So Second Life was proving to be rather surreal, and stupid, because didn’t have any money (and don’t want to pay real dollars for Linden ones). It’s a big problem, because most of the environments are malls and clubs where there’s stuff for sale, and I couldn’t get my hands on any of it. However, today I did manage to score $200 (yes!) - how this happened I’ll explain below.

I have found a few ways to earn money. One is camping around a fire hanging with a talking pig. You get a buck or two for every five or ten minutes you sit there, doing nothing. Not very cost effective, and definitely dull.

The second way is gambling. There are slot machines all over the place. I haven’t gotten more than a few bucks out of any of them, and for obvious reasons you can lose money a lot quicker than you’re likely to earn.

Next, there are surveys. There are kiosks all over that link to some website where you fill out a survey for Linden dollars. Tempting, but I get the feeling there’s some catch, at least opening yourself up to spam or at worst, the surveys support some business venture I want no part of. So I haven’t gone this route, either.

There’s also dancing. Who knows why people will pay you for dancing, but I’ve done it. I suck as a dancer in real life, so it’s good that you can just click a glowing pad on the ground, and your avatar whips out moves like the best of them. Of course, as with the virtual pig-camping, you only get a few bucks per ten minutes.

Lastly, I’ve seen a few ads for Second Life jobs. I’m not really into that idea, for obvious reasons - I already have a full-time day job and I’m not really looking for another one.

Anyhow, at this rate I figured I was never going to have any money (I had $14).

So I’d been wasting time being a virtual tourist - flying around, eavesdropping on other people’s houses, and testing out the object building tools. Pretty fun. There’s some seriously crazy architecture around here: castles, swimming pools, and full-on office parks (likely getting ready for the virtual Second Life businesses soon to arrive). I’d been checking out clubs, casinos, strip malls, public land, all kinds of stuff. Some areas are blocked off - you probably have to pay for membership or join the right club.

During my wandering, I happened on QT labs. There I found three dancing people among lights and a snowman spewing a digital blizzard, including a cute dancing lady by the name of Fairweather Angel or something, who gave me some tips. Basically, she suggested I go back to the first welcome area and read the directions more carefully. She also took pity on my admitted newbie status and gave me $200 bucks out of kindness. I bookmarked the location, and zipped off to the Welcome Area to do some learning.

Suddenly I’m liking Second Life better. The whole place is impersonal, capitalist, and advertising-ridden, but the people behind the screens are what makes it entertaining. When has a dancing girl given me $200 bucks in real life? Usually, it’s the other way around.

The adventure continues.

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