Second Life Marketplace: Where You Can Buy Anything

If you read the term ‘second life marketplace’, you would be forgiven for thinking that it is the name of something like a charity shop or somewhere people sell their previous used goods.

If you thought that, though, then there is a real chance that you’re not keeping up with the times and you thought ‘Second Life’ was a religious term. In reality, it is a virtual world, with the Marketplace being somewhere that users can head in order to buy, sell and even trade virtual goods and services that they have created.

There are millions of different items available there, which have almost all been monetised.

What is the Second Life Game?

Before we look at the Second Life Marketplace in too much detail, it is first worth looking at what Second Life itself actually is. In short, it is a multiplayer virtual world, in which people can create themselves an avatar that will then allow them to interact with others.

It was developed for PCs by Linden Lab, the San Francisco-based firm, which launched it on the 23rd of June 2003. Within a decade, the game had registered around a million regular users, with growth continuing from that point before eventually stabilising. It is similar to other such online role-playing video games, even though Linden Lab actually denies that it is a game.

Instead, the company points out that there is no ‘manufactured conflict’, such as you would expect in a video game, nor a ‘set objective’. You can access the world via Linden Lab’s client software, whilst numerous third-party viewers have also sprung up in the years since.

Those that use the game are referred to as ‘residents’, thanks largely to the fact that they are able to interact with other avatars, objects and even their surroundings in much the same way as you might in the real world. You can create and build virtual property, which you can also sell and trade with others.

The Second Life Economy

Although Second Life is a virtual world that is entirely digital in nature, there are several real-world aspects to it. The most important of those is that you can buy and sell things, which uses money that you have in your real life.

The likes of art pieces, houses and cars can all be bought or traded via the Second Life Marketplace. In 2015, the Gross Domestic Product of Second Life was estimated to stand at about $500 million, with residents earning an average of $60 million. Although it will cost you real money to buy things, Second Life also has its own currency.

Linden Dollars, or L$, are worthless in and of themselves, with their value being subject to the same sort of currency manipulation as any other form of currency. Having said that, the exchange rate between Linden Dollars and US dollars has remained reasonably stable, sitting at about 1L$ to $300.

The currency was recognised as a convertible centralised currency in 2013, which means that any transactions carried out within the virtual world have real-world tax implications. US dollars and other legal tender can also be used to purchase virtual goods within the Second Life world.

The Marketplace

With all of that in mind, it is reasonably easy to figure out what the Second Life Marketplace is. It is where users go in order to buy, sell and trade their goods, which are broken down into numerous different categories. Here are the categories that you can look to explore in the Second Life Marketplace:

• Animals
• Animated Objects
• Animations
• Apparel
• Art
• Audio and Video
• Avatar Accessories
• Avatar Appearance
• Avatar Components
• Breedables
• Building and Object Components
• Building and Other Structures
• Business
• Celebrations
• Complete Avatars
• Furry
• Gachas
• Gadgets
• Home and Garden
• Miscellaneous
• Real Estate
• Recreational and Entertainment
• Scripts
• Services
• Used Items
• Vehicles
• Weapons
• Everything Else

As you can see, there is a broad spectrum of things that you can look to purchase using your money, both real and Linden-based. You could spend your time creating your avatar and building yourself a home, or you could simply buy ones that have already been made ready for sale by someone else within the Second Life community.

Amongst the best-selling items are the likes of bikinis, crop tops and eyes. You will perhaps not be all that surprised to learn that women feature heavily in the Marketplace, thanks to the fact that both women and men will have female characters on account of the fact that they are most likely to attract men and women for conversations.

In fact, other than a stone pathway, the first non-female item on the best-sellers list was a Wedding Party at the time of looking. Although it is a virtual world, Second Life tends to reflect the real one in more ways than one.