Second Life's First Millionaire

That's amazing. The trick here is how that converts into real life... or better yet, if there is a way to translate between real world and virtual world so that gamers can apply their skills and affect the real world.

Hey Rob, just an fyi that we posted a new podcast and video interview with Second Life CEO Philip Rosedale at www.iinnovatecast.com

We have to look beyond what SL is today and see it for what it represents tomorrow.

Websites are static, Second Life is involving and immersive. These online communities and virtual worlds add a dimension to the overall experience that I believe will be the future of the internet.

Perhaps the question we will ask in 5 or 10 years is "Why did companies ever set up websites with a one-page-at-a-time mentality when the opportunity to create a experiential environment in places like Second Life existed?"

No wait, I can imagine that --

Instead of picking a DVD from a list of DVDs, we'll walk down to the virtual DVD store, using the mouse and ASDF keys and walking around other virtual shoppers.

And when we get there, we'll walk over to the main store console, where we can browse their list of DVDs to find out which aisle our DVD is in.

And then we can virtually walk to that aisle to find out if it's in stock (look, they have 1000 of them!) And use our mouse and ASDF keys to select the book and remove it from the shelf, where we can see how much it costs.

And then we select it, by putting it in a cart or basket around our arm; and then we use our mouse and ASDF keys to walk over to the checker, who virtually sneers at our selection.

Ah the promise of the brave new world.

Sorry, I'm in a snarky mood this morning.

Anshe Chung's achievement should not be belittled, and I tip my hat. However, her Second Life empire is somewhat less liquid that the write up implies; her holdings are so vast that she would not be able to sell them quickly, so for now her fortune is still virtual.

In Second Life we are all kind of holding our virtual breathes to see what happens when Anshe Chung does decide to cash out.

At any rate, she has certainly proved that it can be done! Brava!

I'm gonna go out on a limb.

Don't get sucked in. Second Life is a flash in the pan. My employer is currently all over - a very big IT services company - but I really don't know why.

It's not going to be the next google or ebay or anything else.

They've been promising virtual reality for abbout 15 years now...

But as long as it's on my screen here - its horribly 2d and now more than a chat room with an avatar.

This will be useful when we can put our brains in jars and wire them up. Until then I advocate going outsite, sometimes.

I agree...

There's just something to be said for fresh air

What's the word I'm looking for ... reality.

Second Life has its believers and skeptics, as you would expect. It certainly will not be all things to all people, but whether it is Second Life or another technology, Metaverse technology is here to stay.

Regarding liquidity, you could argue the same thing about many of the Forbes richest people list. It's not usually cash that puts the billionaires on that list, not surprisingly. Most of their value is tied up in stock, which is a lot less liquid than many people imagine, because at this volume and with their notoriety, they move markets. It's especially illiquid when it is stock is from a company which the billionaire founded/runs.

There are quite a few millionaires from Virtual goods. www.rpgse.com tracks what virtual wealth is worth in real world cash.

Second Life is a joke. It will be washed away in a few years. Get a First Life!

Re comments about Second Life being a joke etc.

I assume that the writers haven't been in there, or, if they have then maybe they are not a visionary type of person. Maybe they prefer to criticise something they don't understand.

Second Life is a way people can make serious amounts of money, but only if they have the insight, knowledge, ability and determination to do so, this is very much like real life.

Real life has those that 'DO' and those that 'criticise'. The potential wealth of residents of Second Life is probably a good reflection of their potential wealth in their First Life.

"Second Life is a way people can make serious amounts of money, but only if they have the insight, knowledge, ability and determination to do so, this is very much like real life."

Yes, like in real life only a handful of people will make lots of money. Besides, I have personally been in ActiveWorlds, several years ago, and it's all of the same thing, except of course ActiveWorlds.

Besides Anshe Chung is *not* millionaire, her immediately convertible assets (Linden Dollars), is only $10,000. She is millionaire only if she can find enough people to buy (or rent for very long) her creations, which with current 70,000 customers, is totally impossible (not to mention the crash of selling all that property).

Instead of debating between virtual and real worlds we should try to see the virtual world as an enhancement to the real world.

SecondLife and Anshe Chung's work have helped many businesses and people bridge world-wide distances and work and live in a better way. And that should definitely be appreciated.

This is just unbelievable news!!!

