Second Life - Wikipedia Jump to content Main menu Main menu move to sidebar hide Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Special pages Search Search Appearance Donate Create account Log in Personal tools Donate Create account Log in Contents move to sidebar hide (Top) 1 History 2 Classification 3 Residents and avatars 4 Content 5 Economy 6 Technology Toggle Technology subsection 6.1 Client 6.2 Server 6.3 OpenSimulator 7 Applications Toggle Applications subsection 7.1 Arts 7.2 Competitive entertainment 7.3 Education 7.4 Embassies 7.5 Religion 7.6 Relationships 7.7 Science 7.8 Social network 7.9 Music streams 7.10 Work spaces 8 Notable events and influence Toggle Notable events and influence subsection 8.1 Second Life movie 8.2 Ban of Woodbury University 8.3 The Alphaville Herald 8.4 2007 "Virtual Riot" 8.5 Marketing 8.6 Griefing and denial of service attacks 8.7 The Emerald client and in-world logging scripts 8.8 Vlogger 9 Criticism and controversy Toggle Criticism and controversy subsection 9.1 Regulation 9.2 Technical issues 9.3 Quality assurance 9.4 Frame rate 9.5 Congestion 9.6 Customer security 9.7 Fraud and intellectual property protection 9.8 OpenSpaces 9.9 Sex 9.10 Unauthorized copying of content 10 Litigation Toggle Litigation subsection 10.1 Bragg v. Linden Lab 10.2 Eros, LLC and Grei v. Linden Lab 10.3 Evans et al. v. Linden Lab 11 In popular culture 12 Research 13 See also 14 References 15 Further reading 16 External links Toggle the table of contents Second Life 51 languages Afrikaans Aragonés العربية مصرى Български বাংলা Brezhoneg Català Čeština Dansk Deutsch Ελληνικά Esperanto Español Euskara فارسی Suomi Føroyskt Français עברית Hrvatski Magyar Interlingua Bahasa Indonesia Italiano 日本語 한국어 Latina Ladin Latviešu Македонски Bahasa Melayu Plattdüütsch Nederlands Norsk bokmål Polski Português Română Русский Simple English Slovenščina Српски / srpski Svenska ไทย Türkçe Українська اردو Tiếng Việt 吴语 粵語 中文 Edit links Article Talk English Read View source View history Tools Tools move to sidebar hide Actions Read View source View history General What links here Related changes Upload file Permanent link Page information Cite this page Get shortened URL Switch to legacy parser Print/export Download as PDF Printable version In other projects Wikimedia Commons Wikinews Wikiversity Wikidata item Appearance move to sidebar hide From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 2003 Online virtual world platform This article is about the virtual community. For other uses, see Second Life (disambiguation). {{cite web |title=Linux Viewer |url=https://github.com/secondlife/viewer/issues/1149 |publisher=GitHub |access-date=2024-07-07 |date=2024-04-06}}</ref>\n* [[iOS]] (beta)<ref name=\"mobilebeta\">{{cite web |title=Second Life Mobile Beta |url=https://secondlife.com/mobile |publisher=Linden Lab |access-date=2024-07-07}}</ref>\n* [[Android (operating system)|Android]] (beta)<ref name=\"mobilebeta\"/>\n}}"},"license":{"wt":"[[LGPL-2.1-or-later]]"},"latest release date":{"wt":"{{wikidata|qualifier|preferred|single|Q106827|P348|P548=Q2804309|P577}}"},"latest preview version":{"wt":"{{wikidata|property|preferred|references|edit|Q106827|P348|P548=Q51930650}}"},"latest preview date":{"wt":"{{wikidata|qualifier|preferred|single|Q106827|P348|P548=Q51930650|P577}}"},"repo":{"wt":"{{URL|https://github.com/secondlife/viewer}}"},"programming language":{"wt":"[[C++]]<ref>{{cite web\n| url=https://github.com/secondlife/viewer\n| title=SecondLife/viewer\n| website=[[GitHub]]\n| quote=C++: 91.4%\n| access-date=September 19, 2023\n}}</ref>"},"language count":{"wt":"12"},"language footnote":{"wt":"<ref>{{cite web\n| url=https://github.com/secondlife/viewer/blob/d454512050e636a19e4b7545515dea4f4b1bbf0d/indra/newview/skins/default/xui/en/panel_preferences_general.xml\n| title=language_combobox\n| website=[[GitHub]]\n| access-date=19 September 2023\n}}</ref>"},"language":{"wt":"[[American English]], [[Chinese language|Chinese (China)]], [[Danish language|Danish]], [[French language|French]], [[German language|German]], [[Italian language|Italian]], [[Japanese language|Japanese]], [[Polish language|Polish]], [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], [[Russian language|Russian]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]], [[Turkish language|Turkish]]"}},"i":0}}]}'>Second Life Viewer Developer Linden Lab Release June 23, 2003; 23 years ago (2003-06-23) Written in C++[1] Engine Open-source (C++, OpenGL) Platform Windows macOS Linux (in development)[2] iOS (beta)[3] Android (beta)[3] Available in 12 languages[4] List of languages American English, Chinese (China), Danish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish License LGPL-2.1-or-later Website secondlife.com  Repository github.com/secondlife/viewer "},"latest preview date":{"wt":"<!-- {{Start date and age|2017|02|07}} -->"},"programming language":{"wt":"{{plainlist|\n* [[C++]]\n* [[#Content|LSL]]<ref name=\"LSL\">{{cite web\n| url=https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/LSL_Portal\n| title=LSL Portal - Second Life Wiki\n| date=August 13, 2024\n| quote=LSL (Linden Scripting Language) is the scripting language that gives behavior to Second Life primitives, objects, and avatars.\n| access-date=February 21, 2025\n}}</ref> / LSO<ref name=\"LSO\">{{cite web\n| url=https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/LSO\n| title=LSO - Second Life Wiki\n| date=May 25, 2016\n| quote=Second Life has two LSL compilers, one which compiles into LSO bytecode and is executed by the simulator in the LSO VM, the other which compiles to CIL and is executed by the simulator in the Mono VM.\n| access-date=September 19, 2023\n}}</ref> (Script engine)\n* [[Mono (software)|Mono]] (Script engine)<ref name=\"Mono\">{{cite web\n| url=https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Mono\n| title=Mono - Second Life Wiki\n| date=September 24, 2022\n| quote=\"Mono for Second Life\" refers to a simulator upgrade which can dramatically speed the running of scripts — especially calculation intensive ones.