Second Life

Basic statistics

• Game Company is Linden Labs based in San Francisco

• Second Life has been around for 4 and a half years. Only recently has it gotten a large amount of media attention.

• Linden Labs is a private company and does not state earnings.

History

• I. Colonization Small settlements of alpha testers arrive in March 2002. Cultural rifts appear during beta, when militaristic immigrants arrive from the strategy game World War II Online.

• II. Tax Revolt Linden Lab’s policy of taxing residents for objects they create meets vehement resistance. In July 2003, rebellious residents dress in colonial garb and cover the land with giant tea crates and defiant signs that read born free: taxed to death!

• III. Declaration of Independence On the advice of Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig – the Thomas Jefferson of SL – Linden Lab abolishes the tax in November ’03 and establishes a new policy stating that residents should retain intellectual property rights over their creations.

• IV. Manifest Destiny A great land rush begins in December 2003. Settlers fan out and stake claims to property on the best servers. A class of land barons who sublet real estate to other residents emerges.

• V. The Gilded Age Reports in old-world journals (BBC, Fox, BusinessWeek, Wired) describe wonders and wealth beyond measure, spurring a gold rush of entrepreneurs and carpetbaggers. US corporations, including Coca-Cola, MTV, and Microsoft, establish beachheads in SL.

Second Life Population Stats (Oct 21st)

• Population 1,097,243

• 240,000 logged on in the last 14 days

• 10,000 people online at any time.

• 95 square miles of virtual “land”

Economy

• Currency Linden Dollar (270L$ = 1US$)

• 135million linden$ (US$500,000) changes hands each day.

• Economy growing 10-15% a month (roughly in line with population growth)

• GDP (as of september 2006) 64$ million US

Primary Industries

• Real Estate Speculation/Management

• Gambling

• Fashion

• Clubs/Bars

• Brothels/Stripclubs

Secondary Industries(?)

• Real world products

• University Campuses

• Robotic pets

• Pyramid Schemes

• Art Galleries

• Scripted Dance-moves

Art Galleries

• Second Life has a small but definitely visible Arts scene

• Much of it is musically and science fiction literature driven, with concerts and readings which take place in the sim and real world.

• There are several galleries and one Island space devoted to interactive visual arts.

Government

• Land owners act as quasi-governments in the land that they own. IE they keep unwanted people out and teach their tenants how to make homes.

• Linden Labs acts as the central Bank by controlling money supply through stipends to premium users and fees for uploading pictures and such. In future Linden Labs will provide Loans to control the money supply just as National central banks do.

Population Structure

• Only recently has Second Life been free to all comers. Before everyone had to pay a monthly fee. This has lead to more “griefing” IE players spamming objects and annoying others. In the long run this inclusion of anyone will change the culture of Second Life.

Discontent

• Apart from the early tax revolt there has been relatively little political action in Second Life. There is a politics forum on the Second life Site but it has no posts.

• The Second Life Liberation Army is an in game organization that has attacked Reebok and American Apparel stores, harrassing customers. However from what I saw of their video of the attack on YouTube it was pretty lame.