How to Get a Second Life B u i l d a S u c ce s s f u l Business and S o c i a l N e t wo r k I n wo r l d madddyyy schnook with andrew sullivan First published in 2007 by Fusion Press, a division of Satin Publications Ltd 101 Southwark Street London SE1 0JF UK info@visionpaperbacks.co.uk www.visionpaperbacks.co.uk Publisher: Sheena Dewan © Andrew Sullivan 2007 The right of Andrew Sullivan to be identified as the author of the work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988 All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of the publisher A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-1-905745-26-6 10 Cover and text design by ok?design Printed and bound in the UK by J H Haynes & Co Ltd, Sparkford | Chapter 1: Chapter 2: Chapter 3: Chapter 4: Chapter 5: Chapter 6: Chapter 7: Chapter 8: Chapter 9: Chapter 10: Chapter 11: Chapter 12: Chapter 13: Chapter 14: Chapter 15: Chapter 16: Chapter 17: Chapter 18: Contents Introduction The Basics Mouse-clicking Your Way to Success Your Appearance Visiting Places in SL Socialising How to Make Money Owning Land Creating and Editing Prims Objects and Prims Advanced Textures for Beginners Sculpty Prims Scripts Making Your Own Clothes and Accessories Build Your Own Home and Shop Setting Up Shop Business: Getting Started Business: Marketing, Publicity and Advertising Bringing It All Together A Guide to SL Slang Glossary Short Cut Keys Index Acknowledgements About the Authors 16 31 45 59 75 89 101 109 124 135 141 151 159 169 181 194 205 206 208 210 211 217 218 v | Introduction Second life®(SL) is an amazing virtual world where anything is possible You can fly, dance in a club, teleport from location to location, talk to and befriend people from all around the world, join like-minded groups, change your look as many times as you want, build homes and create products and businesses You can even make real money There are no specific goals in SL and, unlike video games, there is no end It is an ever-evolving, ever-widening metaverse The only limit is your imagination For many newcomers (or newbies, as they are affectionately called by more experienced residents), this digital landscape with its huge realm of possibilities and vast array of menus is very daunting There is a very steep learning curve and many residents go in once and never return because they find it all too difficult to master When I, Andrew Sullivan, first joined SL in 2005 as ‘madddyyy Schnook’ there were hardly any resources for newbies I soon realised that if I could teach myself using the limited information that was available to newbies, I could write my own virtual guidebooks After a long struggle and many hours I finally wrote a 32-page virtual guide to making clothes, which was a major success and led to almost 60 other books Since then I have set up my own business in SL providing virtual guidebooks to help other people learn how to master various aspects of SL I have sold hundreds of thousands of these guides to people who are hungry for information and guidance for their second life As well as selling books from my shop, I also provide new residents with impromptu lessons I always get that satisfied feeling when the same resident comes back a few weeks or even months later to thank me for the invaluable advice I have given them Many of my students have given me clothes, shoes and all sorts of gifts to thank me for my help The success of my guides has enabled me to what many only dream of and give my job up in real life (RL) to work for myself in SL I always find it amusing to explain to people what I for a living – friends are usually shocked when I say I spent the morning talking with a dragon and two princesses and drove around my shop in a horse-drawn carriage With this book, I am hoping to help out the people who need guidance the most – those who are just starting out in SL – so I can properly introduce them to this virtual world and show them the opportunities that are available It will also be a valuable resource for more experienced SL residents wanting to learn additional skills and further their knowledge 1| In each chapter I will explain a different aspect of SL and what you can I would recommend that everyone reads the first seven chapters to give them an overview of how the world works These chapters explain the basics that every resident should know They are also useful reading for more experienced residents as there are plenty of tips and bits of advice that can polish their skills The later chapters on building, scripting and starting your own business won’t be for everyone, so dip into them as you wish and use them for reference whenever you want to learn more There are also a list of short cut keys, a useful slang section and a glossary at the back of the book to help you with your journeys So for now, read on and let me take you along the many winding roads and paths that make SL so unique I will be whisking you away to some fantastic virtual backdrops and friendly places to your