Second Life
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Second Life is an online virtual world consisting of hundreds of interconnected large-scale areas populated by interactive avatars, whose players may choose to take any form they can create or purchase. The major form of short-distance transportation is flight, while transportation between areas is typically performed through teleportation; both abilities are innate. The "main grid" is restricted to those 18 or over, as some regions contain strong violence or sexual content. A teen version for those 13 to 17 is also available.
- Address: http://www.secondlife.com/
Second Life has over 8,268,883 registered users and 1,548,131 active users as of july 21, 2007; logged-in users range from 20,000 to 60,000 at any one time. The system is funded through a combination of account subscriptions and "tier" (a form of land value tax). Users have the option to own or rent land parcels in a variety of sizes - as in real life, some owners may zone their land to restrict certain activities, such as commercial development. Business in the world's virtual currency (exchangeable for real-world funds) is encouraged by the Linden Research, and a variety of content vendors have sprung up to meet demand.
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[edit] Second Life and furry
The furry fandom has a major presence in Second Life, with multiple areas devoted to providing accommodation, entertainment and creative services specifically for members of the furry community. Themes range from the pedestrian to the bizarre, although trees are common in furry haunts. Each user can create their own objects from the inbuilt primitives, but the majority of users rely in part on objects created and sold by others. These include body parts for avatars, accessories, vehicles (which may be purely aesthetic or provide extra functionality), toys, pose balls for avatar animation, and scripts to provide extra features (like "push" and "shield" defensive/offensive capabilities).
[edit] Controversy
On September 8th 2006, Linden Lab reported via a security bulletin (which was also emailed to all SL users) that the servers holding player account information had been attacked using a zero-day exploit. According to Linden Lab, this attack on the servers may have begun as early as September 3rd and they only noticed an increase in activity on the 6th which they then quickly locked out. Their investigation showed that the attack allowed a significant amount of customer account information to be downloaded such as credit card numbers, PayPal transaction ID's, real life names, Second Life names, account passwords, and contact information.
As part of their effort to improve the security of their servers, Linden Lab had invalidated the passwords (assuming they were already compromised) of all Second Life users and has required said users to reset their passwords. Linden Lab further mentioned that while the compromised payment information was encrypted, no encryption is unbreakable given enough time and computing power. They had thus stated that if any SL user believed themselves to be the victim of credit card fraud, they (the user) should contact their credit card company.
The short form of the bulletin in available at http://secondlife.com/corporate/bulletin.php
[edit] Outline
Second Life was started in 2003 as a project by "Linden Research, Inc." doing business as "Linden Lab". Second Life's primary attraction has always been the level of customization; from the ground under your feet to the clouds in the sky. This was quite literal since the world's developers intended for the user to be able to create the world to their desire, as is quoted in the Second Life overview on its site:
- "Second Life is a virtual world - a 3D online persistent space totally created and evolved by its users. Within this vast and rapidly expanding place, you can do, create or become just about anything you can imagine. Built-in content creation tools let you make almost anything you can imagine, in real time and in collaboration with others."
Second Life is considered by some to be a variant of the Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, or MMORPG for short. The true answer to the question "is it such a game?" is "yes and no" - Second Life is technically not a role-playing game by itself. Also, unlike other role playing games, there is no goal to reach, no levels to gain, no enemies to defeat, therefore it isn't a game at all. It is more a MUSE: Multi User Simulated Environment. Rather, it is a platform that allows games and worlds to be built within its framework. It is better classified as a richly graphical multiple user chat kingdom (MUCK) rather than an MMORPG. Some go so far as to just call it a metaverse, which isn't that far of a stretch. Membership requires a credit card or SMS-capable cellphone, both for security reasons and because each region has its own content rating, from PG to Mature (which can be very mature at times), though as of April 2007, both of these appeared to no longer be required.
Second Life has become one of the popular forms of online entertainment for members of the furry fandom; at last count there were over 500 furries registered as Second Life users, and the true number is probably several times that by now. This arose out of the fact that the avatars, humanoid objects representing the user, are very customizable and the world's disposition for allowing users to create anything has made the concept of a virtual "fursuit" possible. Many furries of Second Life don't like to be considered to be wearing fursuits. Instead, they pretend it is their real body. These consist of a variety body parts which are attached to the user's avatar. These parts include tails, wings, legs, and so on - some have even made complete sets that resemble mythical beasts such as dragons, complete with scripted flame effects. Such avatar add-ons can be sold by their creators, who retain the ability to control distribution of their objects as part of their copyright, enforced by inbuilt copy restrictions. Some choose to give works away for free, for apparently altruistic or promotional purposes.
