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After reading one or two of the other Helium articles on Second Life, and countless others like them elsewhere, I felt I had to redress the balance a little and address some biases and incorrect assertions.

As appears to be true of so many topics, some people seem to feel qualified to write a review or guide when they clearly have very little hands on experience on the subject, yet are happy to present misleading exaggerations or whole untruths as fact.

Hopefully, my 5 years as a Second Life resident and life time member, watching the platform grow from its infancy to the vast and rich world it is today, qualify me somewhat to speak on the subject.

If you've heard of Second Life at all, it could well be that you came across it in a 'shock horror' media article that sensationalises and misrepresents some otherwise often mundane facts; much has been written about Second Life, and a lot of it - possibly the majority of it, in my experience - has been, well, complete bunk!

Many are borne out of ignorance and poor research. An article elsewhere on this site condemns Second Life as being nothing but 'casinos and clothes shops' and accuses the residents of Second Life of not being innovative. This is just about as far from the truth as you can get!

Admittedly, at the point where that article was likely written, there were a large number of casinos in Second Life. Not that anyone forced you to go in them, of course! In any case, now there are none. Gambling has been made illegal throughout the virtual world. It is also true that their are a large number of clothes stores where you can buy garments and accessories for your avatars. Whatever you're into, whatever style or look you want to give to your avatar, there are a wide choice in every genre imaginable. It can hardly be criticised for having almost infinite variety!

As for innovation, Second Life, or rather, the accomplishments of its residents, often still makes my jaw drop with awe, five years in. Many content creators in Second Life are highly creative and skilled individuals and they are constantly pushing the boundaries, either individually, or collaboratively - something Second Life enables on an unprecedented scale.

Having created my own content covering pretty much the full range of possibilities; building and object creation, texturing, avatar animations, scripting etc., I have a lot of respect for many of the content creators of Second Life, because you need to apply - often professional level - real world skills

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