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Don't call Second Life a game. Every time I use the word to describe the megapopular online virtual world as I talk with a couple of reps from Linden Labs, the company behind the phenomenon, they correct me. Instead they opt for the more inclusive term "community." It's probably more accurate anyway. Second Life (SL for short) has no score, objective or storyline to speak of, making it decidedly un-gamelike. That's most certainly part of the reason it has taken Netizenry to the next level, gathering millions of registrants and helping bring terms like avatar and MMOG into the mainstream (although the "G" stands for game, Linden equivocates the point on its FAQ page). The cover of BusinessWeek probably had something to do with it, too.
But where does the hype end and the (virtual) reality begin? Is SL past its peak or just getting started? We sat down with two of the real people behind the, uh, community to find out. Read the full interview by following the link.
If you have a second life, you may have met either Jeska Dzwigalski (left) or Chris Collins under their SL aliases, Jeska and Logan Linden. Dzwigalski is a community manager, keeping office hours at Linden's SL HQ and helping residents get the most out of their world, while Collins is a business analyst for the company. The two sat down with us here in our offices in New York City.
The Facts of Life
SCI FI Tech: I've never played Second Life. Why should I? Convince me.Jeska Dzwigalski: What do you like to do in real life?
SFT:Um… I like to skate, I like to read, I like to hang out with people. Other stuff.
JD: Any of your friends live far away?
SFT: Sure.
JD: So what if you could go skating with your friends up in Canada? You could do that in Second Life. Anything that you can do in real life is going on in SL in some way. I think of it more as something you "layer on" over your life. It augments it, it adds to it — it doesn't replace it.
SFT: I understand that when avatars talk to each other, they appear to type in midair. Isn't that a little un-lifelike?
JD: Yes, though we're beta testing voice. It's really interesting how much more it adds. It's spatialized, too — so if someone is to your left, you'll hear them in that direction, and they're quieter if they're further away.
Life Support
SFT: What's the average age?Chris Collins: It's 33. Female population is about 40 to 43%.
SFT: And the membership tally?
CC: We just hit 5 million. Of that 5 million, we've got a retention rate of 10% — people who become "active" residents, which means they log in every week. We're constantly doing research in that first experience, because it's the first experience where we get the biggest drop-off. Since we're not a game, a lot of people don't have experience with a virtual environment. It's very new to them. Recently Jeska did some work that moved our retention up a little bit.
SFT: What specifically?
JD: A new orientation experience. It shortens it but also introduces concepts we haven't focused on before. So less about walking and avatar customization and more about, "These are the things you can do — classes, social groups, land and other stuff."
SFT: What is the average amount of people who are in the community at any one time?
CC: Our peak is at about 5 p.m. Eastern Time, when it hits about 40,000. But there's never less than 30,000.
SFT: Does the game ever slow down or hiccup when you're at your peak?
JD: We've been scaling pretty much just ahead of the curve, but it's hard when you're growing 30% a month. It's a tricky technical problem.
Living the Good Life
SFT: Once you're in SL, isn't the amount of stuff you can do for free fairly limited?JD: There's a lot of different social stuff you can do for free. Playing trivia and dancing are completely free. But if you want to, say, customize your avatar — make it look like that really cool fairy you saw — people create that content and sell it.
SFT: How does that work — the SL economy?
CC: Within the economy, there's already a large amount of Linden dollars that are in-world. There are various means where the supply of Lindens will increase. We've got premium subscribers [$9.95 a month, comes with land], and they get a small allocation every week, so that increases the amount of Lindens in SL. But anyone can go on the exchange and purchase Lindens. They can be purchased off other residents or we'll sell our Lindens into SL to increase the supply. The market sets the price of the Lindens.
SFT: Short of paying any money, how could someone in-world get some Lindens?
JD: You could get a job. If you're good with Photoshop, you could make textures or clothing or other things. There are a lot of businesses that need people to staff them, like nightclubs. It's not going to pay your rent, but it might pay for a new avatar.
SFT: I know lots of companies, including NBC, have a presence in SL. How is going to, say, Circuit City in SL any better than just going to their website?
JD: Brands are very successful in-world when they try to engage the community. Pontiac bought something like eight or nine Islands, and they gave the land to car enthusiasts who are already building cars and car-themed experiences. So there's a drive-in, there's a malt shop, a racetrack, a chop shop. Now they have events there, like concerts. They're extending their brand in the community in a way that makes sense.