The high interactivity is also a plus for online social networks - as a result, various furry communities began to pop up in the world and are now a sizable force in the virtual world. In the October 2005 issue of Computer Games, "Furries" (used as a proper noun) were noted as a major user-base in Second Life in an article about the use of MMOs for self-actualization.[1]
Signing up for a new account no longer requires a credit card or an SMS-capable cell phone. Also, current members have the option of changing their billing information in the members area so their membership fees can be deducted through PayPal.
[edit] Age policy
As with most social environments on the Net, there is no way to tell inside the world how old someone really is. The world's Terms of Service state quite clearly you must be over the age of 18 to enter the "main grid" of Second Life. If anyone is found to be under 18 in the main grid, they will be banned from the world and all money and inventory will be forfeit. It is generally assumed that almost all players in the main grid are over the age of 18.
Second Life rates the individual sections of the world as Mature, or PG, with other possible ratings. These ratings help moderate the behavior of people that populate the various sections of the world, as they won't tolerate someone breaking the PG rating by performing a Mature-rated act in a PG-rated zone. The rating system is not in place to keep children out of areas in SL; it is there because many adults don't want to be exposed to adult material during their time in the world or to take a break from it for a time by visiting a PG sim. Luskwood is a prime example of a furry PG sim, safe from displays of sexuality and nudity unlike a mature furry sim like FurNation Worlds.
[edit] Teen Grid
Late in 2005, Second Life created a separate version of its world designed with teens in mind, strictly separating those 18 years of age or greater from those 17 and under. Server-side tracking differentiates teen users from adult users, sending teens to the Teen Grid instead of the main grid. The Teen Grid has different rating policies than the main version; being made for teenagers, none of the regions are rated Mature and nothing may exceed the general PG13 to PG17 rating spans.
- Website: http://teen.secondlife.com/
[edit] Environment and Economy
[edit] Costs and land ownership
Membership of Second Life falls into one of two categories: "Basic" and "Premium". Basic accounts are free to create and incur no monthly fee. If you wish to have more than one account however, secondary accounts (Alts) incur a one-off fee of US$9.95, which may be paid with a credit card, or a positive PayPal balance.
Basic accounts are subdivided into "verified" and "unverified". A verified account means that the user has submitted a credit card, PayPal account, or telephone number to verify their identity. However, users may create an account without any verification of their identity. This was a highly unpopular move that sparked protests[2]. In response to this, Linden Lab added the ability to prevent unverified users from entering a parcel of land, and introduced an option to the LSL function llRequestAgentData() to return an agent's payment status as one of:
- No Payment Info on File
- Payment Info on File
- No Payment Info on File AND Payment Info Used (Only Beta/Lifetime users fall under this status)
- Payment Info on File AND Payment Info Used
The fears of "open registration" were that it would lead to an influx of minors on the main grid - both opening Linden Lab to potential lawsuits and its users; and allow griefers to quickly and freely create a new account as soon as one account is banned for their misdeeds.
Premium accounts come at a rate of US$9.95 each month, with discounts for paying quarterly or annually -- $22.50, and $72, respectively. The premium accounts come with the privilege of owning 512 square meters of land, known as 'First Land'. This is approximately 1/256 of 1 simulator, or "not much". They also come with a weekly stipend of L$300. The ability to acquire additional amounts of land bring an additional charge, called land tier.
- US$195.00/month: 65,536 square meters - Entire Region
- US$125.00/month: 32,768 square meters - 1/2 Region
- US$75.00/month: 16,384 square meters - 1/4 Region
- US$40.00/month: 8,192 square meters - 1/8 Region
- US$25.00/month: 4,096 square meters - 1/16 Region
- US$15.00/month: 2,048 square meters - 1/32 Region
- US$8.00/month: 1,024 square meters - 1/64 Region
- US$5.00/month: 512 square meters - 1/128 Region
These are the official Linden rates - it is possible to find island owners (see below) who will sell or rent land for lower rates, usually with some restrictions as to its use. It is also possible to get low-cost rented accommodation with no specific land ownership, and to own land without a premium account through a "group" to which the land is deeded. Many users own no land or accommodation at all - it is not required for object ownership, although object creation can be another matter.
