Second Life

Think your life is not interesting enough? How would you like having another life? Yes, a second life, a virtual life of your own that you can live over the Internet. The Internet is constantly updating and reinventing itself with a variety of interesting applications and websites. I still remember the excitement of being in an online chat-room for the first time. It was new and hence it was fun. Soon we were in an era where we were way past the chat-room obsession and hooked on to the instant messengers.

Today we live in an era of social networking websites and blogging. It was just a few days back when I heard about an already existing phenomenon on the net called Second life! It is similar to chatting but it is a level higher than chatting since it allows you to actually "be" in the virtual world and "meet" the fellow virtual netizens. Well, that’s exciting I thought as I was determined to try my hands at having a second life! Having created an account and wandered into the virtual world for quite a while, I might have already lost my enthusiasm about it, but here is the deal about this virtual world.

About Second Life

Second life is a virtual world launched by a privately held American Internet company called Linden Research Inc in the year 2003 that enables users to experience a virtual world. Second life is similar to our life where we go out, discover new places, and socialize with people. Second life enjoys tremendous popularity which is evident in the fact that, as of March 2008, approximately 13 million accounts were registered at this virtual world.

Registering on Second Life

Registering for the second life is quite simple and easy. You need to fill out a few details like you name, age, gender and of course your email id. You also need to pick out a first name and a last name for yourself during the registration. Once the registration is done you are sent an email, which contains a link that needs to be visited for activating your Second Life account. You can choose a free membership or a paid one according to your preference. If you thought that this is it, then wait! There’s more! Now you also need to download simple software that is an interface to be used while logging into the virtual world. Once you download this file, you need to run the setup on your computer to get you started. After this all you need to do is enter your user name and password and login to start your second life!

Features of Second Life

Well the Second life virtual residents can enjoy several features like choosing their own appearance and chatting with the fellow members. Post registration you can pick an avatar based on your gender and other body-type preferences. You can select your clothes and accessories from a wide variety of options given to you. You can explore several places in this virtual world and also interact with the various objects placed around you. All in all its all about creating a virtual Avatar of yourself and meeting new people who interest you. Although the paid-membership will allow you to actually buy land and property in this virtual world, the unpaid version provides you the basic features only.

The idea of being in a virtual world to meet new people seems rather stupid to me, since there already exists an option of doing all that and much more in the real world. What ever happened to going out with your family and friends and having a great time with them? Why break your head trying to meet people in a virtual world when there exist so many precious people who are already a part of your real life and would be thrilled to spend time with you. Well, although there is a lot of hoopla that surrounds this website, I personally felt that there is nothing extra-ordinary about it. It is basically like any other chat room with some added features that make the whole thing seem interesting in the beginning. In case you are an avid chatter and have got enough time on your hands to spare on the Internet then may be you would appreciate this chat software due to the element of novelty that allows you to see a graphical representation of yourself as well as the fellow chatters and the endless list of things that you could do together. But again that’s about it! People who have created this chat software or the ones who frequent the virtual place regularly might frown upon this, but What-the-heck! So much for 3D animations and chatting! As for me, I am quite content in this real world, with my first and only life!