The first days of Second Life

By Eric Krangel

NEW YORK (Reuters) - When executives from San Francisco-based Linden Lab built Second Life, they had a sense they were doing something historic. So, to keep tabs on their creation, they contracted their own journalist to chronicle the growth of the Internet's first virtual world.

Now that chronicler, Wagner James Au, releases a comprehensive history of Second Life's early days in his book "The Making of Second Life: Notes from the New World" (HarperCollins, $25.95).

Second Life has lost some of its buzz in the past year. Growth has leveled, and media investigations have highlighted possible fraud and child pornography within its borders. Early hopes of Second Life's potential to market real-world brands largely failed in practice. But with 1.2 million active users, it is still the dominant player in a rapidly expanding virtual worlds industry, with the most content and a highly loyal fan base.

It may surprise readers of Au's book to find that Linden Lab originally wanted a simulation of the natural world. What actually transpired is quite different.

While many people have a Second Life character -- called an "avatar" -- that looks like them, others pick talking cartoon animals or blinking robots. The environments are similarly varied, from reproductions of European cities to areas with a fantasy or science-fiction theme.

Repeatedly, Linden Lab set out to offer one product, only to find a combination of financial restraints and input from their customers pushing them into marketing something very different.

ACCIDENTAL FLIGHT

For example, one of Second Life's most distinctive and memorable experiences is flying. With the click of a button, an avatar will soar gracefully into the stratosphere, exactly as one might imagine Superman does it.