Second Life – Making Money
There is somewhere between 20-50 million people spending time in virtual environments world wide, one of these being Second Life. Second life is an “online 3D interactive virtual reality program” being stimulated 24 hours a day. This program, launched in 2003 was developed by Linden Research and all controlled from downtown San Francisco. One game on Second Life is home to more than eight million paying subscribers. A case study conducted in May 2007 suggested there are 7 million claimed members, 40,000 active members and 83,000 premium residents.
Second Life not only functions as a social networking site but also allows users to earn and spend money. Users can sign up and ‘hang out’ for free, but to look good, requires a credit card. Real dollars are exchanged for the in-world currency of Linden Dollars, where US$1 is about 270 Lindens. The typical productivity of a person in these environments is about $2,000 per person, per year and avatar-to-avatar dealings result to about US$15 million a month. A business analyst from the Linden Lab, Chris Collins quoted about 40 per cent of people logging in on a daily basis are getting involved in some kind of a transaction involving Lindens. But is this real wealth?
Using Second Life there are many ways of making money these include functioning individually or as a business. Money can be made via producing and selling directly within the sight or through other companies supporting ‘Second Life’ such as Amazon and EBay. ‘Second Life’ accounts are not confined to the specific website itself but branch out allowing you to earn money via other means such as selling virtual items. For example on EBay you can buy guides such as ‘SL SECOND LIFE Land Lindens FULL GUIDE IN sqm sim lot w,’ notifying you of ways in which you can make a living via the program etc.
Examples of Earning an Income
- Veronica Brown, from Indianapolis, has a fulltime job as a designer in the virtual world. Veronica Brown owns Clothing and Bridal Shop in a virtual environment and spends between 10-14 hours a day in Second Life selling, making and designing these dresses. Buying one of her dresses is only 550 Linden, converting to about US$2. Although this may seem like a small cost for a dress Veronica, in a Four Corners interview, Veronica stated “I am doing exceedingly well,” though not confessing her exact profit from the virtual business.
- Julian Dibbell is another example of a person profiting from Second Life. Suddenly virtual products have real value. Julian made money from the virtual world by auctioning virtual items on EBay. People pay real money for these imaginary items as they have real investments but in fake things.
- Anshe Chung last year made the front cover of the prestigious Business Week magazine. Anshe Chung is a millionaire property developer but her estates exist in the virtual world. Anshe Chung based in Germany and China, through Second Life now runs a fully functioning business. She earns a more than reasonable income working from the comfort of her lounge. All she needs to pay for is her access to the internet.
These people are now able to exchange any earning in Linden dollars back into US dollars and spend them in the real world. Up until now, no other game company has ever embraced currency exchange but now Second Life and the Linden, has bridged the gap. Every day, real and virtual worlds are moving closer for example businesses such as American Apparel now allow you to buy clothes for your avatar as well as the same real world clothes for yourself.
Advantages
Second Life is an innovative concept and holds many advantages including ease and convenience for individuals and those earning money through ‘Second Life’ businesses. ‘Second Life’ means less travel, updated information, more availability, stronger communication on which information can be saved and stored for recall, and prompt service. All work can be done instantaneously, easily and swiftly from the comfort of your own lounge.
Work over the internet is also cheaper. All that is needed is an internet connection and otherwise the cost is relativity low. This new concept decreases cost and increases the sales, meaning less input and more output.
Finally, using the internet you will have a wider range of consumers as you are now available to a world wide market. Products can be sold globally and with more people using this form of employment there will be more people browsing the internet and therefore more consumers this will result in more merchandise being sold and hence a higher profit.
Disadvantages
Disadvantages of earning an income via the website ‘Second Life’ include the capability of the current technology. Earning an income over the web relies on the internet working faultlessly, 24 hours a day. Using the computer would also include the many frustrations of downloads, platform upgrades and frequent crashing of the system.
Furthermore, there will be an immense interference with economy. When earning money over the internet there reaches a point where money will need to be transferred from Linden, back into real money and this involves taking money out of the world. If everyone is functioning in a virtual environment this would mean they are exchanging large amounts of Linden dollars for US dollars and therefore would drive down the exchange rate. Dan Miller, advising a US Congress committee said “because there’s real economic value and a currency exchange, the taxman may well have a case against residents and that could be quite damaging to the economy.”
Finally, legality is also a problem. One issue is the risk of hackers but the biggest problems lies between avatars. If one avatar sells an item and a dispute arises normally the law resolves the dispute. Over the internet there is no sure way to enforce the law and even securing the ownership of your own personal designs would be hard. For example last year there was rogue program called CopyBot that emerged with could copy anything. This resulted in a huge loss of money.
Conclusion
Kevin Kelly quoted, “’Second Life’, as a genre, as a phenomenon, will be as big as the world. Eventually, everybody will be in it,” but is this what we really want?
Results from a personal survey showed that everyone uses social networking websites yet half of them do not evaluate the risks or concerns, of these all declared being involved with some kind of transaction of money via the internet and this survey was only conducted by teenagers.
It is clear that most people who use the internet, socially or financially, do not consider the risks. As ‘Second Life’ becomes more popular it is important that we begin to weigh up the advantages and disadvantages. Posting personal details such as credit card information can be dangerous and we all need to be aware of the associated risks.
I think ultimately all our interactions will take place in a virtual environment. The development of these websites will continue to grow, become more interesting, but also more dangerous. There will always be concerns but it is most important we make sure what we do is secure and reliable. Making money over the internet can be extremely convenient and efficient as long as we realize the dangers and risks we are taking. For example Luke Connell from Melbourne, a 24-year old, invested only 260 Australian dollars in the website and today holds a business worth over $48 00 US. Luke has only been running his business for three weeks. The only relevant question for the future is how much time do we want to spend as a virtual self?
