create an object is llRezObject().[24]

Once the creation is in the world of Second Life, the system makes efforts to help protect the exclusive rights of the content creator. A Resident who creates an object and the Resident that owns an object may retain certain rights, rather like copyright in the real world. The creator can mark an object as "no copy," which means that no copies of it may be made by others, "no mod," which means that others may not modify the object's characteristics, and "no trans," which means that the current owner may not give the object to another.[25] The Linden Lab's client chooses the copy restrictions "no copy, no mod, yes trans" for every newly created object and then allows the creator to override that choice. [26]

These rights and restrictions exist in world only by courtesy and law. The servers keep an explicit copyright notice together with every object, identifying the content creator who designed the object. The Linden Lab's client then refuses to copy, modify, give away, or resell the object unless the creator has included those digital rights in the copyright notice. Linden Labs has said that the Second Life terms of service and the controversial US DMCA law may discourage unfair use of client programs such as CopyBot. [27]

Arts and creativity in Second Life

Many of the residents of Second Life have a creative background. There is a large virtual community of artists and designers. They use Second Life not only as platform to demonstrate their art from real life, but also to express themselves and create new (virtual) art. The virtual creations from the metaverse are disclosed in real life by initiatives such as Fabjectory (statuettes)[28] and Secondlife-Art.com (oil paintings).[29] The modeling tools from Second Life allow the artists also to create new forms of art, that in many ways are not possible in real life due to physical constraints or high associated costs. The virtual arts are visible in over 2050 "museums" (according to SL's own search engine). Second Life also offers the opportunity for artists to go beyond verisimilitude, to create spaces and explore ideas that don't exist or are actually unknowable and unverifiable in the real life, such the depiction of Purgatory as a train station in which souls await reincarnation in Thursday's Fictions in Second Life.[30]

Live music performances take place in Second Life, in the sense that vocal and instrumental music by Second Life Residents can be provided from their homes and studios. This is input, via microphones, instruments or other audio sources, into computer audio interfaces and streamed live to audio servers. Similar to webcast radio, the audio stream from the live performance can be received in Second Life for the enjoyment of other Residents. This started with performances by Astrin Few in May 2004 and began to gain popularity mid 2005. For example the UK band Passenger performed on the Menorca Island in mid-2006. Another UK band, Redzone, toured in Second Life in February 2007. Linden Lab added an Event Category "Live Music" in March 2006 to accommodate the increasing number of scheduled events.

By the beginning of 2008, scheduled live music performance events in Second Life spanned every musical genre, and included hundreds of live musicians and DJs who perform on a regular basis. A typical day in Second Life will feature dozens of live music performances.

Businesses and organizations in Second Life

Main article: Businesses and organizations in Second Life

A combination of Linden Lab granting Second Life Residents the copyright over their content,[31] and legal trading of the in-world currency "Linden Dollars" (L$)[32] has encouraged the creation of solely in-world businesses, the creation of legally registered companies that were previously solely in-world, and the in-world participation of previously unrelated companies and organizations.

International diplomacy

The Maldives was the first country to open an embassy in Second Life.[33][34] The Maldives’ embassy is located on Second Life’s “Diplomacy Island”, where visitors will be able to talk face-to-face with a computer-generated ambassador about visas, trade and other issues. "Diplomacy Island" also hosts Diplomatic Museum and Diplomatic Academy. The Island is established by DiploFoundation as part of the Virtual Diplomacy Project.[35]

In May 2007, SecondLife Insider confirmed that Sweden had become the second country to open an embassy in Second Life. Run by the Swedish Institute, the embassy serves to promote Sweden's image and culture, rather than providing any real or virtual services.[36] The Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Carl Bildt, stated on his blog that he hoped he would get an invitation to the grand opening.[37]

On Tuesday December 4, 2007, Estonia became the third country to open an embassy in Second Life. [6][7]

Malta, FYROM and the Philippines are also planning to open virtual missions in Second Life.[38]

Religion

Religious organizations have also begun 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.[39] The church reported "We find that this creates a less-threatening environment where people are much more willing to explore and discuss spiritual things."[40]

Egyptian owned Islam Online has purchased land in Second Life to allow Muslims and Non-Muslims alike to perform the ritual of Hajj in virtual reality form, obtaining experience before actually making the pilgrimage themselves in person.[41]

Architecture

The Architectual community has also found a benefit from the Second Life application. 3D designs are usually presented through 'static images or fly-throughs'. Second Life offers the user the ability to 'virtually look around the urban space'. This offers a better experience for the end client, giving them the ability to explore the space prior to building or further planning work taking place. Second Life also acts as a great network tool for all involved in the building project to communicate and change objects on the project.

