Second Life: The Official Guide [With CDROM]

Yes, I call myself a geek but I have yet to check out the phenomenon known as Second Life. That changed yesterday when I finished the book Second Life: The Official Guide by Michael Rymaszewski, Wagner James Au, Mark Wallace, Catherine Winters, Cory Ondrejka, and Benjamin Batstone-Cunningham. I can now see the appeal on a number of levels... Contents: Part 1 - Getting a Second Life: What Is Second Life?; Getting Started; The Grand Tour Part 2 - Living a Second Life: Changing Your Appearance; Using Your Library; Managing Your Inventory; Building; Using the Linden Scripting Language Part 3 - Success in Second Life: Who Are You?; Making Money; Real Residents; A Cultural Timeline; The Future and Impact of Second Life Appendices: Real-Life Education in Second Life; Glossary; Additional Resources; Menu Commands and Functions My learning style would be best described as "read first, then try." One of the reasons why I had not yet tried out Second Life is because I had no idea as to what was involved and how to get started. Yeah, you can always dive right in, and then clean up mistakes as you go. This book allows you to avoid the "mistake" phase, orient yourself from the start, and start getting the most out of your on-line experience. The writing is a nice blend of intro and advanced material. For newbies, there's the "here's where to start, and here are the basic instructions on how to move around and interact" information. At that level, Second Life is basically a three-dimensional chat room. But the real fun comes when you start building your own objects and scripting your own actions and gestures. There are chapters included on how to manipulate the Linden Scripting Language to personalize your avatar. And using "prims", you can create and build just about anything you can imagine. For creative types, Second Life is a playground without limits. Architecture, engineering, fashion design, you name it. And a little time spent with Second Life: The Official Guide will spark your imagination and get you geared up to expand your creativity. The book even explains how it's possible to buy and sell using Linden dollars (which *do* have a real-life exchange rate). A very useful and aesthetically appealing book that will likely hook you into a new virtual existence.

My copy of Second Life: The Official Guide arrived in the mail yesterday and I'm pleased. The easiest way to summarize the book, is that it acts as the manual that would come with SL if it were shrink-wrapped software. Mark Wallace's, Chapter 3: The Grand Tour is fantastic. Before the book arrived I spent hours with a friend yesterday talking about Second Life. He had an account, had logged in, more or less understood what it was but didn't know where to find cool things. This chapter covers that turf. New and seasoned residents both will find a lot of value in this chapter. It covers everything from The Shelter and Anwr Oil Rig to Something Awful and Gor. I'll be spending a few hours going back through these places which I've toured in the past. This chapter alone makes this a worthy gift for someone you want to become a Second Lifer. Cory Ondrejka's LSL chapter is also great. This is the well written, professional introduction to LSL that was sorely needed. Non-programmers will find the examples a great place to start and programmers will be welcomed with the standard sections like "What are types?" that they are used to from other languages. There is certainly a fair bit of nostalgia for us oldbies. Hamlet has a chapter profiling a number of residents and provides a history lesson in another. The history lesson is a must read for new residents and a stroll down memory lane for the rest of us. Finally, Wallace closes the book out with a step towards 3PointD. If you know someone new to Second Life, want to encourage someone to log in in 2007, or otherwise love all things Second Life, you should pick up this book!

Linden Lab's Second Life has attracted a vast audience in the last year. This book is a copiously illustrated explanation of much that you can do as a new member. Most of it is non-technical. You don't need extensive computer background. One of the attractions of Second Life. But the main message is that Second Life is quite unlike most massive multiplayer games. It's not the place for twitch combat. Instead, Second Life lets you and many others explore a fantastical social environment. Where you can heavily customise your persona. Starting with choosing a gender. The book shows that a nontrivial percentage of gamers choose the opposite sex for their characters. It also discusses the etiquette of whether you tell others that you are doing this. Since in general, unless you do so, there is no way they can ascertain. These gender benders are one way that Second Life has been used by people to experiment with alternate gender roles, in a manner highly unlikely in real life, if they cannot realistically cross-dress. There is much more available, as the book relates. You can construct buildings, to make an environment conducive to your persona. More generally, you can make other objects. Also, you can perform activities from which to derive real dollars. Hard work, as the book advises. But unlike some other gaming environments, Second Life explicitly lets you garner some real income if you so desire. This monetary interaction with the real world is a compelling and addictive feature to some players.

I'm a novice in Second Life, and I could tell from the introductory chapters of this book that I already missed some opportunities to start out more strong. Nothing can convey the feeling of being there, but the advice is practical and the weights given to different topics are well chosen. I can't evaluate the accuracy of the customization and coding tips, but I can attest that they're well-written and go beyond the obvious.

Wow. Second Life: The Official Guide is just great. But I need to explain where I am coming from. I'm happy to be a reasonably early technology adopter and I usually practice the "jump in and try it" mode. For example, I figured out my blog in 2004 without any guidance. But as I was thinking about Second Life as a brand new resident a few months ago, I was sort of feeling like this isn't a new technology metaphor, it's a travel metaphor. Second Life is a new place that needs to be learned more than it is a new technology that needs to be learned. I've traveled the world a great deal. For example, I lived in Japan for six years and Hong Kong for two as Asia Marketing Director for a big American company. My entire career has been as an internationalist. I've visited some 40 or 50 countries on business or pleasure and logged several million air miles. Before departing for somewhere like Bombay or Bangkok or Brussels, I always purchase a travel guide and read it on the plane. I just like knowing the basics like what's a funky old restaurant to try, how to hail a cab, and how much to tip (or not). What Second Life: The Official Guide does is act as your travel guide to a new place. The authors got that right. Thanks! Just like a great Frommer's travel guide, the book is chock full of places to go, people to see, etiquette, currency exchange, what to wear, and more. In fact, the publisher, Wiley, could do a version of this book as an actual Frommer's guide, to complement the Sybex computer book imprint that Second Life: The Official Guide is published with. Wouldn't that be cool!? Yes, there is also a boatload of stuff for Second Life experts including details on the Second Life scripting language. This stuff is beyond me but if it is as well written as the parts that I devoured, than even long time residents will get a great deal of practical information from the book. Several of the authors work at Linden Labs, the company behind Second Life so it must be accurate. Thanks for doing this book, guys. It is important.