learning You will be making new friends and learning many new skills I wish you the best of luck and hope you enjoy your second life 0.1: My avatar 2| 1: The Basics Let us begin with a brief history Philip Rosedale (or Philip Linden as he is known in SL) created the concept of a virtual world in the shower in 2002 Partly inspired by the 1992 sci-fi novel Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, he wanted to create a dreamscape, a land better than the real world, where people could escape their everyday lives and live out their fantasies SL was finally released to the public in 2003 It was unique in being a virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents (except for the initial land built by Linden Lab), where residents could trade with each other and own the rights to their SL creations Since then SL has developed and progressed and its popularity has soared due to major press interest RL companies now business in SL, with around £750,000/US$1.5 million passing hands every day, and other people use it for entertainment and socialising As I am writing this, the SL population stands at a mammoth 10 million and is growing at the rate of around 10,000 people per day Starting out in SL In order to experience Second Life, you first need to sign up and download the software Visit www.secondlife.com and click the JOIN NOW button At the time of writing, the first thing you need to is decide whether you want to start your Second Life in a community area (mostly corporate sponsored) or whether you want to start in the official orientation island where you will learn techniques through self-taught tasks you need to complete It doesn’t really make a difference as both options contain similar tutorials to show you how to move, look around, chat, change your outfit and alter your appearance Either way, it’s free to join SL, although you can opt to pay to become a premium member later on, which is only US$9.95 For most people it isn’t worth becoming a premium member unless you wish to own mainland land There are four membership plans and some give you a weekly allowance of Linden dollars (L$, the SL currency) for you to spend inworld (in the virtual world) 3| How to Get a Second Life The first thing you need to is choose a name for your avatar (your virtual person) You can choose any first name you like (Be sure to capitalise your first name unless you want it lower case, as it won’t automatically capitalise it.) You then need to choose your last name from a very long list of supplied surnames that Linden Labs rotates and eventually retires when a certain number of people have chosen that surname Bear in mind that the name you choose will be the name you go by inworld, and you won’t have the opportunity to change it, so pick something you think you can live with long term You might find it takes a while to get an avatar name that hasn’t been already chosen You’ll then need to complete some standard account information and security questions and downloaded the software before you are ready to log in and create your avatar You will be given the option of being male or female and then, depending on the location of your orientation, you might be given the option of choosing one of the default shapes for your avatar This isn’t important as you will soon be customising the look of your avatar, either by doing it yourself or by buying shapes, skin and hair to create a unique look (you can even change your gender), so don’t worry if you don’t like what you’ve been given – no one stays in their original look for long Once you’ve chosen an avatar you will find yourself in an orientation area There are various tasks and tests to teach you how to move around and use your SL viewer I am now going to show you all the basic skills you’ll need to start off Your SL screen Below is an image of the main viewer in SL From here you can interact with your new 3D world I will be covering in more detail how you can interact with the world around you, but for the moment I will give you a quick rundown on the menus buttons you can see in your viewer At the top of the screen you will see the following drop-down menus: Q FILE: Here you can upload images, sounds and animations into SL and take snapshots (photos) of your screen Q EDIT: You can edit various aspects of the SL world from here, such as your appearance, your clothing, plus any items you are creating 4| ... CHAT button (or, as a short cut, press ENTER) and you will notice a white box or bar appear This is the chat bar You will also see some extra buttons appear – a HISTORY button as well as SAY and... turn right, ‘W’ to walk forwards and ‘S’ to walk backwards For flying use ‘E’ to launch upwards and ‘F’ to fall down Q For advice: There are many places that newcomers can go to get advice NCI (New... if you have one (you can get married in SL), and any groups that you belong to This information is all added and updated automatically There is also a 500character ABOUT text box for you to give