Second Life

The November issue of Playboy has an article (on page 171) about a woman who clears $5,000 a month running a virtual nightclub in the Second Life MMORPG. Unlike Entropia Universe, the Linden Research Group was wise enough to make a native Mac OS X client for SL. Alas—or fortunately—an ATI Mobile Radeon 9600 doesn't quite cut it for what is perhaps the closest experience to The Matrix given current commodity technology.

It was amusing to be rescued from initial system glitches by a friendly Netherlander. She explained that the Linden "Family" was working on fixing the problems. She volunteered a good half-hour of her time to guide a personal tour that left off at the SL version of Amsterdam.

Sex and gambling were the top destination picks in the SL directory on Tuesday night... Is it legal for someone who is physically located in the U.S. to gamble via their alter ego avatar using fake currency in a virtual universe where vices are no more prevalent than in real life?

The lifelike complexity of SL can make one appreciate the fantasy World of Warcraft. WoW gold is also a helluva a lot cheaper than Linden Dollars. The girls of SL do outclass the WoW Night Elves, and they're probably less likely to be dudes in reality.