\n| access-date=February 21, 2025\n}}</ref><ref name=\"LSO\"/>\n* [[Lua (programming language)|Lua]] (Script engine / In Development)<ref name=\"Lua\">{{cite web\n| url=https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Lua_FAQ\n| title=Lua FAQ - Second Life Wiki\n| date=July 2, 2024\n| quote=Luau was the only scripting runtime that fulfilled all of our requirements for a scripting engine within Second Life\n| access-date=September 22, 2024\n}}</ref>\n* [[Python (programming language)|Python]]<!-- Used internally for various tasks such as upload verification -->\n}}"},"middleware":{"wt":"[[Havok (software)|Havok]]"},"platform":{"wt":"[[Linux]]"},"license":{"wt":"[[Proprietary software|Proprietary]]"}},"i":0}}]}'>Second Life Server Developer Linden Lab Release June 23, 2003; 23 years ago (2003-06-23) Stable release 2025-03-14.13862207703 (March 14, 2025; 17 months ago (2025-03-14)) [±] Written in C++ LSL[5] / LSO[6] (Script engine) Mono (Script engine)[7][6] Lua (Script engine / In Development)[8] Python Middleware Havok Platform Linux License Proprietary Website secondlife.com  Second Life is a multi-user virtual world that allows people to create an avatar for themselves and then interact with other users (known as 'Residents') and user-created content within a multi-user online environment. Developed for personal computers by the San Francisco-based firm Linden Lab, it publicly launched on June 23, 2003, and saw rapid growth for some years; in 2013, it had approximately one million regular users.[9] Growth eventually stabilized, and by the end of 2017, the active user count had fallen to "between 800,000 and 900,000".[10] In many ways, Second Life is similar to massively multiplayer online role-playing video games; nevertheless, Linden Lab is emphatic that their creation is not a game: "There is no manufactured conflict, no set objective."[11] The virtual world can be accessed freely via Linden Lab's own client software or via alternative third-party viewers.[12][13] Second Life users, also called 'residents', create virtual representations of themselves, called avatars, and are able to interact with places, objects and other avatars. They can explore the world (known as the grid), meet other residents, socialize, participate in both individual and group activities, build, create, shop, and trade virtual property and services with one another. The platform principally features 3D-based user-generated content. Second Life also has its own virtual currency, the Linden Dollar (L$), which is exchangeable with real world currency.[14][15] Second Life is intended for people ages 16 and over, with the exception of 13–15-year-old users, who are restricted to the Second Life region of a sponsoring institution (e.g., a school).[16][17] History Philip Rosedale, creator of Second Life Philip Rosedale formed Linden Lab in 1999[18] with the intention of developing computer hardware to allow people to become immersed in a virtual world. In its earliest form, the company struggled to produce a commercial version of the hardware, known as "The Rig", which in prototype form was seen as a clunky steel contraption with computer monitors worn on shoulders.[19] That vision changed into the software application Linden World, in which people participated in task-based games and socializing in a three-dimensional online environment.[20] That effort eventually transformed into the better-known, user-centered Second Life.[21] Although he was familiar with the metaverse of Neal Stephenson's 1992 novel Snow Crash, Rosedale has said that his vision of virtual worlds predates that book, and that he conducted early virtual world experiments during his college years at the University of California, San Diego, where he studied physics.[22] Second Life began to receive significant media attention in 2005 and 2006, including a cover story in BusinessWeek magazine featuring the virtual world and Second Life avatar Anshe Chung.[23] By that time, Anshe Chung had become Second Life's poster child and symbol for the economic opportunities that the virtual world offers to its residents. At the same time, the service saw a period of exponential growth of its user base. One of the principal developers, Cory Ondrejka, was forced to resign as chief technology officer in December 2007, with Rosedale citing irreconcilable differences in the way the company was run.[24] Nevertheless, the platform continued to grow rapidly, and by January 2008, residents spent a total of 28,274,505 hours "inworld" and on average 38,000 residents were logged in at any moment. The maximum concurrency (number of avatars inworld) recorded was set at 88,200 in the first quarter of 2009.[25] Headquarters of Linden Lab, creator of Second Life Second Life was honored at the Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for advancing the development of online sites with user-generated content in 2008, adding to the media attention. Rosedale accepted the award,[26] although he had announced plans to step down from his position as Linden Lab CEO and to become chairman of Linden Lab's board of directors instead in March 2008.[27] Rosedale announced Mark Kingdon as the new CEO effective May 15, 2008.[28] In 2010, Kingdon was replaced by Rosedale, who took over as interim CEO. After four months, Rosedale abruptly stepped down from the Interim CEO position. It was announced in October 2010 that Bob Komin, Linden Lab's chief financial officer and chief operating officer, would take over the CEO job for the immediate future.[29] With the platform's failure to continue its high rate of growth after 2009, Linden Lab announced layoffs of 30% of its workforce in 2010.[30] Some 21.3 million accounts were registered by this point, although the company did n…