Land, once purchased, may be traded between users at market rates. Large contiguous plots of land (or even relatively small plots of land in a busy place) can often sell at a hefty premium. Linden's tier remains the same whatever the selling price.
[edit] Referrals
Each user who joins Second Life gets an unique referral link. Giving this link to people who have yet to sign up, and getting them to do so used to credit the user with a certain amount of Linden Dollars -- the in-world currency. Since late January 2006, only premium account signups will result in a bonus, of L$2500, staggered over a three month period, where you get L$500 on the spot, another L$500 after one month, another L$500 after two months, and the final L$1000 after three months, to prevent gaming of the premium account referral bonus.
[edit] Currency
Users can buy or sell their Linden Dollars (L$) from within the world using the Lindex money market run by Linden Research. There are also third-party exchange services.
Exchanges can be performed with any number of Linden Dollars. The Lindex calculator will give you an idea of what you'll be receiving as a result of your sale. The amount that you receive as a result of your sale gets placed into your account, where you may have it applied to anything you owe for your account if you are a premium user, or may have it sent to you via PayPal for a US$1 charge. For larger amounts, you may also have a check mailed to you for a fee - US$5 if you're inside the United States, or US$15 for locations outside of the United States.
There are some furs who extract do this with the earnings from their businesses (custom avatar creation, generic avatar vending, etc.), turning it into profit that allows them to do whatever they want to pay for, up to, and including starting their own islands. Historically-speaking, the L$ is a relatively volatile currency prone to bouts of inflation. It can therefore be a good idea to remove any significant sums from the world, unless they are to be spent quickly in-world.
[edit] Objects
Objects in Second Life are constructed from geometric primitives known as "prims" which are combined, manipulated and textured with images. A variation on this is the "flexiprim", which allows for more realistic movement of flexible objects like tails and hair.
[edit] Sandbox
A sandbox in Second Life is a place in the universe that allows public building of virtual objects. In many areas of Second Life, building of virtual objects is limited outside these sandboxes. They also tend to be gathering places where people can socialize and mentor others as they build. One such sandbox is located in FurNation Worlds.
Many sandboxes have a longer "return rate". In other words, building in the sandbox area is more beneficial for the builder because their items will be returned to them at a less frequent rate than if they were to take it out into other areas of the sim. In some sims it is common that any area outside of the sandbox has a return rate of around 2 minutes.
Sandboxes can often become crowded in the midst of newbies or players that are generally inconsiderate about "picking up after themselves". While it is less of a hindrance than if this were to happen outside of the sandbox area, it can still become rather cumbersome if done to often, too frequently or the landowners simply lack enough staff to prevent this sort of thing. To solve this some sandboxes are set to automatically "clean out" at a set time.
[edit] Islands and other locations
- Main article: Islands and other locations in Second Life
Members can purchase whole regions called Islands from Linden Lab, effectively renting a whole processor for the sim.
Prior to the creation of islands, every region belonged to a large land mass (sometimes called Mainland). Regions of these simulators sometimes ended up dedicated to specific groups, including the furry fandom.
[edit] "Second Life Furry" logo
In (early 2006?), a "furry admin" meeting for all furry and/or furry-friendly sims' administrators or owners was held to discuss several unifying strategies regarding the fandom population in world (Inferniel Solvang was the lead fur for this particular encounter.) Of the many proposals, one was the creation of a common, official symbol or logo for identifying purposes for sim or fur.
The final design, a SL logo inspired image, came to be thanks to the design of SL furry artist, Yiffy Yaffle. The logo can be viewed on most of the older furry sims, with propagation to newer ones going at a slow, but steady rate.
[edit] Video
As of version 1.6.0, Second Life now hooks Quicktime for Mac and Windows, or gstreamer for Linux, if it is installed on the user's system, to provide an interface that allows one to watch movies within the client itself. A very fast connection is suggested in this case, as you will be streaming world data and a video at the same time. If Quicktime is not installed on a Windows system, the user will be reminded that Quicktime is needed to watch video within the client when they enter a parcel with video.
A number of furs use the video feature to watch the Funday PawPet Show on their land.
Some users have taken advantage of this new feature to bring forward a new business: Movie Rentals. One may rent adult movies from a couple of the businesses in Second Life, for the express purpose of being able to watch pornography on their land for a couple of hours.
