2008 Woodie Awards
Second Life weapons system earns more than $20,000
By: U- WIRE
Issue date: 3/17/08 Section: Campus
PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Before setting foot on Brown's campus, Evan Donahue '11 made thousands of dollars creating weapons to summon damned souls and create rifts in space-time fabric to suck in adversaries.
The weapons systems were for the virtual world of Second Life, a popular online role-playing game. But the money - more than $20,000 - was very real.
"Second Life is like an empty world in which users can do whatever they want," Donahue said. "Some people can meet friends and talk or build fantastic landscapes. Some people fight with each other. I program things for people to fight each other with."
Started in 2003 by Linden Labs, Second Life is an online world with a similar concept to EA Games' The Sims. In Second Life, a player creates an avatar and then is free to network, get a job, buy a house, buy clothing, have sex or fight other "residents" -- as users do in the video game World of Warcraft. Some companies (Toyota and Calvin Klein), bands (Oasis) and even presidential candidates (John Edwards) have a presence in Second Life.
Second Life is built to mimic real life. Following the lead of Wikipedia - the pages of which can be edited by anyone - any user can create programs for this online world. But unlike in The Sims, Second Life users can create items and then buy or sell them for "Linden Dollars," which translate into real U.S. dollars. Thousands of Second Life users have bought Donahue's combat systems, which cost between $4 and $12.
In February, users made $328,122 in transactions in Second Life, according to the Second Life Web site. The Web site also says that there are more than 12 million Second Life users, and about 1.3 million have logged on to the world in the past 60 days.
Somewhat strangely, Donahue discovered Second Life through his mother. Donahue said his mother, an English professor at Duke University, was looking at the virtual world's social aspect and had the program up on her computer.
"I was bored and clicked on it and realized what I can do, but I didn't really expect to make money," he said, adding he created one weapon system a couple years ago, and the other before coming to Brown last summer. Second Life itself provides tools for anyone to create items and programs within the virtual world.
The weapons systems were for the virtual world of Second Life, a popular online role-playing game. But the money - more than $20,000 - was very real.
"Second Life is like an empty world in which users can do whatever they want," Donahue said. "Some people can meet friends and talk or build fantastic landscapes. Some people fight with each other. I program things for people to fight each other with."
Started in 2003 by Linden Labs, Second Life is an online world with a similar concept to EA Games' The Sims. In Second Life, a player creates an avatar and then is free to network, get a job, buy a house, buy clothing, have sex or fight other "residents" -- as users do in the video game World of Warcraft. Some companies (Toyota and Calvin Klein), bands (Oasis) and even presidential candidates (John Edwards) have a presence in Second Life.
Second Life is built to mimic real life. Following the lead of Wikipedia - the pages of which can be edited by anyone - any user can create programs for this online world. But unlike in The Sims, Second Life users can create items and then buy or sell them for "Linden Dollars," which translate into real U.S. dollars. Thousands of Second Life users have bought Donahue's combat systems, which cost between $4 and $12.
In February, users made $328,122 in transactions in Second Life, according to the Second Life Web site. The Web site also says that there are more than 12 million Second Life users, and about 1.3 million have logged on to the world in the past 60 days.
Somewhat strangely, Donahue discovered Second Life through his mother. Donahue said his mother, an English professor at Duke University, was looking at the virtual world's social aspect and had the program up on her computer.
"I was bored and clicked on it and realized what I can do, but I didn't really expect to make money," he said, adding he created one weapon system a couple years ago, and the other before coming to Brown last summer. Second Life itself provides tools for anyone to create items and programs within the virtual world.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
csven
posted 3/20/08 @ 6:09 PM EST
You really shouldn't use numbers unless you understand what they mean and can communicate that meaning to readers. For example, there are not "12 million Second Life users". (Continued…)
a
posted 3/21/08 @ 12:40 AM EST
Second Life? Most of these people don't even have first lives.
Post a Comment