Second Life
by John Marc Green
CBS 42 News
2007-11-23 10:05:00.0
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You can be a model, own an island, build a castle and sell it. You can do it all in an internet game called Second Life. It's not science fiction, it's a second home to more than six million people, and it's becoming big business that translates to real U.S. dollars.
Second life is an electronic playground for adults only, although there is a teen version, too. It's a world of unlimited space that exists only on computers where you can become, or create, just about anything you want.
UAB Clinical Psychologist Dr. Joshua Klapow says it provides the kind of experiences that have a universal attraction.
“It’s the ultimate psychological escape, it is the opportunity to be who you might want to be but you never will be able to be from a physical standpoint and more importantly it's the opportunity to do that instantly," said Klapow.
But this fantasy world is crossing over into real life, and businesses are taking notice. Just last year, Birmingham's own City Stages rented a virtual island for a promotional concert.
Guy McCullough, with City Stages, said, "We really created a virtual Coca Cola Classic stage in the Second Life space. We had a pianist, we had several singers, songwriters that played guitar and they, of course, played in the real world and had it streamed into Second Life."
Not only are businesses using Second Life for marketing real world products and events, they're also selling "virtual" real estate. There are streets full of homes to rent and buy from the real-world real estate company Coldwell Banker. The game also provides computer scripting tools to let you create anything from cars to houses and sell them to other players.
And there's even a currency exchange, where you can buy or sell out the second life money called "linden dollars," cashing it out for actual U.S. currency, and yes, it's taxable income as soon as you withdraw it into your bank account.
It's not the first computer game that has created a real-world secondary market. One trading card game collector actually made a profit selling electronic versions of the cards by waiting until they had increased in value, even though they only exist on a computer screen.
"The most I've ever personally spent on any item was probably a couple hundred dollars for a small collection of cards, the most I've ever sold any item for was a larger collection of cards which I sold for about fifteen hundred dollars," said online card collector Tim Rooks.
Rooks added that it's no surprise that people are buying and selling items that don't actually exist in games like second life.
“If you have the skills to use that scripting language to create interesting objects that other people want to use within the world, that's a value. I mean it's a valuable skill. You can sell those objects for actual money. Mmost of the time, money exists as a virtual object and it has a lot of value to a lot of people," said Rooks.
While virtual reality games like second life may be the next frontier for recreation and business, there's a darker side to all the fun: Video game addiction, virtual sweat shops, and even death.
Second Life, as we’ve said, is for adults only. You can expect to see explicit content posted in public spaces along with all kinds of entertainment possibilities.
It's the 21st century version of the TV show "Fantasy Island," and millions of people are online playing in the game world.
"For many people, it's a recreational escape, it's an opportunity to engage in a world, a fantasy world and it's nothing more than that. For other people, it becomes more encompassing, they become more engulfed in it, and it can become a habit, it can become a way of life for some people," said Klapow.
Second Life is just the latest in a growing list of multi-player online computer games, like World of Warcraft, which has almost seven million subscribers.
Internet-based computer games can be so addictive that some players lose sleep, lose jobs, and even lose their lives after playing too long. In 2005, a 28 year old Chinese man died after playing World of Warcraft for several continuous days, and parents of a 13 year old Chinese boy tried to sue the company that makes the game after they say he jumped off a building after a marathon session.
Besides its gaming casualties, China has become infamous for being one of several countries housing sweat shops called "gold farms," where low-paid employees live in sparse dorms and play online computer games almost non-stop, getting items and in-game currency for their employers to sell on the internet for real-world dollars.
Many World of Warcraft players frown on gold farming.
"It’s mind-boggling to me. I've never done it myself."
Calvin Harvey says he plays World of Warcraft as a fun diversion from real life, but he's never bought imaginary gold for real money.
"I don't do it myself because it gives me a sense of accomplishment to pretty much get what I want to on the game on my own, it makes me feel much better," said Harvey.
But many computer gamers do buy gold, virtual real estate, cyber-sex, whatever the market will bear. And as more games like Second Life appeal to a much broader segment of the population, the dark side of digital commerce is not going away any time soon.
"I think like any other technological game it is a matter of balance between using it for recreation or commerce and then living the rest of your life," said Klapow.
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