Ever read Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash
I love the idea, and with Second Life it has become real.
Second Life (SL) is a threedimensional world where people have fun. You can get an account for free and download the client. After you logged in, you arrive at the tutorial island. It shows you how to move around. And how to talk to a parrot, and how to fly.
When I entered the real SL world, I didn’t know what to do. After reading some signs, I transferred to a newbie area and played hangman. By this time, it feels natural to move around and interact with the environment.
People walk by, watching around and reading the tutorials. There are funny creations there, e.g. a dragon which sleeps, steam coming from its nostrils. I flew to some different places, and finally I end up in “the shelter”. Its a club-themed meeting place for newbies. You can dance, get freebies and meet people – the people I met there were really nice. And my avatar dancing is really funny to look at ;-)
Finally, Rebecca Tully showed me around and invited me to a jacuzzi near her apartment. We sat there for half an hour, chatting. I really had a good time.
There’s so much o see in SL. It allows you to create content and animate it using a built-in scripting language. You retain the copyright on all your creations, and you can control how to distribute them – give them away for free or sell them. You can purchase virtual land parcels. Build your own house. There is a real economy and currency behind, and you can exchange US$ for Linden$.
There are events in SL – ever thought on giving a live concert in a virtual environment? Lawrence Lessig has given a talk in SL, signing free in-world copies of free culture.
From a technical viewpoint, the game – err, worlds – infrastructure is really interesting: in a google techtalk (watch it!), Philip Rosedale and Cory Ondrejka explain some details. The world is completely managed on the server side. As of March 2006, there are 2000 linux machines serving the world. The scripts are mapped on a virtual machine, and they plan to switch to Mono. Cool stuff. Stay tuned, or better: get connected.