1. Welcome to Second Life

Congratulations to the whole SL community on reaching 1 Million residents signed up!! Second Life is growing because together we are all building content, welcoming new people, expanding the community, and adding new capabilities to the system.

—Philip Linden

Second Life (SL) is a new world accessible only through the Internet. You don’t need to buy anything to participate; it’s free to join. You will find passion, history, art, politics, culture, government, and drama in SL. It has an aboriginal population (old timers), and it has an ever-growing number of artists, explorers, entrepreneurs, settlers, designers, musicians, misfits, builders, vamps, scripters, furries, griefers, androids, dragons, and yes, even corporations.

SL is not a game of winners and losers or of heroic quests (although quests can be found). It is practically without boundaries and, just like real life (RL), you set your own course or drift directionless. It is a new frontier, sometimes thrilling, sometimes lawless, and sometimes exasperating. One thing it is not is short on opportunity and entertainment. Welcome to SL and your guide to success!

What You Will Learn What Is Second Life? Is SL a Game? How Do I Get Around SL Geography? How Do I Communicate in SL? How Do I Get Started and Get Help? What Can I Do in SL? How Do I Make Money in SL? What Are the History and Politics of SL?

If you already have an avatar and understand things like inventory, lag, rez, TP, prims, sim, L$, chat, and IM, then you can skip ahead.

If you’re new to SL and these terms are unfamiliar to you, then start here in Chapter 1. Here, I hit all the highlights of this new country in which you are about to arrive. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

In this chapter, we start a journey together to learn about SL and dig deep into both the fabric (platform) of SL as well as SL culture. This chapter answers many questions newbies ask (or noobs, short for new residents). OK, maybe it doesn’t answer all questions, but at least it gives you a path to discovering your own answers.