Cover Story

by Benjamin Tertin

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'Second Life' Replaces Reality

Through avatars like this, people explore, shop, invest, work and live in the fully immersive 3D space, or metaverse, known as "Second Life," spending an average of $29.5 million per month. --Benjamin Tertin, photo

Trekking through a palm tree jungle, mist rising from waterfalls and blue lagoons, I found a glowing bonfire surrounded by vacant lawn chairs and stumps, each underneath a floating brown orb.

The black-and-white face of a 200-foot panda caught my eye. Frozen, I stared above the treetops, and a dark green, hulkish man with neon orange hair and shredded jeans zipped over my head.

"Hey, newbie!" he shouted down before disappearing into the clouds.

I decided to tag along and clicked the on-screen "Fly" button, which lifted me to a steady hover. The "PageUp" key shot me into the sky, and my directional arrow keys helped me navigate from that jungle thicket to the crowds, cars and high-rises of a bustling metropolis.

Floating there, I marveled at the immensity of this new world and then teleported to another.

When I arrived at the new island, two naked avatars Ð virtual humans Ð strolled by, chatting with each other. Industrial trance beats produced an ambient pulse, and the anatomically correct, clothing-challenged figures walked to a group of similarly clad peers, most of whom displayed graphic, sometimes explicit sexual interactions in the open-air castle-like structure.

Time, once again, to teleport.

Second Life, the massive on-line virtual world launched in 2003 by Linden Research Inc., or "Linden Labs," presents a surreal mixture of reality and imagination.

Imagination emerges with user-created objects and landscapes that shape almost all of Second Life's "metaverse" Ð a fully immersive 3D virtual space. Linden provides the necessary software as a free download available to anyone, and with it, users acquire cutting-edge virtual creation tools combined with the ability to control their in-world presence, their customizable avatar.

Reality emerges when more than 10.3 million users use real currency to buy Linden dollars, used to purchase land, buildings, body types or "skins," clothing, gadgets, cocktails and the virtual representation of almost any imaginable real-world object or human expression.

So far this year, users worldwide have spent an average of $29.5 million U.S. per month in Second Life. At any given time, approximately 40,000 real people are on-line inside Second Life, living through their avatars and communicating with other users through instant messaging boards or, with an adequate headset, his or her real voice.

Second Life's infinite array of shopping malls, dance clubs and places to spend genuine money on virtual products did not captivate me, though. Nor did any sort of activity or plotline because little game play exists in Second Life. Still, I didn't log off.

Curiosity overwhelmed me the second I plopped into the world. Within two days, I was escaping to the metaverse, determined to spend just 15 minutes but actually killing one...two...then four hours. Disgusted, I shut down my computer.

And 30 minutes later, like an addict rationalizing his vice, I was back hiking, driving or aimlessly flying around in Second Life.

During an interview at the Online News Association's annual convention this year, University of Maryland associate dean Don Heider said, "[Second Life] is sort of like Barbie on steroids. You get to buy clothing, buy land, buy a house, decorate it and, in some ways, create a life that you may not otherwise be able to afford in real life."

He said that, although a small core group of artists and creators go to Second Life to build and script in the virtual arena, "now, most people enter to form social networks."

These social networks are getting sophisticated. Along with other undergraduate institutions, Harvard Law School has already offered several courses in Second Life.

Benjamin Duranske, co-chair of the American Bar Association's committee on virtual worlds, founded the Second Life Bar Association in 2006, a group with more than 200 members who meet in a virtual eight-story office building called The Justice Center.

"It's a three-dimensional meeting space where we can have a meeting with people from London to Asia to San Fransisco...all logging in simultaneously. Take the last meeting, for instance, when we had a presentation from a woman in Portugal.

"The Portuguese government has created an alternative dispute resolution center in Second Life, and with her presentation, she could display slides within the virtual world. People were able to, in real time, ask questions and view her slides."

Mr. Duranske, currently writing a book, "Virtual Law," is a University of California Berkley law school graduate who has practiced law for four years. He said people are beginning to file real-life lawsuits over virtual world problems. He described the case of one user suing another user over in-world activity.

"In real life, his name is Kevin Alderman, but in Second Life, he goes by 'Stroker Serpantine,' Mr. Duranske said.

"Mr. Alderman is suing over a sex toy that allows avatars to appear to be engaged in sexual activity; it animates avatars.

"It's a popular item that sells for about $35 U.S., which makes it one of the most expensive things for sale, and he's making a living doing this."

Mr. Alderman alleges that another user copied his "product" and is marketing it as his own. Mr. Duranske said he believes copyright protection extends to cover virtual products, and because of the lucrative economies growing in virtual worlds, he foresees an increase in similar lawsuits.

Linden Labs, Mr. Duranske said, has taken a hands-off approach to managing content in Second Life. "The pornography specific to Second Life is one thing that's really not true of all virtual worlds."

After touring more than 30 regions or islands, Second Life had overburdened my mind. Virtual or real: where was the line? Uninhibited expressions of the deepest, often darkest, human longings threatened an ambush at every teleport.

By the fourth day, after an embarrassing sum of forfeited time, I cancelled my Linden Labs account and uninstalled my Second Life software. Unless two living and breathing friends are sitting with me, I will never return to this virtual world.

This means, of course, that I might miss out on the mission of Linden Labs: "To connect us all to an online world that advances the human condition."

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