Second Life Reviews 137

I have been an active member since 2008 and I am still discovering the wonders of this amazing virtual world, where the only limits are those bounded by your imagination! Those giving poor reviews are probably antisocial types, and Second Life is a very sociable virtual world. Second Life is not a game, it's a persistent virtual world with thousands of games, role play genres, clubs and bars.

Even pressing refresh a few times should be enough to tell you that the Marketplace listing enhancement function provides only a limited number of promotional slots, and that once they're filled, paying for one of the slots will do nothing for you. That's why you see the same listings pop up again and again out of thousands of possible listings.

That this is true is easy for any merchant to prove by:

1) making 2 identical listings, 1 with maximum listing enhancements, and 1 with none
2) waiting until the end of the listing enhancement period
3) checking the view rates for the 2 listings to see if there is any statistically significant difference.

Selling a limitless amount of a limited service is actually a crime, and Linden Lab has probably stolen no less than a million dollars from merchants over the last 10 years.

This is not a bug, a data entry problem, or a bad integration test between 2 pieces of good code.
This is a basic feature built into the website by Brooke Linden, who we now know was a person with zero integrity.

If you politely point any of this out to Linden Lab, your reward for trying to help them fix their system is that they will invent excuses to close your Marketplace store so you can't collect any incriminating data, and they will ban you from the forum to deter you from sharing any data you already have.

How do I know?

It happened to me.

Second Life resident Josh Susanto

Stay away from this manchild insane asylum run platform. I'll give you examples why.

1. This company's own leadership was recently caught roleplaying with other adults; ageplay or pedophilia. The only reason they care now is because they were caught with their pants down doing it. SL has been known to ERP ageplay and its a complete cesspool.

2. The men-children (no I'm talking about everyone not just men) Who power trip with a credit card for buying over priced things or locations like if you were on a private server. They will get triggered and ban you simply for saying the smallest things. We're talking a debate at most or voicing an opinion.

3. The people pretend they're not losers and act high and mighty while talking down to people constantly. They're quiet literally insane with how they treat one another. I've seen bad stuff before in games but this goes beyond the pale with how they act towards each other. Again LL doesn't care.

4. The fees for their "currency" is beyond ridiculous. Currently LL is losing people due to an outdated platform which they never tried renovating or remodeling it too late and now no one wants to buy linden due to #1 example and other things. So in its place they're jacking up fees/costs/etc of it.

5. It runs terribly, they've been trying to stay up to date in support of new mesh and everything else. However it was never designed for it & every "creator" imports heavy poly. Now imagine a game trying to render all of this in streaming wise, in tight close space worlds. Yeah you're lagging hard. It won't ever be fixed and trying to make it optimized on your own end is next to impossible.

Basically the community is awful and the management is awful. Play VRchat or something else thats free.

Horrible simulation with lots of scammers and bad play. The lag, bad polices, and hypocritical losers that feel powerful because they own virtual land in a failing game is super lame. Maybe a few old people but mostly accounts with no one playing the avatar. I would go for VR chat unless you want to talk to grandma.

I have been a member of second life for just over 17 years, and even after all this time i have still not seen it all. Second life is perfect place to get away from real life for a few hours, there's so much to learn see and do. Every time i log on there is some thing new for me to do.

It is an amazing 3D world where the only limit is your imagination. There are fantastic music events, whatever your taste and other social events of all kinds. The shopping is incredible and your avatar can look any way you want it. You will mae friends from all over the world and be able to interact with them in physical ways. Cuddling etc.
There is help always available to teach you how to do things in many groups and friends, FB etc.
I mean, what's not to like?

Well I'm in Second life ! to be honest if you go there and use it for free great ! but I won't pay a single penny for it ! it runs on a coding that's 20 + Years but thats ok to a point ! It lag like HELL ! And for those who wonder .. No your computer has nothing to do with it nor in most case your internet speed ! its theirs architectures and Data transfer speed ! As a result in one night 7 peoples left for another platform (very similar) So before you makke friends there and so on .. just have a very good look ad thought ! but for god sake don't pay ! its not worh it !

