Second Life Virus.

Hi Haydn,

1. No, there is no virus in it as far as I know. Else there wouldn't be near as many people actually using it, like me.

2. As safe as anything else, I suppose.

3. Anyting an everyting can harm your computer. This might put your graphics card thoguh its paces, but it won't but any buggies in your system.

Mari

3ring was makin' a joke. "Lindens" refers to both the currency of Second Life and the employees of Linden Lab, who operate Second Life. Robin and Philip are some of the more senior staff.

There is a huge part of the grid that doesn't require money at all.

Free things, sight seeing, sandboxes, friends, education - pretty much anything that matters.

To answer a lot of questions in detail I recommend looking up "NCI" - New Citizens Institute, which can be found by the search feature or just going to Kuula or Nova Civis Caledon.

Lots of free things, and enough information to answer questions for days and days, easily taken in at your own pace.

QFT, just in case it was missed on the previous page.

Since SL is open-source, there are other versions of it around. The safest one (in terms of not having viruseses) is the one you can find here on this website. Though there are other ones that are popular and safe, if you download SL from any other place, you increase your chances of catching something nasty.

Also, be VERY careful about giving your SL user name and password to ANY piece of software or website. If you didn't get the software here or the website doesn't say secondlife.com on it, you risk getting your account hijacked.

Haydn, it may help if you think about Second Life as a place, rather than a game. The Second Life client software enables you to create an "Avatar" and to move that avatar around in a virtual 3D world, while interacting with literally millions of other people from all over the world. But unlike most computer games, there is no "goal", no levels to gain, no missions to accomplish. Visiting Second Life is like taking a vacation in a foreign country. You can purchase some of the local currency, if you want to, and can use that to pay for things that other residents have made. Things like clothes, cars, weapons, homes, and even virtual land to call your own. Or you can explore for free, and just interact with people. After all, your Avatar doesn't need to eat, doesn't need to sleep... You have no real "needs" that have to be met to survive.

There is a LOT that you can do in Second Life without spending a single penny of real money. There are a lot of free things that you can get, like clothes, cars, boats, wings, and avatar forms. You can do a lot to change your avatar's appearance, and to customize that as you please. And you can explore the virtual world, make friends, dance, go on rides, visit interesting places... With a little effort, you can become almost anything in SL. A dragon, a bunny in a business suit, a pretty girl, a puppy dog... There are few limits on what is possible.

It's also important to understand that virtually everything that you see in Second Life is something that someone else actually owns and most likely paid money for. Very little of it is "free game content" provided by the service provider, Linden Lab. If you see a home, or a castle, or a store... someone built that, or bought it, and owns it. You can't just walk into an apparently empty house and set up housekeeping, any more than you could walk down the street in your real life neighborhood and walk into any unlocked house that you find and make yourself at home. There is no "free land" where you can build a home or a business. You would have to buy or rent the land from another Player, or from the service provider. There are areas caled "Sandboxes", where you can practice building, but you can't build a house there and leave it there.

Eventually, you'll find that there are things you would like to do that you do have to spend in-world money on. Like getting better-looking clothes, or a better looking skin for your avatar, or renting or purchasing a place to call your own.

People make money in Second Life much like they do in real life. They learn the needed skills, they create something other people want, or provide a service other people desire to hire them for, and then they sell that to other Players. So maybe they make shoes, or dresses, or houses, or guns, or do landscaping... But each of these things requires time, effort, and creativity on your part. You can't just spend 4 hours "harvesting timber" or "digging gold" or doing some other mindless task to earn money, like in many games.

In general, when you're getting started, it's easier for most people to simply purchase the local currency called Linden Dollars, or L$, rather than trying to earn it in the virtual world. Quite honestly, less than 2% of the people who use Second Life manage to make a real-world profit here. That means that more than 98% do spend at least some real-world money here each month, or else decide to make do only with the free content and activities.

Again, until you have spent some time exploring, meeting people, and experiencing what Second Life offers, you won't be in a good position to earn money in the Second Life virtual world. You will be better off purchasing some game money with real money. One US dollar will buy enough game money to get maybe 5 t-shirts, a nice dress, or a good set of boots.