Education in Second Life

Second Life has recently become one of the cutting-edge virtual classrooms for major colleges and universities, including the University of Florida, Princeton, Rice University, University of Derby (UK), Vassar, the Open University (UK),[42] Harvard, INSEAD, Pepperdine, Saint Joseph's University, Drexel, Ball State, University College Dublin, Edinburgh University,[43] Elon, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Bowling Green State University, Ohio University, New York City College of Technology (CUNY), New York University, Ithaca College, University of Houston, Michigan Technological University, Australian Film Television and Radio School, Stanford, Delft University of Technology,[44] AFEKA Tel-Aviv Academic College of Engineering, and Purchase College (SUNY).[45] Second Life fosters a welcoming atmosphere for administrators to host lectures and projects online, selling more than 100 islands for educational purposes, according to a New York Times article.[46] The article quoted Rebecca Nesson, an instructor at Harvard who brought her Legal Studies class to Second Life in the second half of 2006. "Normally, no matter how good a distance-learning class is, an inherent distance does still exist between you and your students," she says. "Second Life has really bridged that gap. There is just more unofficial time that we spend together outside of the typical class session." Joe Sanchez, a researcher at the University of Texas at Austin evaluated the use of Second Life in education in an interactive qualitative analysis, finding that once students overcome the technical and interface difficulties with Second Life, they "indicate a preference to social learning activities and find it enjoyable to interact with other avatars while learning in this space".[47]

Among the more active educators in Second Life are librarians. The Illinois' Alliance Library System and OPAL have teamed up to extend the programs currently offered online to librarians and library users within Second Life. There are numerous libraries within what is referred to as the Info Islands. A virtual reference desk in SL is staffed by real life volunteer librarians for many hours every week. They also teach workshops there to help librarians and educators learn more about Second Life.

Late in 2006, a trend emerged whereby large consortia purchased several islands comprising an archipelago of education-focused land. The land is then subdivided into smaller parcels and rented to colleges, universities, and educational projects. Typically, land is rented for as little as $200 per year and comes with permission to use some common space for larger events. Two prime examples are the Info Islands, which includes EduIsland I and II, and the New Media Consortium's NMC Campus which includes many Teaching Islands and a wide range of educational tools, services, and meeting spaces, a museum and library, and a planetarium. The consortial model has allowed for many more institutions to offer participation to students and faculty within a learning-centered environment. As a result, there are now hundreds of educational institutions and organizations experimenting with Second Life, some hosting advertisements for real life teaching facilities / jobs.[48]

In 2007, the International Society for Technology in Education ISTE became the first non-profit educational organization to purchase and build on its own virtual island. Since that time, ISTE has hosted educational webinar events, presentations, social events, book talks and more.

There are now many universities, colleges, schools and other educational institutions researching the use of Second Life as an environment for teaching and learning which offers a community of practice and situated constructivist learning. Among the institutions bringing the use of Second Life into the provision for distance learners is the Open Universityin the UK which already offers a range of teaching and learning provision on two islands in the metaverse (CETLment and SchomeBase) and is gradually developing a range of tools and resources which support learners and offer a sense of presence and engagement to distance learners who can otherwise feel isolated and alone.

In 2007 Second Life started to be used for foreign language tuition.[49] Both Second Life and real life language educators have begun to use the virtual world for language tuition. English (as a foreign language) has gained a presence through several schools, including the British Council, which has focused on the Teen Grid. Spain’s language and cultural institute “Instituto Cervantes” has an island on Second Life. A list of educational projects (including some language schools) in Second Life can be found on the SimTeach site.

