Customizing Your Second Life

There are basically three things you can do in Second Life. You can socialize. You can modify your avatar or the environment. And you can see how others have modified their avatars or their environments. If it were nothing more than socializing then Second Life would be little more than a 3D chat room. But there is a complex interplay between these three capabilities that produces an impressive synergistic result.

If it weren't for the social aspects of Second Life there would be no one to appreciate what you have done modifying your avatar and your environment. It would be like the old catch phrase "all dressed up and no place to go". But, there is something about having others appreciate your work that can be incredibly motivating. At the same time, seeing what others have done can be creatively stimulating. So, although I am going to focus on these mod capabilities, I don't want to downplay the importance of the socializing for giving significance to these mod capabilities. And, for the sake of brevity, I am not going to distinguish between modifications to your avatar and modifications to the environment. I will just refer to these generically as mod capabilities.

There are two kinds of mod capabilities in Second Life, those created outside of SL and ported in, and those achieved in-world. Mods created outside of SL and ported in include some avatar shapes and skins, clothing, animations, gestures, music, and textures (images). If this were all that Second Life had to offer, it would not be distinguished from other virtual worlds that allow mods created outside of the world to be ported in. It is the in-world mods that really distinguish it.

Mods created in world include 3D building and Linden Scripting Language (LSL) scripting. While these in-world mod capabilities are not completely unique to Second Life; they are what give Second Life its unique flavor, unique capabilities and unique possibilities. Between these two, it is the 3D building capability that Linden Labs got mostly right. Not completely right. But certainly in the right direction. LSL has promise but falls short of building in its potential. Since I have taken this long to get down to these two mod capabilities, I will save further discussion for the next post.