Imagine if you will that by some freak of undersea volcanic activity, a brand-new continent suddenly appeared in the middle of the ocean, and within a two-year period, 8 million people from 105 countries worldwide decided to make it a vacation destination, some of them on a daily basis.

Then imagine $1.6 million dollars as a per-day average being transacted on that new continent (putting its GDP in line with that of the Caribbean paradise of St. Lucia) and a population weighted towards the male with an average age of 32 placing the typical inhabitant right in the juiciest of marketing sweet spots.

These are the kind of numbers that accompany the Second Life phenomenon. Viewed by some as a game, as others as an unhealthy obsession bordering on computer-assisted psychopathology, it has grown exponentially in the last few years as a "virtual economy" has flourished "in-world" (editor's note: you're going to see a lot of quote marks in this story).

Such dynamic growth is giving rise to companies like Cranial Tap, a goods/services provider that exists solely within the Second Life world. I spoke with the CEO of this full-service virtual community development company, Dave Levinson, about the commercial and cultural potential of this computer game for consumer-facing manufacturers at a talk he gave recently in Washington, D.C.

Virtual World, Real Money -- And Sex (Of Course)

According to Levinson, the company that founded Second Life -- Linden Lab, based in San Francisco -- has created a virtual currency that actually has an exchange rate, albeit a depressed one, with the U.S. dollar (at the time of this writing, the rate was 270 of these "Linden dollars" to one U.S. dollar) that has incentivized development of this world far beyond anything seen before. SLers can buy any type or size of real estate -- for reference, an entire island in SL costs $1,700, with a $300 monthly "maintenance fee" (you too can have a "virtual mortgage"!). As of the time of this writing, SL has 3 continents (with IBM basically taking up its own) and another on its way, as well as 9,000 islands' worth of luxury-class inhabitants.

Take A Tour Get a deeper look into Second Life with our virtual slideshow.

However, owning property isn't a prerequisite to "playing" SL -- most of the population spends its presumably hard-earned, real-world dollars on virtual clothing and accessories, as well as "virtual services". Before you ask, most of these services are not sexual in nature, instead involving such mundane things as real estate design/build projects and customization of "avatars" -- the in-world representation the gamer chooses for him/herself (although sometimes that does involve sex).

So, just to get it out of the way, there is sexual activity in Second Life -- this is the internet, after all -- and Levinson is quick to point out that just because this virtual world is a "mature-only" (read: 18 and over) environment doesn't speak to the maturity level of its inhabitants.

View article on one page