Second Life's usefulness as a platform for prek-12 education is limited due to the age restrictions on the main grid and the difficulties of collaborating among various educational projects on the teen grid. New approaches to fostering collaboration on the teen grid, such as the Virtual World Campus, offer some hope of overcoming some of these obstacles. For now, however, the primary utility of Second Life for prek-12 education is in the education and professional development of teachers and school librarians.

Pricing

Second Life was originally launched with a traditional subscription fee model of $14.95 per month for an account,[50] but Linden Labs abandoned that model later in the year when fewer than 2,000 subscribers had signed up. Pricing has changed a few times since then. Today (as of February 2007), there are two types of accounts, basic and premium. Basic accounts have no recurring fee, but do not include the right to own land on the Second Life mainland, though ownership of land on private resident-run islands is possible. Pricing on private islands varies depending on the owner of that island. Premium accounts pay US$9.95 per month which includes the monthly tier fee of a small amount (512 square meters) of land (worth $5 a month). The land itself must be purchased either from another player or from Linden Labs by land auction method.[51]

Premium accounts receive a weekly stipend (paid in Linden dollars) of L$300 per week.[52][53] Basic accounts registered before 29 May, 2006 receive a stipend of L$50 for every week in which they log into Second Life, but no stipend is provided to basic accounts registered after that time.[54] Originally, and prior to the creation of the Second Life Teen Grid, accounts were separated by land allowances. The prices varied by amount of land allowed, starting with 512 m², with each new allowance double the previous. Extra fees would be added for owning more land than your account supplied. The purchase of contintents included a basic cost, along with maintenance fees and other such including costs.

Additional playing expenses for Second Life depend on how much land is owned. The land may be purchased from other players or through the Linden Lab auction website. Linden Labs uses a tiered fee price structure for mainland ownership - when more land is owned, a higher-tier fee applies per month. The tier is determined from the total area of all owned land from any number of parcels anywhere on the mainland continents. Monthly fees of land provided by private island (a.k.a. private estates) is controlled by the owner of those islands (a.k.a. Simulators or "Sims"). Linden Labs is now selling only upgraded class 5 server sims (~65,500 m2), which cost $295 USD per month. Lower level technology class 4 sims (also ~65,500 m2) are priced at "grandfathered tier pricing" and cost $195 USD per month. Second Life offers a 50% discount to verified real world educators and academic institutions (e.g., universities/schools) or 501(c)3 non-profit organizations that will be using the regions to support their organization's official work.[55]

Inventory purchases 'in-world' also cost money. Most members believe that in order to fit in with society, one must upgrade their avatar using in world merchandise such as hair, clothes, shoes and jewelry. Although free merchandise can readily be found, the merchandise considered to be highest quality is usually purchased from brand name designers.

In 2007 Linden has decided to apply VAT to European residents, as requested by European Union for all services and products sold in EU.

Teen Second Life

Main article: Teen Second Life

Teen Second Life was developed in early 2005 to enable people aged 13–17 to play Second Life without entering false information to participate in the Main Grid. Both Grids at that time required the entry of credit card details, but the Main Grid made it mandatory that the credit card be the Resident's own, whereas the Teen Grid made it mandatory that it belonged to a parent. (Since then, the requirement for a credit card to register on the Main Grid has been removed. Also, for players in some but not all countries, a parent's credit card is no longer required to register on the Teen Grid, only a valid cell phone with SMS enabled.)

New (voluntary) identity/age validation measures are also being proposed to further secure the distinctions between "PG" and "mature" regions on the main grid, ensuring that only validated adults can enter areas marked as containing adult material.

The

Issues and criticisms

Main article: Second Life issues and criticisms

Because it is under constant development, and is an open environment that can be used by almost anyone with broadband internet access,[56] Second Life has encountered a number of challenges. These range from the technical (budgeting of server resources) and moral (pornography) to legal (legal position of the Linden Dollar, Linden Lab lawsuit).

Prior to June 6 2006, all Residents 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.[57] (Residents providing 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.[58] Access to Teen Second Life still requires credit card details. Linden Lab has the ability to ban Residents from Second Life based on a hardware hash of their local PC,[59] preventing them from returning with other accounts. However, this was made meaningless by the Open Sourcing of the Second Life client code; a publicly available hack of Second Life now exists which sends a random hardware ID, making this banning method ineffective also.