Can you earn money here, and even earn a real profit? Yes, if you have the right skills and put in enough effort. I make a profit here every month. But what I earn in SL, if you take into account the hours that I spend to do it, doesn't even match a minimum-wage real-world income. If I spend 20 hours building and making things to sell in SL, I won't earn as much real money as I would have if I had spent that same 20 hours cooking hamburgers in a fast food restaurant. I work in SL because I like doing the things that I do, and because other people enjoy what I make. If it was all about the money, I wouldn't bother with SL. I'd just go get another job in the real world.

I hope you enjoy SL. Welcome to our virtual world. Take it slow, enjoy the free stuff, and make up your own mind as to whather there are things here that are worth spending a few real dollars every month or so to play here. But above all, HAVE FUN.

{Note: Permission is granted to freely copy and distribute this post and use it for any newbie-help notecards or similar purposes.}

To date... I have NEVER run any virus "protection" software on any computer I've ever built. I have also only ever re-installed an OS due to graphics drivers conflicts. (^_^)

Installing or running any executable program opens up the chance for a virus to infect your system. What the real matter is, do you trust who wrote the software and to you trust who you're downloading from? I've had a series of 5 computers I've built since I was 12. Of all of them, I have not had a single virus infection that affected the performance of my machine or my internet access. (^_^)

In my half-year of visiting SL, I have run over 15 different versions of the client. I'm currently using the 1.20.8 Release candidate. Of all those installs, I still maintain my personal best at continuing to be virus free. (^_^)y

It's easiest and most efficient to pay for lindens - either by buying them, or by signing up for a premium membership, which will give you a L$300/week stipend and the right to buy and hold 512 sq meters of land without paying additional land fees. (If you don't plan to own land, buying US$10 of lindens will give you the better deal over spending that US$10 on a month's membership.)

There are jobs you can do in-world, but most require at least some in-world experience, and the pay isn't great, compared to buying your own money. Camping and money trees are relatively easy, but they don't pay much.

The nice thing, though, is that you don't really need money to run around and explore Second Life:
- You can find many areas you can set as your "home" and have somewhere to log in and out of.
- There are numerous freebies available, from clothes and vehicles to homes and furniture (when you have somewhere to put them). Some designers offer special freebies to residents in their first month on the grid. (Some freebies are actually dollarbies - items that cost L$1 - so it is nice to have a little money from money trees or camping.)
- There are no fees for most events and activities, though it's nice to tip if you can.
- Building is free, though you may find you need to buy or upload textures which does cost a bit. (Lotsa free textures around, too - including some in the library in everybody's inventory.)

How much money you choose to put into the game is entirely up to you. You can get by quite well without ever putting money into the system - or you can spend every penny you can afford. If you have money in the game, you will certainly find things to spend it on!

wow, that may take me 5 years to read
haha thank u for the posts!

Haydn - go look at OnRez.com and slexchange.com for an idea of the content available for purchase. Also- once you do get out and about, make sure you register at their kiosks - this will make sense eventually - Onrez for one has tons of really great freebies but u can only get them if you register.

*laughs head off*

Seriously, I'm dying over here... errh, might be a bad pun...

hadyn, wehn you are at orientation island look around to see if there is anyone with the words SecondLife Mentor above their name, these are older residents who are able to return to teh orientation islands especialy to help new people out.
The are from an Linden Labs sponcered group set up specialy to help out, they aren't payed but do have access to a lot of information both from other mentors and a few Linden Lab employees who have it as one of their jobs to assist the mentors.

hi and wlecome to the madhouse.

Firstly as this Secondlife is a virtual world with real people........and what do real people have ?? feelings.......good bad or indifferent......the point im making is its not a game......far from it.......its an escape to a virtual realm where anything is possible.........just try to remember the avitars you meet are real people with real feelings.

Therefore standard internet security applies........never give out real life information, never give your access password to anyone........even if you trust them.

Having said all that its a wonderful marvel of technology......i know we gripe and moan, and generally whine when we lag out or keep crashing.....but we truly have a unique experience in joining in a world that we can let our most wildest imaginations run riot.

have fun~ Hugs

I'm kinda surprised that nobody has though to suggest that Haydn seek out Anelpirate Franizzi for some advice on the pimping scene.

