Fiction or Reality?
As disturbing as Second Life initially appears, it has the potential to do wonders for the trades and businesses of the real world. I’m finding that it can be as real as one allows or it can be kept at a healthy distance. Based upon my minimal understanding of the site, I perceive it as almost a trial run for various entrepreneurial ideas. This can be extended to any novel endeavors people may wish to attempt. For example, an average Joe aspires to become a teacher. Having a lack of confidence in his tangible abilities, he tests the educational waters in his Second Life with great success, and later applies his experience to the real world. While this is more an example of personal advancement than business success, one could also test a new business idea in a Second Life situation. Second Life offers the opportunity to create anything, literally. Shopping is highly encouraged and rapidly executed with millions of Lindan dollars (official currency of Second Life) exchanged in 2007. I would be interested to see the results of a tested business idea from a grover Business Plan Competition participant.
While Second Life does provide a trial-run frontier for business idea, it can also skip the practice and go straight to the real deal. Second Life claims that some of its users make all of the real world income from the site. I’m still unsure as to how exactly this is done. However, a different approach to the realities of Second Life has been taken by several religious organizations. For example, church’s have taken the initiative to open virtual meeting places within Second Life. In early 2007, LifeChurch.tv, a Christian church headquarterred in Edmond, Oklahoma, and with 11 real world campuses in the USA, created “Experience Island” and opened its 12th campus in Second Life. The church has claimed success thus far with its members experiencing, ” a less-threatening environment where people are much more willing to explore and discuss spiritual things.” This very real, spiritual approach to Second Life gives it Life a whole new spin against the imaginary business world discussed above.
While Second Life seems to have a eary and onimous perception, could it bridge the lotfy gap between fiction and reality for struggling entrepreneurs and even missionaries?
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