Meeting People:

It's very obvious, but one of the most important things that SL offers is a world full of a vast amount of people from different countries, regions and cultures from all ages. Here we could find young musical talents to older men from Arizona who are sex addicts. Everything takes place here. What you do is a matter of knowing what you want or what things you feel more attracted to. You can chat the way you prefer most, using the traditional text windows, public chat or if you prefer the voice chat system, which brings a lot of realism to the sim.

Partying:

This is one of the aspects I like most about Second Life: the enormous number of music venues, from simple pubs to authentic techno cathedrals. And this is just the tip of the iceberg, since most of these places have daily sessions by DJ's in charge of leading the party. They only ask for a voluntary tip from the public, playing very good music and accepting requests from the audience.

The variety is truly impressive: local jazz where evening dress is required for access to pubs with '80s rock ', music, electronica, hard rock, metal, rock, pop, and more. There´s even a venue that only plays Flamenco music! And the best of the night is that you never know what may come taking place at anytime. An example of this is a rock venue that I went to; an assistant was given to provide a fairly high tip to the DJ, who doesn´t hesitate to riding a Tunning Tricycle to pursue the poor girl. It pushed the rest of the audience, who wanted to help him in his noble effort to encourage the party.

Shopping:

Second Life has its own economic and monetary system based on Linden Dollars (currency in SL) and it can be exchanged for real money, depending how much valued is the Linden Dollar over a period of time, you can earn much or less selling your Lindens.

If you have Lindens in your pocket, you can go shopping in the countless shops and stores of any region. All this business is managed by residents of Second Life. In these stores you can buy whatever you want or need. It doesn´t matter if you need shoes or a military turbo-jet, if it´s in sale you can purchase it and make it yours.

And of course, you don´t need money to have nice things, because there´re thousands of freebies stores and shops, for those who want to look good but are unwilling to spend money, because they´re saving or just haven´t earned anything yet. In these stores, you will find many nice things, of an excellent quality, so you can enjoy the SL experience as its best.

Combat:

Thanks to the thousands of chances offered by the free content creation, SL combat zones have the most extended variety you never seen before, from war zones, military, medieval towns, to even a Tokyo city from the Edo´s Age for those who like throwing katana punches to save their honor. Fitted with a simple HUD that emulates some video games, a few weapons and placing the first-person view, we will be more than able to beat and fight with other people.

Role Playing:

If imagining that you´re someone else is your thing, there´re many places in Second Life dedicated to RPGs. The most popular of all of them, is the vampires and werewolves role play, which keeps battles between them. One of the many characteristics that the vampires possess is the one that suck blood from a fresh victim to extend its existence as a vampire and also to maintain their status in the game. So watch out for vampires, that often only seek to exploit any newbie at SL, and will steal his soul, without him even knowing he´s been bitten by a vampire. There´s also a hugely popular area that emulates the film Blade Runner. If it isn´t your stuff, you can choose to visit one of the many medieval towns. It all depends on what brings you more fun.

Business:

One of the interesting and unique aspects of Second Life is the fact that you can generate monetary profits that can be transferred to real life. How do I do that? It´s very simple, creating objects, whose only limit is your imagination. Then you can sell them and make Lindens for your own personal purposes. It´s relatively easy to make money with the creativity of each one of us. You can be a fashion designer, an architect, a Real Estate speculator, or just simply be the owner of a fashion store. With a little practice and some luck, your creation may become the most requested in SL.

Getting a Job:

For those masochists who enjoy working in their spare time in Second Life, you can get a job and earn some L$. But, how do I get a job? Given the variety and creativity of the game, it depends mostly on who is hiring. You can be a dancer, or even a prostitute. There´s a wide range of jobs, which will satisfy the tastes and needs of each one of us.

One of the best places to find work is People Pool, a job agency where you can find a huge variety of jobs, according to your tastes and skills.

Tourism:

This is one of the most amazing and wonderful things you have in Second Life, and this can be simply spectacular to something unbelievable. There´re exact replicas (with less than one or two details) of cities like Amsterdam, Paris, and even ancient Rome. Many of these places have excellent tour guides, with annotations and real images, that you feel like you were really walking the streets of Rome or visiting the coliseum. This is one of my favorite activities, no doubt.

Finding True Love:

Meeting people is always something nice and good, but meeting that special someone you´ve been seeking all your life, with the imposition that you both are in a limited sense of reality, is something wonderful and worth a try. You can enjoy dating, waiting endless hours to your girlfriend while she shops, make love, then marry and raise a family if you´re ready for that too. If you never could achieve all these things in real life, it´s time for you to try Second Life and see what happens.

But just be careful, because many couples have been broken up because of infidelity and cheating in Second Life. It´s something that exceeds Second Life itself, even has its own term: “ingame: to crash and burn". So don´t be a cheater if you already are a couple. Sometimes is better going straight than things ending up bad.

Sex:

Some regions have thousands of shops based on sexual themes, with a varied range that goes from the bizarre to the sickly condition, passing through orgy parties and prostitute clubs. And if this is not enough for you, there´re a lot of places to make your wildest fetish come true.

In addition, hundreds of establishments have specialized in sexual-themed items, such as skins of porn stars, carrying clothes that leave almost nothing to imagination, and articles, beds and furniture that have hidden the most variety of positions you can imagine. This is great news for those who are willing to unleash their imagination to these fetishes.

So, you know now, I just showed you a small list of thing on what Second Life has to offer, but there´re thousands of situations to live, left to the imagination to anyone of us (jumping from Tower Eiffel is something that few of us haven´t come up with). To find your favorite activity you have only to look and ask. There´re many things impossible in Real Life, but only a few in Second Life.