GlobalSuit.com

A friend of mine just recently told me about this “Second Life.” I know I am just not with it technologically, but I mean how did this not even make a blip on my radar. According to Wikipedia “Second Life is an Internet-based virtual world which came to international attention via mainstream news media in late 2006 and early 2007.” Ok fair enough, it sounds like a multi-user games (i.e., Worlds of Warcraft, Final Fantasy XI), but the difference is that those games cost monthly subscriptions and Second Life is free if you get a Basic account.

What really blows my mind is that the environment (I hesitate to call it a game because you don’t win or lose) has it’s own economy, with its own currency Linden Dollars (named after the parent company). Apparently there are companies that have started to open up offices in this virtual environment where you can go to find out more about their company and set up job interviews. Sweden set up an embassy (the only one mind you) in Second Life. Starwood Hotels opened their aloft hotels in Second Life a year before launching in the real world. It is a bit hard for me to get my head around, and makes me seriously wonder the value to the Corporations of having a Second Life presence.

Even more interesting is the concept of micro payments. There are people who are creating animations for avatars and items for sale on Second Life that net them about $1-2 a transaction, in REAL currency (obviously after conversion). According to what I found on the net, some people have been clearing about $20k a year, in addition to their normal job, which I find a bit fascinating. And what startled me the most was that you can visit the Second Life Louvre, which makes me wonder why should I go to Paris this month when I can visit it online.

If you use Second Life, feel free to comment, I’d be curious to get your perceptions. Maybe this weekend I will slip into the environment and poke around, but then again I’d rather just go outside.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 13th, 2007 at 2:34 pm and is filed under Rant, Websites.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.