check this out!!

Dayna Wills · From: Sacramento, CA (deceased)

www.secondlife.com
My writing partner has been doing shows on secondlife from his living room in his jammies for the past year. He makes money doing the music he likes to do. If you wanna do your own thing and make some money, check this out. You can go to Podcasts, music, and there will be a page where you can check out concerts. Something for us to think about as far as performing. You don't have to be young and skinny to do this, HA! I am too puter illiterate to do this without a geek to help me, but some of you guys are pretty savvy.

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

I went to the secondlife site. Sorry, but it looks suspiciously like a money-making scam, to me. Buy "Linden Dollars"? Purchase "virtual real-estate"?

Not for me, thanks.

Doug Beaumier · From: Northampton, MA

From the site:

Ray Minich · From: Bradford, Pa. Frozen Tundra

Virtual Property? Is that like a real fake? Or is it the sound of a false truth? Oxymoronic... Hyperbaric morons...

Dayna Wills · From: Sacramento, CA (deceased)

I guess I don't know how to explain it. As I said, my partner has been doing it for a year and making money. I guess virtual property is their name for personal domain. One can also go into a virtual nightclub. I wouldn't have put the info up if I didn't get the info from someone with personal experience. I thought it would be something some of you guys might want to do.

David L. Donald · From: Koh Samui Island, Thailand

Surely it is a way to make money for the designers,
but that said;
it is a pretty cool incarnation of the gaming world;

Where the players create their own existences
and not just to play Dungeons And Dragons on line.

Dayna's friend IS doing his thing there,
and some people have seen value in his work
and paid for it.

It is an 'imaginary world',
but has some 'real world' value attached,
because outside value is brought in,
and then redistributed.

In many ways so is the Steel Forum
a closer cousin to this sight than you realize,

Think of it as the forum with REALLY great graphics.
With avatars of the next dimension.

Within the forum we ALSO make trades
and exchange products for money
via the same electronic value transfer systems
used here, but in this case it is a
customizable graphic interface of higher than normal
information, and EACH user makes his own world.
And decides what to sell from it.
Like a 3D storefront website.

It may very well be a preview of our children's
shopping world of the future.

Not a replacement, for the rational, for real interpersonal contact,
but heck I am trading info with y'all all the time
from the otherside of the globe..
and that IS a virtual reality,
Just lower resolution over all.
_________________
DLD, Chili farmer. Plus bananas and papaya too.

Real happiness has no strings attached.
But pedal steels have many!

David L. Donald · From: Koh Samui Island, Thailand

Just been wandering around in there,
Seriously huge place, just on the face of it.

Dayna what are your friends coordinats inside.

Very, very curious.
_________________
DLD, Chili farmer. Plus bananas and papaya too.

Real happiness has no strings attached.
But pedal steels have many!

Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

This is certainly not for everybody, but it's not a fly-by-night scam. I teach at a large university in a college of information sciences. We have people who develop and study virtual worlds, and are involved with Second Life in a serious way. High-tech people have been talking about the advent of virtual worlds for a long time, so this is nothing remarkable, IMO.

This is really a more sophisticated extension of the basic concept of computer simulation. Simulation has been around for decades, and has been heavily used for engineering testing, battlefield simulation, business simulation, and lots of other practical things.

I see Second Life as the logical extension of simulation games like Sim-City or The Sims. The main difference is that it's on an open and public network, people pay to be involved, and it allows real commercial exchange of virtual property. I'll be interested to see if a similar "free" and "open-source" virtual simulation community develops - there are some attempts already at this, but I don't think they've gained a critical mass yet. I noticed that Second Life went open-source with its client software in January, apparently to speed up development.

I agree with David D. that the SGF is a type of virtual world, without the sophisticated graphics and more imaginary content - well, there may be some who disagree with that last point. Wink

At times, all of this sort of makes me wonder what's happened that many people would rather spend more time in a virtual world than in the "real" world. Confused

David L. Donald · From: Koh Samui Island, Thailand

I was definitely thinking the Sims too.

I just spent some time in there,
I have been following the consept of
virtual worlds for many years now,
they almost have it there now in Second Life.

I was in long enough to see the 1st for sale product.
Photo realistic skin for your Avatars, which may indicate the over 18 sections might be somewhat risque.

It will likely be the future extension of the web
for shopping and comparing without traveling to do it.
It would be interesting to build a Steel Guitar Store in there.

5 million members is a substantial amount.
If you consider how much time the young these days
are online for gaming, it seems there will be a growing market for this.

For good or ill.
_________________
DLD, Chili farmer. Plus bananas and papaya too.

Real happiness has no strings attached.
But pedal steels have many!

Jim Cohen · From: Philadelphia, PA

It's so real, even the Feds are investigating!

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/internet/04/04/secondlife.gambling.reut/index.html

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

"Making money" could be $3 a week, or $300 a week. How much your friend is making isn't any of my business, but it sets us wondering if it's what you could call "lucrative", or just a hobby that pays for itself. I can see where it might appeal to some young computer-oriented people, but I just think sites like utoob are far better at getting publicity and exposure, and offer far, far more potential. (Especially now that they're paying for content!)

David L. Donald · From: Koh Samui Island, Thailand

I can imagine the feds interested in some of the members,
I saw 'euro escorts' and some gambling casinos etc.

I imagine it is similar to real life;
you get all sorts, and not all are
on the square and by the level. Smile

I also note early in the article that Linden invited the feds to look,
and are making that a quite public thing,
just to let members know they can't use it for illegal things, just because it isn't ACTUALLY on a
'national territorial plot of land.

An interesting legal cunundrum.
Whcih maybe keeping the Feds befuddled..
BeFEDled? o
[oh ooh, the REALLY should be a new word! Smile

my taxes really have me beFEDled this year]

Where would one prosecute for malfeasance???
Or for taxes for that matter.

So; is it the homes servers location where one joins?

or the MAIN server's location?

or ANY satilite server's location?

or the location of the person doing something illegal?

What about the builder who sold the plot of virtual land and the 3D construct they subcontractred to do?

What if a Romanian euro escort used a spanish card
to buy an ad sign from a english building owner,
who had a canadian hacker build his site,
to get business for herself on her nexty visit to France,
while
while having joined in Calf, but residing in in Tokyo.

Yeah no wonder the Feds are just looking...
I think Linden is rightly covering their butts with this one.

It is an individual members look out about legalities.
But the user agreement does cover a lot of stuff including no intolernace or harassment etc.

But the 1st actual prosecution will get an awful lot of press too.

Still this does seem like a serious pert of our children's futures,
whether our personal perspectives gives credence to that now / yet.
_________________
DLD, Chili farmer. Plus bananas and papaya too.

Real happiness has no strings attached.
But pedal steels have many!

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