On the surface, social experiment Second Life is clean living: an oft-cited MMO used for college-level coursework in the design of digital spaces, in art and architecture, and in media studies and sociology.
Count real-life Stanford Law School professor Lawrence Lessig among its 148,000 citizens; this January, the copyright guru addressed an in-game gathering to promote his recently published book,
Free Culture, and embossed online copies with an electronic signature (to glorify the performed-for-publicity gimmick, he mentioned inviting members of Congress to create accounts).
Insofar as consuming and creating makes them so, Second Life citizens who're neither enrolled at state universities nor capable of persuading congresspersons to appear in virtual utopias are similarly upstanding.
Because residents retain the rights to what they build and buy, Second Life's goods and service industries boom. According to Catherine Smith, director of marketing for SL owner Linden Lab, "In January of 2006, Second Life residents exchanged $1,384,752,765 in-world 'linden' dollars, or over $5 million U.S. dollars, based on the current exchange rate of 276:1."
Gowns, cars, kittens, rocket packs, lunar rovers, condominiums, turntables, couches--players make or mod scads of shop and show-off opportunities in SL's unbounded buyosphere, from personal appearance to animations to architecture. SL citizens are designers, crafters, cinematographers, engineers, civic planners, real estate agents. And prostitutes.
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ExtremeTech
