Metaversatility :: Blog

This material is based on an email I wrote to a pair of MBA students who were preparing to interview me for their marketing class. I am working on adapting it for broader use for business people who are interested in learning about Second Life. It combines in-world resources and experience with Web reading to attempt to deliver a fairly accurate picture of SL in a relatively short amount of time.

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Second Life. Is it a game? Is it a bold new market? Is it all hype? Is it the next internet? These are important questions to have answers to when considering bringing a business in to the virtual world of Second Life. It is important to understand the broader context of the world that will exist around your company and brand. Before deciding on a presence, it’s important to familiarize yourself with the environment. This can be a daunting idea– the world is hugely diverse, constantly changing, and home to around thirty thousand people at any given time. The important thing is to take things one step at a time.
There is a technical barrier to entry, so the first thing to determine is if your computer will run Second Life. The system requirements are posted on Second Life’s hompage.
Signing up for Second Life is free and requires only very basic information. From the registration page, you will choose your Second Life name. Your SL name is the only permanent part of your avatar, so choose carefully. You can choose anything for your first name, but last names in Second Life are provided so you can pick from a list. The rest of the information is fairly rudimentary, you will need to provide your birthdate and a valid email address. You are then given the opportunity to provide payment information, which will allow you to purchase L$ for use in world. This is a useful, but not necessary step.
Once you get in to SL, you’ll be placed on an orientation island to learn how to walk, talk, and deal with objects in SL. Don’t spend too much time on avatar customization as most people use resident-created skins, shapes, clothing, hair, etc to customize avatars, which aren’t available at orientation. After you teleport to the mainland, you will probably be at a welcome area or info hub. Think of this like a bus station. There will be some information as to how to get around, but there will also be unsavory types hanging around trying to take advantage of newcomers. To outfit your avatar, I recommend going to the GNUbie store (which you can find by searching places for ‘GNUbie’) and picking up some free stuff. Finally, I recommend spending some time at newbie-friendly locations like the New Citizen’s Plaza or the Shelter in Exile to meet and interact with friendly and helpful residents.

All of this will take quite some time, so set aside an afternoon or evening, if you can fit it into your schedule. Really all that is necessary to meet us in world is to sign up for an account and get through the basic orientation, but if you have time to explore a bit it will really give you a much better idea of what SL is, what it isn’t, and how it is used.

It also may be helpful to do some reading on Second Life from a resident’s perspective. Some popular news and opinion blogs and magazines are:

New World Notes (general interest and news blog)
Second Life Insider (general interest and lifestyle blog)
The Second Life Herald (tabloid newspaper)
SLNN.com (news portal)
SecondStyle (fashion magazine and blog)
SL Business Magazine (business magazine and blog)
The Metaverse Messenger (SL newspaper)

I also recommend checking out the media section of Metaversatility’s website.