Second Life

This article is about the virtual community. For other uses, see Second Life (disambiguation).

Second Life Viewer
Developer(s)Linden Lab
Initial releaseJune 23, 2003; 21 years ago (2003-06-23)
Stable release7.1.10.10800445603 (September 17, 2024; 54 days ago (2024-09-17)) [±]
Repositorygithub.com/secondlife/viewer
Written inC++[1]
EngineOpen-source (C++, OpenGL)
Platform
Available in12 languages[4]
List of languages
American English, Chinese (China), Danish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish
LicenseLGPL-2.1-or-later
Websitesecondlife.com Edit this on Wikidata
Second Life Server
Developer(s)Linden Lab
Initial releaseJune 23, 2003; 21 years ago (2003-06-23)
Stable release2024-07-22.10048683488 (July 22, 2024; 3 months ago (2024-07-22)) [±]
Written in
MiddlewareHavok
PlatformLinux
LicenseProprietary
Websitesecondlife.com Edit this on Wikidata

Second Life is a multiplayer virtual world that allows people to create an avatar for themselves and then interact with other users and user-created content within a multi-user online environment. Developed for personal computers and owned by the San Francisco-based firm Linden Lab, it launched on June 23, 2003 and saw rapid growth for some years; in 2013 it had approximately one million regular users.[9] Growth eventually stabilized, and by the end of 2017, the active user count had fallen to "between 800,000 and 900,000".[10] In many ways, Second Life is similar to massively multiplayer online role-playing video games; nevertheless, Linden Lab is emphatic that their creation is not a game: "There is no manufactured conflict, no set objective."[11]

The virtual world can be accessed freely via Linden Lab's own client software or via alternative third-party viewers.[12][13] Second Life users, also called 'residents', create virtual representations of themselves, called avatars, and are able to interact with places, objects and other avatars. They can explore the world (known as the grid), meet other residents, socialize, participate in both individual and group activities, build, create, shop, and trade virtual property and services with one another.

The platform principally features 3D-based user-generated content. Second Life also has its own virtual currency, the Linden Dollar (L$), which is exchangeable with real world currency.[14][15] Second Life is intended for people ages 16 and over, with the exception of 13–15-year-old users, who are restricted to the Second Life region of a sponsoring institution (e.g., a school).[16][17]

  1. ^ "SecondLife/viewer". GitHub. Retrieved September 19, 2023. C++: 91.4%
  2. ^ "Linux Viewer". GitHub. April 6, 2024. Retrieved July 7, 2024.
  3. ^ a b "Second Life Mobile Beta". Linden Lab. Retrieved July 7, 2024.
  4. ^ "language_combobox". GitHub. Retrieved September 19, 2023.
  5. ^ "LSO". May 25, 2016. Retrieved September 19, 2023. Second Life has two LSL compiles, one which compiles into LSO bytecode and is executed by the simulator in the LSO VM
  6. ^ "Mono". September 24, 2022. Retrieved September 19, 2023. Mono is now live on the main grid with server version 1.24.3
  7. ^ "LSO". May 25, 2016. Retrieved September 19, 2023. Second Life has two LSL compiles, ..., the other which compiles to IL and is executed by the simulator in the Mono VM
  8. ^ "Lua FAQ". July 2, 2024. Retrieved September 22, 2024. Luau was the only scripting runtime that fulfilled all of our requirements for a scripting engine within Second Life
  9. ^ "Infographic: 10 Years of Second Life". Linden Lab. June 20, 2013. Retrieved August 4, 2014.
  10. ^ "Returning to Second Life". Ars Technica. October 23, 2017. Retrieved January 18, 2019.
  11. ^ "If Second Life isn't a game, what is it? – Technology & science – Games – On the Level". NBC News. December 3, 2007. Archived from the original on June 10, 2013. Retrieved August 1, 2014.
  12. ^ "Download the free Second Life viewer". Retrieved October 1, 2014.
  13. ^ "Third Party Viewer Directory". Second Life Wiki. Retrieved October 1, 2014.
  14. ^ "Second Life turns 10: what it did wrong, and why it may have its own second life". June 23, 2013. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved October 1, 2014.
  15. ^ Pathak, Nilakshi (July 29, 2017). "Second Life – Create your Virtual World with your Imagined Stories".
  16. ^ "Terms and Conditions". Linden Lab.
  17. ^ "Teens in Second Life". February 9, 2012. Retrieved October 1, 2014.