I am an avatar. About average height, medium build, with short-ish, browny-red hair, fair skin, freckles and a couple of tattoos. Today I’m wearing sunglasses, a T-shirt, frayed jeans and All Star sneakers. In fact, I share many interests and characteristics with my real-world analogue, although there are some notable differences, too. For example, I can fly, teleport, swim underwater, change my hair colour at a whim, become shorter or taller, fatter or thinner, all in the blink of an eye. My name is Sturat Herouin and I am a resident of Second Life.
I can’t remember when I first heard about Second Life, but I do know when my interest was piqued anew. It was at a conference for creative thinkers in Singapore back in 2005. The speaker spoke of a virtual computer world in which the players themselves moulded the landscape, created the cities, constructed the artefacts and made the social and other rules. It was unlike any other video game you were likely to encounter – there was no end game, no levels to complete, no bosses to kill. In fact it was so unlike anything else, that it hardly seemed right to call it a game at all.
Technically Second Life is a MMORPG, or massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Which means exactly what it says: a massively large number of players interacting with each other, in real time, in some fantasy realm, and in which each player takes on a persona or role, of their own choosing, and often very different to their real world identity.
In reality, Second Life is so much more. Second Life has an actual economy. And a stock exchange where you can buy and sell Linden Dollars (the currency of Second Life) in exchange for US dollars.
What’s important is that it may well be a precursor of what the Internet is becoming. IBM has an office in Second Life, as does Reuters. Look out for Adam Reuter, the World’s first resident journalist. Adidas has a boutique, in which you I have personally bought sneakers; interestingly, if you find the virtual sneakers to your liking, you can actually order them in the real world, too. PADI, the worldwide diving organisation, has recently set up in Second life. There, you can learn about their courses, as well as take a virtual dive to see whales, sharks, and all manner of other fish. There???s even a school of barracuda, if I’m not mistaken.
But when all is said and done, what I love the most about Second Life is that, nowhere else, can you sit at a bar on a white sandy beach, where it’s always sunny, sipping endless cocktails, and have a chat with an angel and a vampire and small furry animal.
Of course, you can visit me anytime in Second Life. Search for Sturat Herouin, and leave me an instant message.
More info about Linden Labs and Second Life can be found at secondlife.com
