In today's USA Today they had an article about a computer simulation called Second Life that is apparently sweeping the world. There is a free version plus some forms of upgrades for money. The game seems similar to Sim City. You have to download some software to participate and there are Mac versions. Has anyone had any experience with the game (if you can call it a game)?

Late last year I downloaded the software, created an avatar and spent about 4 or 5 hours exploring second life. Personally I don't see the attraction. You walk around (or fly), talk to other avatars, buy and sell, build things, etc. It was interesting from the technology aspect, but I'm far too busy in my first life to spend time in a second life. I haven't played Sim City in years, but I have to say I enjoyed it more than second life. Maybe I'm just getting old...

A friend of ours is quite addicted to it and is actually bringing in some extra cash making and selling "virtual items".

This is a good parody of 2nd Life

www.getafirstlife.com

Don't think of Second Life as a "game", it's really more of a social networking device, similar to myspace, facebook or xanga, but in a virtual environment instead of just static pages. It's extremely popular with young people and is drawing the attention of many large corporations for advertising purposes.

I have not tried it yet but I listen to Science Friday on NPR. They apparently use it to talk to listeners in there discussions. They also give out SF virtual T-shirts, or something, during their program.

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