Here's the problem: that total does not equate to what is commonly considered by most Web or online businesses as "active users," in large part because many people who sign up for Second Life try it once and never come back, and because individuals can have as many as five different avatars, each of which would count as a "resident." The company defines each of those as representing "a uniquely named avatar with the right to log in to Second Life, trade currency and visit the community pages." "If you're being told that something is the future of the Internet and the arguments are based on the incredible popularity, the first thing you want to understand is how popular it is," Shirky added.Īs of Wednesday, Linden Lab reported that there were 2,325,015 "residents" of Second Life. "We're being asked to believe that this is the future of the Internet," said Clay Shirky, a writer and professor at New York University's graduate Interactive Telecommunications Program, referring to the grandiose hype surrounding Second Life and its cultural significance. Not surprisingly, this scrutiny comes as an increasing number of real-world companies, to tech giants Dell and IBM, set up virtual offices inside Second Life, and mainstream media outlets like and The New York Times devote an increasing amount of coverage to the 3-year-old creation.
As a result, Second Life publisher Linden Lab is coming under increasing fire from bloggers and gamers who say the virtual world's creators aren't giving their customers the full story. Last month, the virtual world Second Life reached 2 million registered accounts, an impressive number considering it hit 1 million accounts just eight weeks earlier.īut critics argue that the eye-popping, seven-figure total is, at best, misleading.
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