The policy change to email-address-based membership brought about harsh criticism, including allegations of degraded system performance. Several users argued that the claimed "residence" figures were highly exaggerated, pointing out that the actual activity of the board was roughly nine percent of the claimed residency figures, with paying membership below two percent. Blogs and forum posts regularly allege exaggerated membership and performance claims.[60]

In January 2007, two articles were published on the Internet which compared the economy of Second Life to a pyramid scheme.[61][62] In the same month, a "virtual riot" erupted between members of the French party Front National who had established a virtual HQ on Second Life, and opponents, including Second Life Left Unity, a socialist and anti-capitalist user-group.[63][64][65][66] Since then, several small internet based organizations have claimed some responsibility for instigating the riots.[67]

There are also issues with Second Life support being under resourced, with support tickets and billing issues going unresolved. Residents have complained of having money stolen from their accounts, having credit withdrawals fail and other related billing issues.

During 2006 several established members of Second Life ceased support of the system. Premiere live musician Astrin Few publicly posted a stern warning of intent to leave the system if host company Linden Lab did not pay more attention to customer needs. Criticisms against host company Linden Lab involve continuing system technical issues such as lag, repetitious bugs, customer inventory loss and excessive downtimes. Also cited were issues regarding "self-serving" company policies, failure to police the system (including lack of protection of members from alleged unethical/criminal activities), and criticism of host company Linden Lab for gross misrepresentation of membership figures. The late 2006 exit of the Elven Lord Wayfinder Wishbringer and the subsequent decision of the Elf Clan Counsel to shut down lands and cease financial support of the Second Life platform was a negative milestone that created significant ripples (see [8]). Cited by the group was theft of thousands of dollars worth of group-funded lands by a renegade officer, a deed that went totally unmoderated by Linden Lab. Elf Clan is not the only group to complain about theft of group-funded lands. Linden Lab has held that land and other disputes should be resolved via normal venues (ie, breach of contract lawsuits or arbitration), yet logistics (Second Life is a multi-national platform) and the high cost of such actions makes such option unfeasible. To this date, Linden Lab has offered no solution to land thefts, and has not made provision for groups to own land. While Elf Clan returned to Second Life several months later, the founders state this was in support of group members and not in support of the Second Life platform.

The same time period brought strong criticism against Linden Lab for their allegedly catering to big business and ignoring the people and groups who had helped them build the system. Such criticism increased dramatically when Linden Lab in anticipation of corporate investments increased first year costs of private virtual islands by some 32% and monthly land rentals by 50%, making it difficult for hobbyist users to afford such fees (total first year cost for a "16 acre" piece of virtual ground is US$1,650 setup fee and US$295 a month server fees... a total first year cost of $4,895).

Child pornography

There have been several high-profile cases in which users in Second Life were found to have been creating or exchanging child pornography [9]. This includes both real-life photographs and virtual recreations of pornographic scenes involving children, which are illegal in certain countries (including Germany).

Although this problem could occur on any internet site which allowed material to be freely uploaded, it is notable on Second Life because of its substantial size, centralized hosting model, opportunities for private transactions, and strong support for content crossover. Second Life is quite deliberately designed to ensure that content, especially avatar-related content, can be mixed and matched: almost any content can be combined with any other, and restrictions cannot be easily imposed on this, not even by the content creators. Thus there is no way to prevent a pedophile purchasing a child avatar and having it run a sexual animation, other than removing child avatars and/or sexual animations from the world entirely and denying them to players who wish to play sexual activity with adult avatars, or who wish to innocently role-play children or child-like characters (such as fairies or anime characters). The problem is compounded by the full customizability of Second Life avatars; it is easy to create an avatar which has the height and stature of an adult but appears child-like with regard to body development, or vice versa, and a person's belief regarding the age their avatar appears to be may not match the belief of other people.

