Second Life: a persistent, user-created virtual world and platform

Second Life was developed by Linden Lab in San Francisco starting in 1999. Linden Lab's stated goal is to create a world like the "metaverse" described in the novel Snow Crash: A user-determined parallel world of general utility in which people can interact, play, trade and otherwise communicate. The first presentation of Second Life took place in the summer of 2002, a beta testing phase began in the fall of that year, and Second Life has been online since June 24, 2003.

The Second Life "world" exists in a large server farm operated by Linden Lab and commonly referred to as the Grid. The world is presented by the client software as a continuous 3D animation, which is intended to give a sense of space and into which additional audio and video streams can be integrated.

The client software provides its users, called residents, with tools to design their avatar, create objects, navigate the Second Life world, view the world through advanced camera controls, and communicate with others. Navigation is facilitated by an internal search engine and the ability to set landmarks that can be used to teleport through the world. In addition, Linden Lab offers a web-based map of Second Life to allow landmarks to be displayed outside of Second Life.

People and/or companies can get in touch with each other in this way and/or offer each other virtual goods or services. Communication takes place via public or private chat, whereby there are numerous display options for the chat progress. Optionally, communication can also take place verbally via the internal Second Talk.

Second Life also functions as a platform for interactions in social groupings. Like-minded people can form groups and communicate simultaneously with all members of the group via the integrated instant messenger. The program has already been used for training courses and virtual university lectures, and live concerts can also be held virtually. The graphic similarity to computer games also allows participants to use and understand Second Life as an online game. Participants can expand the 3D world to include new items such as clothing, accessories and homes.

By incorporating a virtual currency (L$, Linden Dollars) that can be transferred into a real currency (US-$), Second Life is also integrated into the real economic cycle. All self-created and most other objects within Second Life can be traded at will. Numerous real companies are therefore already present in the grid. As can be observed on the Internet in general, sexual offers are very present here. Since July 25, 2007, Linden Lab no longer officially tolerates gambling with bets, which has been very common up to now. However, gambling continues to take place on a small scale.

In October 2006, Second Life had one million members. Just eight weeks later, the number had doubled to two million; in January 2011, the number of residents had reached approximately 21.8 million, and in 2014, a good 36 million, although many users have registered several - often very many - accounts (so-called alts). The number of active residents is far lower and, despite the ever-increasing number of accounts since 2007, has been declining: 1.7 million accounts April 2007; 1.3 million accounts January 2011 - both online within 60 days. Due to the global time difference, there are usually 35,000 to 60,000 people online in Second Life at any one time, regardless of the local time of day.

Currently, Second Life is considered to be the most member-rich platform of its kind in the Western world. Second Life's competitors in the Western hemisphere include Active Worlds, considered by some to be the founding company of the 3D Internet concept in 1997, Entropia Universe, There, and newcomers such as Dotsoul Cyberpark.

Since January 8, 2007 the source code of the SL client is freely available under GPL. Based on this, a large number of alternative SL clients have been developed.

With the introduction of client version 3.0.0 (238864) on August 18, 2011, the system now supports meshing technology for modeling objects. However, mesh objects cannot be created using the provided second-life technology. Meshes must be pre-made using external 3D graphics software such as Blender and then uploaded to the world of Second Life as a Collada file for a fee. With the introduction of client version 3.7.0 (286015), more bones were added to the mesh in February 2014 and Fitted Mesh was introduced. The clothes created in Fitted Mesh fit the avatar even more precisely and go with the avatar shape when editing.

There are free and paid Second Life user accounts ("accounts"). The main difference is that a player with a free account cannot buy virtual land (on Mainland main continent), which is needed for the permanent creation of extensive objects such as houses and landscapes and which is currently the most important commodity of the system. Free account holders can only buy land on private islands ("Estates") or rent Mainland.

The platform is operated via client software, which obtains the world's data via the Internet. This client can be downloaded and installed free of charge. A client that runs directly in the web browser was in testing at the end of 2010, but has not progressed beyond beta status.

Second Life has different membership rates:

• Basic - free of charge,
• Additional Basic - currently also free (previously US$9.95 per additional avatar),
• Premium - There are three options for premium rates:
• monthly - US$9.95,
• quarterly - US$22.50 (US$7.50 per month),
• annual - 72 US$ (6 US$ per month.)

All member rates receive an enrollment bonus when payment details are provided: L$250 for Basic and Additional Basic, L$1000 for Premium. Premium accounts can purchase 512 sqm of mainland without having to pay Linden the usual US$5 per month land rent. In addition, they receive a stipend of L$300 per week. Providing payment details for Basic and Additional Basic has been voluntary since 2005. Linden dollars can be exchanged for various currencies directly through Second Life, using credit card or PayPal details, or with simple bank account details through providers such as VirWox. All payments to Linden Lab, both membership fees and land rent, are now subject to the VAT applicable in the owner's country for EU residents.

The price list for Second Life has changed over time. Earlier versions did not have free first-time "Basic Accounts" or required a fee for each additional "Basic Account". During beta testing, residents had the choice of a lifetime subscription through a one-time payment of US$225. After the release of SL 1.2 and the introduction of property taxes, this changed to a lifetime tax-free ownership of 4,096 sq ft. Until February 2007, so-called "First Land" (land parcels subsidized by the operator) was available for premium memberships. However, as land prices had risen significantly within the community and a brisk trade had developed around the subsidized parcels, the allocation of "First Land" was discontinued as of February 20, 2007.

"Additional Basic Accounts are currently free of charge. Until late fall 2007, Additional Basic Accounts were paid for (US$9.95 one-time fee), and Linden Lab occasionally blocked accounts that were suspected of being a free secondary account.

An entire region, or Simulator SIM for short, currently costs US$1000 and a monthly fee of US$295. For this price, the owner is assured that a dedicated computer for a region will be provided by Linden Lab. A region covers 65,536 square meters (256 by 256 yards). There are also simulators that run concurrently with others on the same server. The regions they manage have a much smaller number of prims, the basic building blocks in Second Life, available to them and are called low prim SIMs or open SIMs, and are therefore less expensive.

Access for young people

Until December 14, 2010, the minimum age to participate in Second Life was 18. However, separate regions (Teen Second Life) were available for teens 13 and older, which were not accessible to adults (except for select Linden Lab employees and faculty after a security clearance).

Linden Lab announced in August 2010 that it would close Teen Second Life in early 2011 and allow teens access to the grid. In November 2010, details about the new minimum age were published. As of December 15, 2010, teens between the ages of 13 and 15 are allowed to enter special regions of Second Life. These special regions must be provided by an educational institution, the age rating is "General", and teens cannot use the search function or make purchases in the marketplace. Teens 16 and older may visit any region in Second Life that has been classified as "General."

In practice, however, since 2013 no age verification beyond the self-disclosure is carried out, so that the entire grid is practically freely accessible to any age group, even if it would be forbidden according to TOS, it can therefore no longer be guaranteed that children under 13 can access regions with age restrictions. The only way the sim owner can still provide some age verification is by only allowing users with deposited payment information. However, it remains to be seen to what extent this can be considered effective.