Ever since the story about Second Life’s first virtual millionaire, I’ve been doing some research into the game. Many people may not know this, but Ed Lau and I were offered a preview of Second Life before it came out. We were even offered a nice big plot of land and a free account to test out the game. We said no at the time because we thought the game would go nowhere. Man, were we proven wrong!
Today, Second Life is a multi-million dollar operation that generates handsome profits for entrepreneur members like Asnhe Chung. Second Life really is like real life. People have jobs, businesses and relationships. In my search for more information, I came across an article written by my good friend, Andrew “Spode†Miller.
The fact that Spode has a Second Life account doesn’t surprise me at all. Here is the man in real life, dancing on top of the bar at Carnegie’s Taipei with Stephen Fung. No wonder he wants a Second Life!
In his article, Spode talks about the seedier side of Second Life.
Virtual sex is rife in Second Life, as are relationships. One woman I was talking to is engaged in Second Life, and is pregnant. To simulate the pregnancy, she is increasing the size of her belly every day for nine days. Then at the end, she will adopt a resident being played by a child, to be her child.
However, not all sex is traditional. Prostitution is high on the list of jobs, and there are many areas dedicated to it. However, unless you go out of your way to wander in to these areas of town, you can stay fairly separate from it.
Yes, prostitution is alive and well in the virtual world as it is in the real world. Spode wouldn’t be the reporter that he is if he didn’t fully explore the virtual night life.
As a journalist, I felt I wouldn’t be doing Second Life justice unless I found myself a “lady of the night†to see what all the fuss was about. At this point, I’d run out of money, but I had already put my Credit Card details on file. So I bought L$1000 ($4 if I recall), which is about £2 with today’s exchange rates.
So there you have it. Spode paid real money to have unreal sex. The rest of the story is too graphic to describe. I recommend you head over to TrustedReviews to read it.