Right, Wrong… I'm the Guy With the Land
SFT: Okay, what's the deal with all the sex that goes on?JD: SL is 18 and up, so it's an adult community. I'd say every facet of the human experience is being experienced. Humans are sexual. There's stuff going on across the board. SL isn't only about sex just like real life isn't only about sex.
CC: Much like the Internet, in SL, with your piece of land, you can create whatever you want.
SFT: Is there any behavior that would get someone kicked out of the game?
JD: Anything illegal.
SFT: But's what's illegal in SL?
JD: Anything that would be illegal in real life.
SFT: But isn't prostitution illegal in real life?
JD: Depends on where you are. We have terms of service, we have community standards, so there are things that are not acceptable. But basically it boils down to the Golden Rule: "Don't prevent anyone from having a good Second Life." Linden Labs is really more interested in giving communities tools to decide what's acceptable. So there are covenants you can join if you own land and want to share it. You can say "these are the rules for our community." You can shoot people, you have to all dress like flying pigs — whatever rules your community wants to have. We don't get involved.
SFT: What about copying stuff illegally?
JD: It's an issue. Everything you can see on your screen, you have to access to in some way… it's in your cache. But we give all content creators IP rights. If someone takes your textures and recreates them illegally you could file a DMCA [Digital Millennium Copyright Act] claim.
SFT: But there's nothing to physically prevent them from doing it.
JD: It's very socially enforced within the community. There's a lot of pressure that can be generated.
CC: Yeah, if you were in a situation where you did steal someone's property, whatever it may be, someone's going to say, "That's not yours." And then you could be "outed" by the same people you want to socially interact with.
To Life Immortal?
SFT: How has the open-source client changed the game?CC: It's exciting. We went open-source with the client once we had a very rich community. And we had a few thousand downloads of the open-source client within 24 hours of the release. That's definitely a success — the community was waiting for it.
SFT: How do you guys advertise and market yourselves?
JD: We don't really advertise or do much marketing per se. We've been pretty successful with word of mouth. People explain SL way better than an ad could. What is Second Life? What is life? How do you explain life to people?
SFT: So how do you guys make money?
JD: We sell server space in the form of virtual land. We also put more Lindens into the economy. Mostly land, though.
CC: We also have the premium accounts. And finally, we take a very small percentage when you convert your Lindens to real dollars.
SFT: How many premium subscribers do you have?
CC: We're at about 67,000. But a lot of free accounts have payment information to buy Lindens off the exchange. So as far as "paying" residents go, it's a lot greater.
SFT: Do you ever think there could ever be a day where you're not selling the land, with someone else running the server?
JD: Well, that's how the Internet works. So if we ever really wanted to be huge… I could foresee a future where you host your own server.
CC: There's nothing stopping that. And we're all about this being huge.
SFT: What are the dangers you have to watch out for to keep from becoming irrelevant?
JD: We have to keep innovating. And scaling. If we can't scale then we're done.
SFT: So you'd probably need investment money.
JD: Um, we're profitable.
SFT: Really?
JD: Yeah. So we're okay on that side, thanks.
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By Viajerop at 12:42 AM ON 04/19/07
I'd say a not too inaccurate a spin on SL, maybe a bit of gloss on the pretty serious challenges (and upcoming competition) that SL faces.
See the Linden Blog comments for some of the day-to-day issues and resident complaints: blog.secondlife dot com/?u=d4d1b0cb52fb1ba4952e930e3c4d9a5d
Second Life is hobbled at the moment in several ways, as many commenters never tire of pointing out. It is nevertheless an incredible platform to potentially do every manner of thing, fantastic and real. It is brimming over with creativity and beauty. She's right that it's a net addition to a real life. It also, like anything else, can be addicting, and has a lot of socially unredeeming corners.
As voice enters (next month, and it will be optional) and as an increasingly photo-realistic virtual world emerges, the "metaverse" platform will become more immersive and amazing. I would recommend that anyone with a fairly new computer and fairly fast connection should check it out: secondlife dot com/?u=d4d1b0cb52fb1ba4952e930e3c4d9a5d
It takes about 10 minutes to pick a name and sign up (it's free, but it's easy to use PayPal or a credit card to get funds to buy stuff when you're "inworld").
Try to use it during off-peak hours and you'll be less likely to be bogged down by server overload. It's a ton of amazing fun.
By webRatPGH at 2:57 PM ON 04/20/07
I don't recall SL ever asking for an age verification, so.. this 18+ "adult community" is kind of misleading. Might be who they're targeting perhaps.