Hi!
I guess that Second Life is has to be taken seriously because it is an alternative to the real world in the business sense.
You can sell, market and do nearly everything that You would in the real world.
The bit easier part is that the Virtual World has more strict rules which are automatically forced or guarded.
I would risk to say that it is a bit easier to make a good business in the Virtual World than in the Real World so we can't say that a prosperous VIRTUAL businessman would be so prosperous in the Real World.

Still there are so many ways that have not been done in the Virtual World that You just can't imagine so go out (or rather IN) there and find You promised land :-)
Rgds,
PvB

The fundamental limitations in Second Life prohibit the flexibility in income opportunities. Sell your music if you are a musician, or land if you can make a real dollar investment. But since avatars dont need to eat, I cant open a hot dog cart for any real reason.

The opportunities are limited to those who have a significant knowledge of technology. The types of businesses that function in the real world that take limited investment capital, just cant exist in SL. Can you open a shoe shine stand? Hot dog or sandwich cart? Are you a plumber or a handyman? You are out of luck.

If you have a knowledge of Photoshop, 3D modeling software or music editing applicatons you might make a few buck, but thats about it.

Of course, there is always virtual prostitution or gambling.

Peace

Don't think it will last for a long time , better to focus on first life

There are going to be more millionaires made in Second Life. The popularity is quickly reaching the likes of myspace and youtube. In the coming years Second Life is likely going to become a billion dollar advertising market.

Ad money goes where people go, and they are going to Second Life.

Real life and virtual life can go hand-in-hand. They can complement each other in certain aspects. But like everything else in life, there's no perfect complement.

Second Life is going to be around for a long time, and there will be many more millionaires. Remember I said it.

I recall when web based businesses started, people said, "Well, it will never replace brick an mortar." Which was and is true. Yet, despite the .com bubble and bust, web based business are doing well. And Second Life based businesses will do well, too. I think that there will be a Google level success story in Second Life at some point.

I have tried Second Life--far too complicated to be interesting, not much help EITHER, just confusing jargon.
DON'T BOTHER.

Some of the peeps in there seem to think this is real life.
Sad sods need to get out much more.

I suppose that if you are spending that much time generating a fortune in vitual life, you probably wouldn't have much of a real life at all.

I agree that virtual life is an enhancement of the real life, and it clearly has potencial to keep growing. Don't forget that a huge multinational company put a lot of money in advertisement there before the premiere of their product recently...

I signed up to this stuff about 6 months ago. Then I thought better of it as it became to look more and more like my first life, so why try a second life?
I prefer to make my money (as that is where it's all about in the end) in my first life.
Forget about enjoying yourself there. If you can't enjoy yourself in your first life as you wish, poor people.

I think the Linden (second life currency) is going to start losing value pretty quickly. There are many virtual casinos and stores that allow you to "camp" for money, which means they pay you every 10-20 minutes to park your avatar at their store for as long as you want, which makes them appear more popular, thus getting them more business. The problem is that many people are now trying to make money in SL, so instead of spending the money they make by camping, they sell it on e-bay. Without the money being pumped back in to Second Life economy the linden loses its value. This is a big phenomenon that's happening all over SL.

oh my god, this woman has to be smart right now - figure out an exit strategy and begin it - if that means dump it as quickly as possible and only end up with $500k, so be it - just get out of there and come out big-time ahead - I'm picturing myself in her shoes a year from now or whenever Second Life runs its course looking at her worthless Linden dollars and thinking back to when she had the equivalent of a mil USD and wanting to throw up - GET OUT NOW LADY - you did something remarkable but it will all get wiped away if you don't act soon!

I think what people are missing here is that this woman has a back-up plan. She runs a real-life business making virtual buildings (separate from half-life) so people can do 'virtual tours'. This is a modern technical advance of the old craft of modelmaking. People will also want a model of their building that they can put in the lobby but they also sometimes want something special for presentations.

Remember that this woman started out with $9.95, had the business strategy to build from there and backed herself up with a real-life extension of her Second-Life business. Does anybody REALLY think that she'll be crying into her cornflakes if the Linden goes belly-up? There are some people in life who seem to have a licence to print money. I think Ailin Graef is one of them.

As far as Second Life not doing well is concerned, to do pretty much anything other than walk around in Second Life (as I understand it) you have to buy Virtual real-estate or virtual goods. This ensures at least a base level of investment.

