Cyberclinic: Second Life: online fun or virtual scam?

Is the online virtual-reality game Second Life a thrilling social development, or a cynical and slightly sinister money-making scheme?

"I'd hesitate to call it a game," writes Ant Chapman, and it's true that the average Second Life session consists of the kind of mundane meandering that occurs in real life. "Supposedly," writes Ed Jefferson, "you are free to do anything, but your options seem limited to building an ugly house or dancing with overweight men pretending to be ladies." Scott Crawford can't get enough of it: "I'm having the most disturbing yet amazing time. My first session culminated in dressing up in a Kool-Aid Man costume and having sex with Tinkerbell in a jail cell." Clearly, Second Life is what you make it.

Second Life is an online 3D digital world created by its "residents". To become a resident, you download the software, register a character and start exploring. One million have now moved in, and money-making enterprises follow close behind. Recent weeks have seen such absurdities as a literary agency opening a Second Life office, Reuters launching a virtual news bureau, and Duran Duran purchasing a virtual island on which they will perform "live".

The currency in Second Life, the Linden dollar, currently exchanges at about L$250 to one US dollar, and a virtual economy is thriving. You might question the need to deck your character out in the latest virtual designer gear, or shelling out for a swanky bachelor pad that consists of nothing but screen pixels, but the top 10 entrepreneurs within Second Life are currently raking in an average of $200,000 a year from residents hungry for virtual products.

There are anomalies that make Second Life's economy fascinating, not least because Linden Lab, its creator, states in its Terms of Service Credit that the Linden dollar has no legal value. This hasn't stopped a Pennsylvania lawyer filing a suit against Linden Lab, alleging that it unfairly confiscated virtual property of his worth thousands of dollars. It has been reported that the US Congress will investigate the scale of commerce in virtual worlds such as Second Life, with a view to creaming off tax revenue.

Dickon Edwards sums up the feelings of a number of correspondents about the commercialisation of what might otherwise be a neat social tool: "The web already is a 'second life'. Forums, blog communities and message boards are all avatars and interaction. Second Life seems just an attempt to make more money from it." It's an attempt that seems to be succeeding rather well.

Diagnosis required

Next week's question comes from Neil Thompson:

"Now that you can install Windows on a new Macintosh with relative ease, why would any self-respecting computer user choose to buy a PC?" Any comments, and new questions for the Cyberclinic, should be e-mailed to cyberclinic@independent.co.uk.