Virtual gambling ban

On July 26, 2007, Linden Lab announced a ban on in-world gambling. The new policy bans wagering on games of chance or games that rely on the outcome of real-life organized sporting events if they provide a payout in Linden Dollars, Second Life's currency, or any real-world currency or thing of value. Earlier in the year, Linden Lab invited law enforcement officials to visit casinos in Second Life in the hope of receiving some guidance from authorities about the legality of virtual gambling. A company spokesperson couldn't immediately say whether those visits played a role in shaping the new gambling policy. The ban was immediately met with in-world protests.[68] Recently, Linden Lab's lawyers have come to the conclusion that popular games within Second Life that are similar to Bingo are skill games, and are allowed within the world (ie: Zyngo, Devil May Care, Quince, etc.) These types of games are not, however, legal in all 50 states (US) or all countries, and they are urging players and owners to check their local laws for the legality of the games. This has not been publicly announced by Linden Labs, but has been confirmed through Robin Linden (Robin Harper, who is Senior Vice President of Marketing and Business Development.)

In-world bank ban

On Tuesday, January 8th, 2008 at 10:43 AM PST, Ken D Linden announced the upcoming prohibition of banking activities in-world.

As of January 22, 2008, it will be prohibited to offer interest or any direct return on an investment (whether in L$ or other currency) from any object, such as an ATM, located in Second Life, without proof of an applicable government registration statement or financial institution charter. We’re implementing this policy after reviewing Resident complaints, banking activities, and the law, and we’re doing it to protect our Residents and the integrity of our economy.[69]

Parody

Second Life is parodied by the website Get a First Life by Darren Barefoot, extolling the virtues of meatspace/real life.[70] Material from the site includes false links to such topics as "Go Outside - Membership is Free" and "Fornicate Using Your Actual Genitals." Linden Lab proved that they had a sense of humor when Darren received, instead of a cease and desist, a Proceed and Permit letter.[71]

Second Life is also parodied in the webcomic Kevin and Kell, in the form of an MMORPG called 9th Life.

In the American version of The Office, Dwight's in-game personality/avatar creates a similar game within Second Life called "Second Second Life, for those people who want to be removed even further from reality." The episode featured the character of Jim Halpert making a resident to harrass Dwight's resident. This all took place in the episode "Local Ad".

Technical information

A graph illustrating the growth of Second Life from Jan 2006 to Mar 2007.

The flat, Earth-like world of Second Life is simulated on a large array of Debian servers, referred to as the Grid.[72] The world is divided into 256x256 m areas of land, called Regions. Each Region is simulated by a single named server instance, and is given a unique name and content rating (either PG or Mature). Multiple server instances can be run on a single physical server, but generally each instance is given a dedicated CPU core of its own. Modern servers with two dual-core processors usually support four separate server instances.

Physics simulation

Each server instance runs a physics simulation to manage the collisions and interactions of all objects in that region. Objects can be nonphysical and nonmoving, or actively physical and movable, with complex shapes linked together in groups of up to 31 separate primitives. Each player's avatar is treated as a physical object, and walking/flying the avatar into another physical object can push it forward out of the way of the avatar. In the same way, avatars can be pushed by other physical objects and other avatars.

As of October 2007, Second Life is in the final testing stages with the Havok 4 physics engine. The older Havok 1 engine suffers from a number of design problems, the primary one known as the Deep Think condition. When two physical objects intersect one another, the engine does not know how to separate the objects. It goes into a deep recursive loop analyzing the overlapping objects, consuming all available server CPU power and dragging the simulator to a crawl. The newer versions of the Havok engine now offer an overlap ejection capability that allows overlapped objects to separate and propel apart as if compressing two springs against each other, without causing the Deep Think condition.

While waiting for the upgrade, Linden staff have implemented a large number of hacks to deal with the Deep Think problem, such as quickly forcing physics to be disabled on any object about to cause a Deep Think condition, and not permitting physics to be enabled on multiple selected objects, as was possible in the past. But while these hacks protect against Deep Think, they have also limited the functional usability of the physics environment, and still don't protect against the most severe Deep Think conditions that can drag a simulator to a nearly complete standstill. In addition, overlap ejection has also been abused in the world to create weapons capable of moving or freezing avatars against their will.

