Well, I’ve made a second visit to Second Life, I completed the orientation area and seem to be getting along quite well. The system is not the fastest or most stable thing and as the content is streamed from Linden Labs servers, the look can often leave a bit to be desired as things play catch up. I can’t help thinking they might’ve been better off using the Quake 3 engine.

It seems that a number of educational institutions (e.g. the Open University) and companies (e.g. IBM) already have a presence in Second Life, there is also an economy of sorts. The currency is called “Linden Dollars” and apparently can be changed for US Dollars, there are people who actually earn a living through working in Second Life.

There seem to be areas catering to all sorts of pursuits, from adventure, to education and even more adult pursuits.

The whole thing seems to be very open ended to me, and I feel that if you go in thinking it’s a goal oriented game, you’ll be disappointed, free exploration seems to be the order of the day.