[edit] Beta Client and Preview Grid
As Linden Lab draws closer to a potential release, be it a sub-version upgrade, or a full point-release jump, they release beta versions (previously called Release Candidate) of the client, to allow all interested parties to test the new client and its features, and report bugs. This is extremely important to builders, scripters, and texturers, as knowing how the new software will handle their works is very important.
First Look viewers are client branches that contain experimental functionality. They are designed to connect to the main grid.
The Preview Grid (previously called the Beta Grid) is a cluster of machines running new versions of server software that is about to be deployed to the Main grid. The Preview Grid is a separate grid from the main grid, which means there are less people to interact with. Most of the people available are there to test their wares, making sure they won't have to do a full rebuild or rescript for the next version, as well as finding and reporting simulator bugs.
Currently, Teen Grid users are unable to connect to the Preview Grid.
[edit] Technical advice
Due to the amount of data that is sent between the client (you) and the servers, Second Life requires a fast internet connection, at least 128kbps, though more (768kbps or better) is highly recommended, at least 512MB of RAM (preferably at least 1024), and a CPU faster than 800MHz, though the bare minimum will not be as pleasant an experience. Linden Lab suggests that you invest in hardware that will exceed the minimum specs. There are also specific graphics card requirements due to the world making use of a certain OpenGL standard. The system requirements for interested people is listed at the Second Life website partially, and more exact requirements can be found inside its technical support area.
Although it is not impossible to use a dial-up connection with Second Life, nearly every option of the world requires serious cutting back; close to the bare minimum. This makes the experience flatter and less pleasant, with lag so heavy that movement is difficult and awkward with occasional stop-frame style "clipping" animation. Walking forward one step, for example, might occasionally result in sliding forward more then a yard or two before being snapped back to your intended position in a rather sudden jerk, or scenery change. Sometimes, said movement could make you sink through the ground or pass through other objects (like a wall) before the snap-back occurs. Then you find you need another of the regular 24MB to 25MB updates to play. There aren't many dial-up users on Second Life as a result. ISDN provides a usable experience, but only just. Mobile broadband solutions such as UMTS or HSDPA are usually good enough, however.
Second Life has been dealing with issues over ATI's video card drivers for quite a while. It has become practice on the forums to suggest to ATi users to pick up the Omega Drivers, a set of user-modified drivers recognized by ATi (according to their author) as "the best-modded drivers in the Internet". These Omega Drivers enable features that Second Life can use which aren't easily enabled in the default drivers.
[edit] Fan-sites
Linden Lab's policies regarding the use of trademarks on Second Life fansites are loose, provided the following stipulations are met.
- There is no attempt to pass off a fan site as Second Life or Linden Lab itself.
- The following legal text is present on all Second Life related pages: "Second Life® and Linden Lab® are registered trademarks of Linden Research, Inc. No infringement is intended." this must include the ® circles though can be any size the website creators see fit.
[edit] References
- ↑ Liu, Johnny. "Waking Dreams." Computer Games, October 2005; pp. 58-59
- ↑ PierceP, The Protest at YouTube
[edit] See also
- Second Life on Wikipedia
- Second Lifers on WikiFur
- Second Life Promotional Video -- This file is directly available on the Second Life Home page. The video is linked to an image titled "watch the video" that will alternate with the free trial promotional image link. There is also a Quicktime version of the video.
[edit] External links
- Second Life Furry Community at LiveJournal
- The Second Life Herald: Miravoir Meets The Furries — Article about furries on Second Life
- New World Notes: Furry Like Me — Another article about furries on Second Life
- My Virtual Life — Business Week reporter examines Second Life in detail
- Virtual Land, Real Money — An interview with Anshe Chung
- Beatfox and his flexy foxy tail at YouTube - an video example of flexiprims in furry avatars
- Jolie Grant: SL Furry Model - a website with models created by Jolie, a furry who made it into the human modeling world with her avatar
- Second Life - West Corner Of the Park strip about FurryMUCK players who spend time in both worlds
- Furries, pirates, drag queens at 'Second Life' ball, page 3 of coverage (credited to Caroline McCarthy) of 2007 Second Life Community Convention.
A piece of this article has been copied directly from the Second Life website and no challenge is being issued in regards to the material of the quote taken in any way, shape, or form.
