So imagine a 3D internet. What does it look like to you? What does it do?
I bet you’re pretty much thinking of Second Life, only with wires for roads or something.
In the beginning…
Second Life, the platform, started out with green land, a bit of water, and very, very basic avatars. Then, they (Linden Labs) invited people in to create a world in the green land, and basically, everything on the platform is created by its users for the users. (Land owned by Governor Linden is again under Linden management and likely to go on sale, objects created by Linden Department of Public Works is a Linden location, and objects created anyone with a Mole in their name is created by a Linden employee.)
The avatars, which can be anything from fantasy characters, flat paper-thin cartoons to hyper-realistic humans or animals, to the buildings, plants, scripts, and sex tools, are all created by the players. (Often, Linden employees are former players who just got really good and notorious at what they did on the platform and joined the team. Not always tho.)
The locations you visit are, again, put together by another player, and the idea is to basically walk into another person’s fantasy, their idea of great sex, maybe, a beautiful place, or whatever they want to create.
Fully adult environment, but it’s not solely porn; it has all the elements of life, including the difficulty of deciding what and how to do things. 😀
Avatars evolution
The first Second Life avatars were very, very basic. You can still create one of these by adding a new shape, skin, hair, and eyes, and then new clothes from your inventory or outfit folder gear icon, and I find them hilarious. These avatars are fully customisable, and you can use them as a starter for whatever you might want to create and sell the results if you like.
The 2025 brought a new set of starter avatars, 3 races to start with Asian, Black, and Caucasian (ABC) male and female, of course, with three outfits to choose from. They can also be combined with other clothes and hairstyles from free starter avi packs from earlier years.
Eventually, you’ll create a highly customized avatar for yourself. On the far right is my avatar that is made to resemble my everyday self; it is saved as “the very ordinary me.” Yours does not need to look anything like you, it doesn’t even have to be human, but I like being myself in the body I am in so… The most I do is wear tattoos and fashion I don’t actually have – she’s also a younger version of me.
The places
Every place you visit has its own reason for existing. Whatever the creator wants to present, whatever they want to do, it is up to them (as long as it’s legal). The owner holds a lot of power over their sim, as they own the land they’re on, very similarly to a website owner owning the site they build. They still pay monthly rent for the land the same way a website owner pays for the web space, but instead of a 2D page, Second Life is a 3D “home page” much like a lot of people envisioned “the cyber space” to be like… And wound up bitterly disappointed in the end, looking at a digital book or a TV screen rather than a digital space.
Much like on the flat Internet, Second Life sims are sometimes educational, but mostly for entertainment, and you can also find places where you can share the land that you build on with other players.
Long History
Second Life has been around for 23 years, and in many ways, it’s only approaching full maturity. There’s a new update to the core functions every so often, I don’t know… Every 3 months, maybe? It is not a stagnant environment; if there’s a complaint to be made, it’s the rapid evolution, maybe. You log in now, get a newbie tour, you’re likely to need another one if you sit on it for a while.
With that evolution, one could also complain about the fact Second Life viewer is quite bloated. They must ensure all upgrades are backwards compatible with ages-old content the users have created and spent potentially months or years developing. What was created in 2009 still works, and all that. A traditional gaming company would have scrapped all that and ended support for a lot of ancient content, but Second Life wants to make sure everyone’s historic footprint remains on the grid… Linden Labs is nothing but romantic at heart. Romantic reasons have always trumped their practical decisions or need for monetary gain – but I fear the opinions on that matter vary drastically if you ask different people. Some people probably wished for support for their financial growth, which Linden Labs does not provide (and in my view has no need to provide, either, they are definitely not corporate baby sitters like some people seem to expect them to be).
Find out more about Second Life’s history in an earlier blog post… And the Prim museum.
What’s ZEN METAL & [Carnal Elite]?
ZEN METAL is my own personal brand on Second Life. It produces digital content for Second Life – very broadly expressed, as I want to try everything on Second Life. Mainly, I build scripted gadgets for various purposes, as it turns out, but that’s not all I do.
[Carnal Elite] is a social club that has discreet hangout locations on ZEN METAL land.
