In 2003 when Linden lab’s virtual world Second Life launched, it was a novelty and a huge success with a community of over a million at its peak. A quaint convergence of unfettered imagination and dollar-powered real life – through avatars, business, brands, product sales, music, movies, and even news reporting and politics – its ever-changing and expanding virtual world took off.
I visited a few times to research stories and marvel at people “buying” property, creating chic haute couture, building and selling homes, and having the most absurd keyboard-bashing sex with strangers (through self-created manga-style characters), all premised on an actual exchange rate of US$1 = 320 Linden dollars.
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