Economy of Second Life - Basis

Basis

The basis of this economy is that residents (that is, users, as opposed to Linden Lab) can buy and sell services and virtual goods to one another in a free market. Services include camping, working in stores, custom content creation, and other personal services. Virtual goods include buildings, vehicles, devices of all kinds, animations, clothing, skin, hair, jewelry, flora and fauna, works of art, and breedable in-game animals and pets such as: turtles, horses, cats, dogs, fish, dragons, and original in-game pets called Meeroos. To make money in Second Life, one must find customers who are willing to pay for the services or products that one can supply, just like in real life in the western civilization.

Because of the existence of virtual land, there is an active virtual real estate market. Originally all land comes from Linden Lab (which is part of the pricing and a revenue stream for them), but after that it is bought and sold much like real-life real estate. Mainstream media has reported on SL residents who earn large incomes from the SL real estate market.

In addition to the main economy, some residents receive a small weekly stipend, depending on the kind of account they have, and when they joined Second Life. There are also the virtual equivalent of minimum wage jobs and charitable organizations that try to introduce new residents to the consumer economy.

Another option for making money in Second Life is "camping". Throughout the virtual world are locations where SL members can earn money by either sitting, doing an activity such as dancing or painting, or another similar activity; payment is offered consisting of so-many Lindens for time spent. The money is paid by scripted objects owned by the land owner, usually to increase the search ranking of their store or other venue, and many forms of camping are officially forbidden by Linden Lab, though enforcement of this rule is sporadic. The amount of Lindens paid and the time interval varies from place to place, and some landowners pay in virtual goods rather than Linden Dollars. Since this could result in some users leaving their avatars "camping" for days at a time, accumulating thousands of Lindens, most locations forbid 24/7 "camping" and some camp options limit the amount of money that can be made in a location over a period of time. Now Linden Labs has prohibited camping for lands which are enabled for "search" because traffic is one of the important criteria for search rankings.