Rob, there are some serious comments here, questioning the validity of the "millionaire" notion. Any response from you? Have you responded elsewhere?

Peter, I don't think either Anshe Chung or Second Life is a Ponzi scheme by any reasonable definition--in particular, neither is promising returns from buying virtual real estate, so there's no scheme that I can see. So, I've preferred to let people discuss the issues among themselves rather than pontificate further myself. OK, so I guess I just pontificated.

My name is Josef Balbozar, I owe my existence to Second Life and that means more than just walking around or discretionary spending.

With tenacity, originality and entrepreneurial instinct it is possible for an ordinary avatar such as myself to become a success story, in real world terms. For that reason alone trial membership of Second Life is well worth the effort and other resources put into orientation by gamers.

As every starter web-page owner knows - fortune rides the winds of change.

"They've been promising virtual reality for abbout 15 years now...

But as long as it's on my screen here - its horribly 2d and now more than a chat room with an avatar.

This will be useful when we can put our brains in jars and wire them up. Until then I advocate going outsite, sometimes."

Virtual Reality is here and has been for quite some time, I think it was in the 80's there was a game console released that gave you a headset and a paddle, it was a tennis game that put you in a 3D environment, of course there was the problem that if you wore it for more than half an hour at a time it gave you headaches and could cause sever disorientation (i think thats because your brain could see things i couldn't feel, i don't know..)
The graphics from what I have seen where awful, but considering how good our current graphical abilities are and the fact that virtual reality and 3D environments are just a matter of the way things are recorded and portrayed I don't see why this should be a flash in the pan atall, if you add to this an article i read online a few days ago (forgive me but I haven't got the lin, google it or something) that a University had created a brain interface, which let people play (second life, specifically) with brian power; I must say I was surprised to head this as the last I heard about brain control was a game in which two people wore headbands and tried to push a ball off of the table.
But, if you add these things together brain control interfaces and a 3D environment, I could see this becoming seriously relevant in business and normal life in the future.
Of course it will have to wait until prices drop enough for it to be affordable, but when they do I will be first in line to get my Second Life full emerssion kit :D

Just how did "Anshe Chung" supposedly become a millionaire selling pixels? If my experience with her "company" is any indication the answer is simple: good old fashioned fraud and intimidation.

Having read xeroxed press releases like this article, in late 2007 I trusted Anshe Chung and bought 5,000 sq. m. on a Second Life private estate island of hers. I paid $150.00 plus agreed to pay the $30 monthly tier fee. Trust is a major component in the deal, as Second Life owner Linden Labs stipulates that estate owners are like monarchs: they may treat their property buyers any way they choose.

Within a month of my purchase Anshe Chung representatives made specious claims that I had violated the "land covenant" while at the same time admitting they were citing concepts not mentioned in the covenant, i.e., placing a house high out of sight in the sky and having parties. They claimed all my "neighbors" were making complaints.

After a few intial unpleasant encounters with said neighbors, I rarely set foot on the land at ground level: 1) my land on all sides was surrounded by ugly buildings pushed up against the property lines, a covenant violation actually spelled out, and 2) although the island was classified as a mature zone as opposed to PG, my child avatar neighbors were flying spaceships onto me and my friends on my land. I would also log on to find child avatars engaged in sex acts on my land. I and my friends would often discover strange avatars, naked and hard in our midst, demanding cyber sex from us.

My purpose on Second Life was fun, so my solution was to stay 600 metres in the sky in the residence I'd built there, and to limit access to my land to family and friends. This resulted in my land being confiscated by Anshe Chung. I was told by one Anshe Chung rep I was allowed to limit access, then later told by another I could do that only if at least one of our group were on the land at all times. My group was international and 24/7, so this was easy to do. Still later yet another rep then confiscated my land again and changed that stipulation, ordering in threatening terms that I had to open my land to anyone.

My complaints of objectionable behavior of the neighboring child avatars were met with exhortations to mind my own business and enjoy myself. I must say that every interaction with Anshe Chung reps was unpleasant -- they as a matter of course are snippy and insulting, and if you do not agree with them they end the IM conversation, wait for you to log off, then leave a lengthy uncivilised IM while you are offline. It appears to be a practiced, scripted, formulaic routine. They regularly accuse you of all manner of violations, including in my case repeating "you're running a sex club! You're upsetting the neighbors," notwithstanding that all I had there was my virtual house, high in the clouds out of sight, beyond the reach of anyone not invited there by a teleport mechanism.