Asset storage

Every item in the Second Life universe is referred to as an asset. This includes the shapes of the 3D objects known as primitives, the digital images referred to as textures that decorate primitives, digitized audio clips, avatar shape and appearance, avatar skin textures, LSL scripts, information written on notecards, and so on. Each asset is referenced with a universally unique identifier or UUID.[73]

Assets are stored in their own dedicated MySQL server farm, comprising all data that has ever been created by anyone who has been in the SL world. As of December 2007, the total storage was estimated to consume 100 terabytes of server capacity.[74] The asset servers function independently of the region simulators, though the region simulators request object data from the asset servers when a new object loads into the simulator.[citation needed]

As the popularity of Second Life has increased, the strain on the database engine to quickly and efficiently store and retrieve data has also continued to increase, frequently outpacing the ability of the Linden staff to keep their asset farm equipped to handle the number of users logged into the world at the same time.[citation needed]

Under severe load conditions it is common for the database engine to simply not reply to requests in a timely fashion, causing objects to not rez or delete as expected, or for the client inventory to not load, or the currency balance to not appear in the client program. Searching for locations, people, or classifieds may also fail under heavy load conditions. The database load is typically the most severe on weekends, particularly Sunday afternoons, while the system can function just fine when accessed during low-load times such as at night or in the middle of the week during the day.[citation needed]

Software

The Second Life software comprises the viewer (also known as the client) executing on the Resident's computer, and several thousand servers operated by Linden Lab. There is an active beta-grid that has its own special client, which is updated very regularly, and is used for constant software testing by volunteers. This testing software was introduced to eliminate the short amounts of time between real updates, and increase its overall quality. The beta-grid reflects the standard main-grid, except that the actions taken within it are not stored by the servers; it is for testing purposes only. Every few months, the standard software is replaced by the beta-grid software, intended as a big upgrade. The Second Life user-base is growing rapidly, and this has stimulated both social and technological changes to the world; the addition of new features also provides periodic boosts to the growth of the economy.

Linden Lab pursues the use of open standards technologies, and uses free and open source software such as Apache, MySQL and Squid.[75] The plan is to move everything to open standards by standardizing the Second Life protocol. Cory Ondrejka, former CTO[76] of Second Life, has stated that a while after everything has been standardized, both the client and the server will be released as free and open source software.[77]

  1. The current in-house virtual machine will eventually be replaced with Mono,[78] which will reportedly produce a dramatic speed improvement.
  2. uBrowser, an OpenGL port of the Gecko rendering engine, which has been used in the client since version 1.10.1[79] to display the Help documentation, will also be used to display webpages on any of the surfaces of any 3D object the Resident creates.

Linden Lab provides viewers for Microsoft Windows 2000/XP, Mac OS X, and most distributions of Linux. As of mid-2007, Microsoft Windows Vista is not yet officially supported although the viewer will generally run on Vista systems.[80] In the past, viewer upgrades were usually mandatory; the old viewer would not work with the new version of the server software. However, Linden Lab is working on a more flexible protocol that will allow clients and servers to send and take whatever data they may require, hence differing versions would nonetheless be able to work together. The project is known as Het-Grid or heterogeneous grid and the first iteration of the server software was deployed to the Main Grid over a few weeks in August 2007.[81]

As of January 8, 2007, the Viewer is distributed under version 2 of the GNU General Public License,[1][2] with an additional clause allowing combination with certain other free software packages which have otherwise-incompatible licenses. Currently not all of the required dependencies have been released.[82]

Modified viewer software is available from third parties. The most popular is the Nicholaz Edition;[83] this viewer, produced by Nicholaz Beresford, includes bug fixes developed outside Linden Lab that are not yet included in the Linden Lab code. The Electric Sheep Company has introduced the OnRez Viewer,[84] which makes substantial changes to the design of the user interface.

An independent project, libsecondlife,[85] offers a function library for interacting with Second Life servers. libsecondlife has been used to create non-graphic third party viewers, including SLEEK,[86] a text browser using .NET, and Ajaxlife,[87] a text viewer that runs in a web browser.

The OS X viewer is a universal binary and is about twice the size of the Windows and Linux binaries.[88]

Animation editors using BVH such as Poser, and Avimator are compatible with SL.

