Second Life: virtual Online-World

Second Life is not really a game, but more like a second identity that people can use in the virtual world. In this virtual world you can walk around, tweak your character the way you want it to look (haircuts, make-up, clothes but also height/weight etc), talk to other people and even fly! It's also possible to earn real virtual money, and spend this on items that you want to have. You can for example, buy clothes at the Adidas Store. When you're tired of this, you can exchange your earned virtual money for real dollars. There are some people that are making a good living of this and even became rich!.




Second Life itself is for free. You can download the program for free for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, and use it for free. You do need to register as a user first.

How much does it cost me to become a member?

To become a basic user of Second Life, you have to pay nothing at all. There is no need to give any creditcard information or whatsoever, but if you give out this information, you get 250 L$ (Linden-$) to start your life, so you can buy some stuff in the virtual world. If you need more money than this, you can buy L$ for US$ : 1000 L$ will cost you approximately 4 US$. Next to this, there is also the premium membership, that will cost you 10 US$ a month. When you're a member for a longer time, the price goes down a bit. When you sign up for a membership of a year, you will only pay 6,- US$ a month. For this you get a starter's money of 1250,- L$ and get 300 L$ every week.

Do I need land?

In Second Life it is also possible to buy land. This is only for premium members though. The land that is made available from Linden Labs can be found under "Search", "Land". There you should give in "First Land" as search option, otherwise you get land that has already been sold before, and is sold by other members of Second Life. This land is often expensive or can be rented for monthly prices.



Every premium user can buy 512 m2 "first land". If you need more, then you will need to pay some money every month for the land you posess next to this 512 m2. Who wants to build a very big building, can buy his own island: this will cost you about 295 US$ a month for "Maintance cost". Next to this you will also have to pay around 1675 US$ for the smallest island available.