Pierce Mattie Public Relations New York & Los Angeles

When The Sims first came out, I was an addict. You could find me completely absorbed into creating families, neighbors, homes and watching everything interact. So when I was told there was the same type of game online except that instead of just random characters, they are real people, I knew I had to go check it out.

It’s called Second Life and it’s a virtual 3-D world of real people role playing their second life. This is a place just for fun or to create a real money making business, but it is entirely created and owned by its residents. Sign up was easy and you have a few options of how you want to be involved. You can have a basic account, which is free, or a Premium account for a monthly payment of $9.95 which grants you more access to things like owning land, building, entertaining, being given a weekly stipend and also the ability to create your own business on Second Life.

My sign up time was about 5 minutes, just filling out basic information. The fun part was picking my Second Life name. You can give yourself any first name you want and then you pick from a list of pre-determined last names. Download time was about 10 minutes with a cable modem and approximately 1 minute to install. Make sure your computer is set to 32-bit color or Second Life won’t let you connect. Once you connect, there are a few must-reads you need to go through, such as terms of service and behavioral don’ts.

My first time connecting was a little frustrating, as my computer kept freezing. After 20 minutes of freezing and then unfreezing, I gave up. My second try (the next day) was a little easier and I was able to make it through changing my appearance (although some things I couldn’t figure out) and moving throughout Help Island. About 30 minutes into playing, things started to slow down again and my screen would freeze and unfreeze for about 10 seconds each time.