Can we get this post stickied? Its the best nutshell advice I have ever seen for new player!

Bad! Into the corner now!

I'm definitely gonna note card it and add it to my noobie help folder. (^_^)y

whose Anelpirate Franizzi ?
If ur going to mention something I'm clueless about.
PLEASE EXPLAIN
hahaha!

Oh, wow. Haydn, let me take a shot at some of your questions.

What is Second Life? It's a virtual world. You create a character called an "avatar" to represent yourself in this world. You will be given a few choices of avatar to start with, but you can change it later to look like anything you want, from a pinup girl to a firebreathing dragon.

What do you do here? There is no goal, no "winner", no levels. It is unstructured, like life. You can do what you like...make friends, party, dance. Fall in love, get married. Fall out of love and get divorced. Put on a live performance. Teach, learn. Buy things, build things, sell things. Own land, build a house. Swim, walk, or run around. You can fly. You can get quickly from one place to another by teleporting.

Nearly everything you see in SL was created by its residents, using basic geometric shapes (cubes, spheres, cylinders, etc.) called "primitives" or "prims".

System requirements. SL requires a pretty good graphics card, and a fast internet connection. Don't try it with a dialup modem! Use DSL or cable. See the system requirements link in a previous reply for details.

Money. You can play SL for free. Also, you can find a lot of "freebies"...free clothes and so on. However, a lot of better-quality stuff is NOT free, but can be bought for the local currency, called Linden Dollars, or L$. You can buy L$ with a credit card or PayPal. There are also some ways to make money in SL itself, although most jobs are very low paying compared to Real Life jobs.

Stuff. Everything that you acquire is kept in a database called your Inventory. If you want a place of your own, somewhere you can build a house, and keep objects out and visible instead of packed in your inventory, you will need to rent or own land. To own land, you need to upgrade your free basic membership to Premium, which costs $9.95 per month or $72 per year. Land also carries a monthly cost of its own...either a rental charge, or, if you own it outright, a tax called "tier" that you pay to Linden Lab. (Linden Lab, or LL, is the creator of Second Life).

Starting. When you first log on, you will find yourself at a place called Orientation Island. There are tutorials here to teach you basic skills like moving, editing your appearance, and communicating with others. Next, you teleport to Help Island, where you can learn about building objects. From Help Island, you will exit the "training area" and be teleported to a Welcome Area in the main Second Life world.

I recommend that you don't spend too long there, but go off and explore. There are over 22,000 regions, also called "simulators", or "sims" in SL. You can wander at random, or you can use the Search and Map tools in your SL interface to find interesting places to visit.

Crabs. That was an inside joke. Some people put animated animals on their land. I have a little crab that runs around on our beach, nipping the toes of unwary bathers.

If you have questions, this forum is one of the best places to get answers. Welcome to Second Life!

[EDIT: Ceera and several others beat me to a lot of this. Great job!]

I second that, Ceera did a great job there.

We put Sling in the corner for a time out.

Haydn, you're going to run into a LOT of in jokes and confusing references from the gang here. Ignore them. If you hang out with us for a while, pretty soon you will be up on all the references.

I saw one post up above that bears repeating...Are you over 18? If not, there is a Teen Grid that you can log into.

(BRAVO, everyone. So many informative posts, and in so short a time. Cookies for everybody.)

THANKSS.
again for being so helpful!
well the computer im on right now
is too slow for second life.
Whenever I can I'll try to get on our
faster computer!
This is making me imaptient.
It sounds so exciting.
LOl.

Can I have pie instead?, strawbary if posible..oh oh and a watermelon pie to throw at torley.

Copied Ceera's post to the stickie marked tips for newbies

Thanks for the nice comments, everyone.

Amaranthim? Could you fix one little thing in the copy of my post that you did? There's one typo in the second paragraph, where it says "go in rides" and I meant to type "go on rides". I am fixing that here, but only you can fix the copy you moved.

Just to say welcome to Second Life. It's worth staying with it. If you have a low-performance computer the SL experience won't be so good but if you like it enough you might decide to upgrade.