The world of Second Life is one that is constantly being created by those who live inside it, where everything from the buildings and robots, to the texture of an avatar’s skin, to the way an avatar moves, is something designed by another player.
It is a world which has no story, yet at the same time it is a thousand stories all at once.
And there are dance clubs everywhere.
I love the bizarre cultures that have developed here. Furries and faeries, sex maniacs and sci-fi fans, Lindens and hackers. . .
It’s a different game for everyone who plays it.
Second Life is such an expansive and constantly changing world, so filled with sci-fi madness, that it has grown its own branch of journalism just to document what happens inside. Below are some of the more interesting pieces of Second Life writing I’ve come across since beginning the game.
New World Notes
Evolving Nemo – Artifical Intelligence and Cyber-Fish
Wandering Sentient A.I. Bot Hal
How Many Species of Artificial Life are there in Second Life
His Current Brain is Scaled Down for Testing Purposes
April – The Bot Who Learns as You Speak to Her
What Artificial Cat Prowls Second Life So Elusively?
A Map of Second Life and a Map of San Francisco
The U.S. Army’s Virtual Island for Amputee Veterans in Second Life
An Unvarnished Tour of Religion in Second Life
Botgirl – The Avatar Who Woke Up in Second Life
Warren Ellis – Second Life Sketches
The Girl with Error-Message Eyes
Please Stop Doing That to the Cat
The Alphaville Herald
Private Eyes for Hire in Second Life
Alliance Navy Base Becomes Furry Death Camp
Is the Founder of The Second Life Liberation Army Part of A Corporate Spy Firm?
Estonia Annexed by Soviet Woodbury
Casino Owner Unimpressed with Crackdown
Others
Virtualism – A Movement for A New World
A Search for Second Life Culture or Omphaloskepsis
A Tour of the Virtual Reproductive System
A fair amount of books, both fiction and non-fiction, have been published on Second Life. Here is a list of some of the best.
Alter Ego: Avatars and their Creators
Una Tragicomica Second Life – Cellule staminali dell’anima (Italian Edition)
ANIMA: a novel about Second Life
Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human
Second Life: The Official Guide
I, Avatar: The Culture and Consequences of Having a Second Life
Creating Your World: The Official Guide to Advanced Content Creation for Second Life
Scripting Your World: The Official Guide to Second Life Scripting
The Making of Second Life: Notes from the New World
The Second Life Herald: The Virtual Tabloid that Witnessed the Dawn of the Metaverse
There is lot of excellent machinima being produced in Second Life as well.
For those just starting out in this world, I recommend gothic Transylvania, the steampunk cities of Caledon and New Babbage, the mysterious oracle beneath the temple in Svarga, or Insilico, the coolest cyberpunk city in Second Life since the fall of Nexus Prime.
The Electric Children island is coming soon. . .