Second Life protocol

Main article: libsecondlife

In May 2006 it was announced that the Second Life protocol had been reverse-engineered. A wiki was set up to further the effort.[89]

Since this project produced some useful software, Linden Lab modified the TOS to allow third-party programs to access Second Life,[90] enabling the project to be formalized under the name libsecondlife. Among functions developed are a map API, the ability to create objects larger than normally allowed (recently disabled), and other unforeseen capabilities such as CopyBot.

  • In Sam Bourne's 2007 thriller novel The Last Testament, Second Life plays an important part in the story and in cracking of codes.
  • US modern-rock artist Sheldon Tarsha released the song titled "Second Life" in 2007, focusing attention to Second Life and the growing phenomenon of virtual world social networking sites.
  • Well known British comedian Jimmy Carr performed a virtual show on Second Life on February 3, 2007.
  • The Italian singer Irene Grandi figured in her musical video "Bruci la città" some scenes of Second Life gaming.
  • "Notre Seconde Vie" is a book from the French writer Alain Monnier which translates to "Our Second Life". The novel poses the question "will the Internet replace reading paperbound books one day?".
  • Second Life girls are rated #95 on the "Top 100 Hottest Females of 2007" in Maxim.
  • In The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert said that Wikipedia is like "Second Life for corporations."[91]
  • Law & Order: Special Victims Unit parodies Second Life in its episode "Avatar".
  • Jimmy Kimmel & Jay Z were both made as Second Life characters and Jay Z had a virtual concert on Second Life at the same time as his real life performance on the Jimmy Kimmel Show.
  • Kelly Services, an employment agency, features Second Life in its "break room" for temporary employees.
  • Second Life was featured prominently, and used as a tool to catch a suspect on an episode of CSI: NY ( Down the Rabbit Hole), which aired on October 24, 2007.
  • Dwight Schrute from the US television series The Office is an avid Second Life player; this was featured prominently in the October 25, 2007 episode "Local Ad.".[92] Dwight plays a character named 'Dwight Shelford' who is able to fly, and creates a virtual world within Second Life named Second Second Life. Jim Halpert is seen to play the game later in the episode, and he claims his character is "just to keep tabs on Dwight"; however, Pam Beesly comments on the detail in his character and notes it must have taken him quite some time to make it.
  • Dario de Judicibus' short story Fino alla fine dell'eternità is an example of non-English literature based on Second Life.
  • The 2007 novel Another Life by Peter Anghelides, based upon the television series Torchwood, features a Second Life-inspired virtual world called Second Reality. Although the literary version is far more advanced than the real Second Life, several features of the real-life Second Life are referenced, including the ability to customize avatars, and at one point in the novel a character is banished to an area similar to Second Life's punishment area, "The Corn Field".

Outside the United States

Although Second Life has a largely American customer base (approximately 30% of total users as of September 2007), it also has a wide variety of non-U.S. and non-English-speaking customers, and localized versions of the Second Life viewer are available for several languages. 70% of Second Life's active users (as measured by avatar count or active hours) are thus from outside the USA, with Germany, Japan, the UK, France, and Italy (and also Brazil when measured by avatar count only) being the origins of the next band of most active users with between 5% and 10% of total users and activity each.[93] In 2007, Brazil became the first country to have its own independently run portal to Second Life, operated by an intermediary—although the actual Second Life grid accessed through the Brazilian portal is the same as that used by the rest of the worldwide customer base. The portal, called "Mainland Brazil", is run by Kaizen Games, making Kaizen the first partner in Linden's "Global Provider Program".[94] In October 2007, Linden Lab signed second "Global Provider Program" with T-Entertainment Co., LTD., Seoul, Korea and T-Entertainment's potal called "SERA Korea" serves as gateway to Second Life Grid. Previously, starting in late 2005, Linden Lab had opened and run their own welcome area portals and regions for German, Korean and Japanese language speakers.[95]

Management

Cory Ondrejka, who helped to program Second Life, resigned as chief technology officer on December 11, 2007. Ondrejka used the Flying Spaghetti Monster as his avatar. Previously, Ondrejka was a video game developer, worked with computers at the United States Department of Defense, served as an officer in the United States Navy, and was employed by the National Security Agency.[96]

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Second Life.

References

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