Second Life, Get Rich Quick Or Disconnect Trying?

Second Life is perhaps the most controversial MMO I think I've ever come across. It's hardly even a game, as there is even less plot in Second Life than that which exists in most online games of the genre. However, Second Life's popularity approaches the absurd, and there is a very good reason: Second Life pays players real cash to exist in the game world.

Okay, so it's not THAT simple, but Second Life is perhaps the only legitimate MMO in which players can profit from playing, without breaking the EULA Terms of Service. Being an avid gamer and a veteran of several MMORPGs myself, this concept of making the game (which is invariably a tremendous time dump) worth my while intrigues me. We all want money to some extent, and the gamers who spend lots of time in virtual worlds are drawn to Second Life's promise of wealth - and the hype can be pretty intense. This article, though dated, is the pinnacle of money frenzy - people have really succeeded in real life by playing a game! How do they do it? Can you do it? Maybe, Maybe not.

Second life's methods of earning are split into three major disciplines. The first, and the easiest and lowest-paid, is that of the part time job. You guessed it - there are wage jobs in Second Life just as there are in the real world, and companies will pay players to act as hosts and hostesses in their virtual environments. Players who get hired will end up entertaining visitors to a company's virtual space, and perhaps doing some human advertising on the part of the employer. The Second Life conversion rate is about 240 Linden Dollars for $1, meaning at the rate of one or two L$ a minute, you'll be getting paid a small amount just to chat. No-one's getting rich this way, but for the social butterflies of the Internet, the appeal is easy to see.

The second, more profitable (and much more difficult method) to earn money in Second Life is by offering goods and services to avatars by means of shops. If you can code a hat, or a chic pair of shoes, then you may just a livelihood in the virtual world. On the surface, this method is very appealing to the skilled computer artists and coders, as they can leverage their unique skills to generate income (by selling bits of cosmetic computer code no less). However, anyone who's ever made a model in Maya or Mudbox will be quick to tell you the process is involved, and any computer programmer that you meet will tell you the job is difficult and filled with pitfalls. Second Life has tools that help facilitate the process of creation, but be prepared to spend long hours creating something that people will wish to spend their hard earned Linden Dollars on.

The third, final, and vastly profitable method of reaping wealth in Second Life is, surprisingly, the real estate business. Buy your own piece of virtual earth, whether it be an island, a block on a street, or some other geographical nugget, and you might just sell it for thousands of real dollars! That is the crux of our Second Life millionaire's business plan: real estate in a virtual world. The practice is far older than online gaming, of course, and there's a science and discipline to it that most gamers don't possess from day one, but with some starting capital (perhaps earned from easier jobs within Second Life) and an eye for future demand, and this is where prospective earners will make their bacon.

I've been tempted to pursue the last method more than once, but a lack of funds to invest has so far prevented me. If any of you aspiring moguls find wealth in Second Life, be sure to tell your success stories here!

Posted in: Methods