The promise of real profits from a weird virtual world

My name is Cosmic Finucane. I have lots of money, a body to die for and I’m building my dream house on an island with an ocean view. At least, that’s my alternative persona — sadly, a far stretch from the real me. He inhabits the internet’s hottest new phenomenon, the virtual world of Second Life. Cosmic is an ‘avatar’ — a computer-generated 3D human lookalike who makes friends, throws parties, goes shopping and has the potential to help me earn real money.

Launched by San Francisco-based Linden Labs in 2000 with backing from the founders of eBay and Amazon, Second Life is now hitting the big time. Its population has just exceeded the million mark and it is receiving increasing real-world media attention. It even has a US Congressional committee investigating whether to tax its activities.

Given the mixed reputations of online social networks such as MySpace and Facebook, you’d be forgiven for assuming the worst about Second Life. What kinds of weirdos inhabit such a world? It certainly has its share of dangers, including gambling haunts. But it is Second Life’s broader business objective that is causing such a stir.

For Second Life is not just a website for meeting people; it is a fully-fledged virtual economy. Based on a currency exchangeable for real-world US dollars, Second Life business is booming. Shopkeepers, property speculators and bankers are all setting up shop. Many of them are already virtual millionaires. It won’t be long before some of them are real-world millionaires too.

So how does that work? Second Life is often referred to as a Massively Multiplayer Online Reality Game, a family of increasingly popular online games which many thousands of participants around the world play at the same time.