Immediately after payment of my second $30 monthly fee I was ordered in threatening terms to sell my land back to Anshe Chung for pennies on the dollar or they would confiscate it irrevocably and compensate me nothing. Multiply that times thousands and you see how "meteoric profits" might accrue.

FAced with this I put the land up for sale and accepted an offer of $120, losing $60 -- $30 of my purchase price, and the second $30 monthly tier fee I had just paid.

I visited the site daily thereafter and, lo and behold, shortly after I sold the land the buildings against my former property lines were gone, as were the child avatars.

Unfortunately other con artists are following the Anshe Chung "business model," seeing Second Life owner Linden Labs as a willing accomplice and Second Life denizens as ripe for the picking.

Again, Linden Labs is very clear about its relationship with estate owners: they may treat land buyers on their private estates any way they like -- including confiscating the land without refund -- and Linden Labs will do nothing, claiming it is a neutral service provider. Linden Labs will however knowingly continue to receive a portion of the money fraudlently obtained by such unscrupulous estate owners.

Organized con artists know there is little chance of being held accountable. For one, few people will travel to another state or country to recover a small claim. Linden Labs itself stipulates that it can only be sued in the San Francisco jurisdiction. And the elephant in the room: the focus of Second Life is outrageous sexual behaviors in virtual reality in complete anonymity. It is one giant masked orgy. Linden Labs and its criminal partners are working a kind of tacit blackmail scheme, confident no one is going to risk exposing their real identity in a court proceeding where exotic sexual practices might come up. I have met many closeted gay men in Second Life -- indeed, the land I bought from Anshe Chung was advertised as a gay paradise. Clearly the intent is to prey on victims hesitant to seek redress. I know of many other gay men who have been victimized in Second Life in the same way.

While Linden Labs and its criminal accomplices may be legally safe for now, they are racking up tons of bad karma. If they are hoping one day to be purchased by a deep pocket mega-corporation they will have to atone and clean up their act. No Google or Microsoft would want any part of it, as exposure to civil and criminal complaintsw looks inevitable.

Right now Linden Labs knows full well it is luring victims into a system overrun by bullying extortionists, and then profiting unjustly from that activity.

Just a thought: has any journalist ever investigated the actual background of Anshe Chung tycoon Ailin Graef, if that is in fact her real name?

Second Life, while is is catregorized as a GAME, is not strictly for those with "no lives" and con artists. There are people who actually make a living for themselves and their families. Second Life is a form of recreation just as a Playstation, Wii, DVD player/DVD's etc. People have the freedom to do what they wish, within the realms of the TOA.

While there are in fact those who are out to get people, there are far more people who aren't. Second Life is an effective socialization and networking tool, that is used propely can have positive outcomes... Just ask my daughter. Where it not for Second Life, where I met her FATHER, she would not be here today.

I've been playing around in SL for about 5 months after purchasing a one year premium subscription. In those six months I had only one incident where "greifers" tried to do damage to my avatar. They failed miserably. Many property owners set flags which nullify the effects of griefers and one can obtain invisible shields or other defenses that make harming an avatar next to impossible.

Sure, there's a lot of virtual sex in SL, but so is there in Las Vegas. It seems that a very large percentage of internet traffic is sexual content, as is pay per view TV. No one is forces a person to go to Las Vegas nor to purchase porn movies on cable TV for at rental stores. Neither does anyone force an avatar to do any of those things in SL. You are responsible for your own behavior in either RL or SL.

That said, there is a lot of education, entertainment and clean FUN to be had in SL. It's a nice way to meet friends and family who are spread across the country or the world. I and a relative of mine reqularly meet in SL to go exploring, try new tools, or what ever. We do it in VOICE chat mode so we don't have to type. The VOICE response is instantaneous, unlike the typing, and like in RL the volume depends on how close your friend is.

I am retiring in a month and plan to enjoy SL for some time to come. Considering the price of fuel right now it is an economical way to travel, with no concern about car or plane crashes. In SL you are resurrected if you die, unlke RL. Besides, I've always like flying around the country like Superman!