Introduction

First I want to explain how this blog is going to work and how I am going to use it to record my research and my personal experience. From day to day I will be posting both research essays which I already have done around Second Life; and the other part will consist of my own experience I have had so far in this new Virtual World.
The original idea of my project was to get myself an Avatar in Second Life and start building a business and maybe make some money. But little did I know and realize that that isn’t as easy as I thought it would be. And me not being the most familiar with online gaming and only knowing the basics, I realized I was way out of my depth and it would take a lot longer to establish what I had in mind than the time frame given to me.
Another problem also was the money. Second Life compared to the Real World is very cheap, you still need to invest quiet a bit of money to get a business up and running. Although there are no real limits of what you can do and the only boundaries are the ones your imagination sets you, money same as in the Real World plays a big part, and as I am currently a student I just simply didn’t have the finances to do it.
Now the focus is mainly to record my experience and research; and to find out, what businesses are already on there and maybe come up with an idea, how to create a business in SL.
Looking at it now, with some time spent in SL I am really glad that I changed my mind, as now I an concentrate on the experience of being on there which for me is quiet overwhelming. And to take in as much of the world and its inhabitants as possible and to record it.


Here a little something about Second Life, some general information about this Virtual World.

Second Life is a virtual world where people from all over the world can meet and interact with each other. Second Life is basically a recreation of the real world as we know it but set in a virtual environment and enhanced through certain things. On here one can live a second life away from all the worries which might occur in their real lives and here people can indulge in their imagination and their creativity. It is basically a 3D online virtual world which is created, owned and shaped by its residence. Linden Labs have no real say in what is build and how far imagination can take you. It can as is basically anything you want it to imagine it to be. You are a miniature god in a world where there are no rules of gravity or regulations of mass and structure. It will be whatever you imagine it would be and if you don’t like something which is already available you have the choice in creating your own little world and place. Most of the contents in Second Life is created by its users and not by the Linden Lab who are the original founders of this virtual world. It is a very good example of what people can do with real time media and how they can indulged in it, and find their place in it.
The list of things you can experience in Second Life are endless and with it endlessly changing and new things coming along all the time, you have enough choice to do whatever your heart desires.
It was created in 2003 by Linden Labs and at that point residence had to pay a fee in order to be a part of it. That changed in 2006 where now, everyone can enter for free. There is a choice of membership types and they vary in prices but all in all are not too expensive. If you only have a free account you are not able to buy or rent places in Second Life as that you can only do if you have a paid membership.
Second Life also has their own currency which is called Linden Dollars and the exchange rate is about L$ 260 to $1 real US dollar.
You have the choice of treating SL as only a game and a place to meet people, or you can get a job or even open a business. It is entirely up to you what you want to do in this virtual world. There can be real money made on SL but one would have to invest quiet a lot of time and money to achieve a good profit.
One doesn’t really need money in order to actually get things like clothes, skins, hair and other little things as there are a lot of different islands which offer freebies for newbies and there you have a vast choice of goods available to you for free.
You can also earn a little bit of money by just sitting in camping sites or dance in one of the clubs. The money is not much only on average L$ 2 or 3 every 10 minutes you spent on there.
There is loads to see and loads to explore and its up to the individual what they wish to do on Second Life.