It's an amazing virtual world to make friends in, there are live musicians performing daily streaming from all over the globe.

So many reviews, half of them so bad. Makes one wonder how Second Life managed to be around for 22 years if half of its users hate it, right?

Well, here's the catch: no, Second Life isn't an easy platform to join.

By "easy" I mean that if you have the expectation that this is going to be "as easy as Facebook", or, well, to be more precise, "as easy as Roblox"... then the plain and short answer is: No.

Instead, it's a very complex 3D environment, where hundreds of thousands of people interact in a way too vast area (impossible to visit in a lifetime) for random visits to be fulfilling. And because of that complexity, the Second Life Viewer interface is complex, too. Because, in this virtual world environment, you're not just the passive consumer of content: you're the *producer* as well. And that means that all 3D editing tools for interactive content (that includes programming, not only modelling 3D objects) are part of the application as well.

And while models are not exactly movie-quality (with millions of polygons), they are far more detailed than anything such as Minecraft (only cubes) or Roblox (extremely simplified meshes)/Horizon Worlds. On top of that are the dozens of thousands of very talented amateur 3D content creators, who are used to render items with millions of polygons, and attempt to do the same for Second Life — because, well, you *can* do that! The result, of course, is what we popularly call "a lagfest" — the current generation of consumer-grade video cards are not designed to render meshes with million of polygons, each fully textured with four 2K textures (for photo-realistic physics-based rendering), 60 frames per second, on high-DVI (e.g., what Apple calls "Retina") displays.

That's just the tip of the iceberg. Then comes the shock of realisation: there are an almost infinite number of items to be acquired, for the wildest possible usages. The Second Life Marketplace, which only offers a very slight, un-curated view of what is being offered (the majority of content for sale is inside the environment itself) — and even so, it has dozens of millions of items for sale. Back in 2013 (!), some officially released statistics put the number of unique items in the database at 6 billion (yes, with a B). There are many more these days, of course (since all "old" content will *still work*). Open the Inventory in any popular virtual world, and it'll have a few hundreds — perhaps thousands —of items, each neatly placed in the appropriate folder, a simple point-and-click interface to use them. In Second Life, the *average* user has roughly 100,000 items in their inventory — mostly unsorted, since there are far too many categories anyway — with many boasting over 300k(!). Never mind the sheer amount of time required to get all of those — think also about the costs! There are millions and millions of very high-quality freebies — but there are *billions* more of extremely high-end items for sale; and while competition is fierce, and drives prices down (comparable items are much more costly in Roblox, for instance), it's a safe bet that just for your "mildly average-looking avatar" you'll need to spend US$50-100 — often much more. The good thing, of course, is that you don't need to do that in one go — but it sort of accumulates over time (for historical reasons, one item of clothing *usually* costs around US$1, on average).

Each of those, of course, come with their *own* user interface — that is, it's hardly as simple as point-and-click! You get a full mini-user interface as a HUD (heads-up display) which gives you access to more and more and more options. Body and head meshes (sold separately!) are exceptionally complex in that regard; the state-of-the-art heads, for instance, come with (at least) three *separate* configuration systems (HUDs), each giving access to layers and layers of complexity — from the shape, colour, and size of your eyelashes to several layers of lipstick and glitter, and all that while having programmable expressions to suit your mood.

Switch brands, and you get to learn a completely different interface, each as complex as the other, and with a tendency to grow in complexity over the years: the competition is not only in the quality of the designs, but also in how many features get packed in each release. And this is true, from the doorbell on your home, to the flower you wear on your hair. On top of all that, many items can be even manually adjusted — because avatar body shapes are infinitesimally adjustable, so anything you wear or use must be as well.

And you *need* avatars, since this is a *social* world.

So... entering Second Life is not for everybody. Thus the bad reviews: these are from people who simply have no patience for all of the above. It's a huge learning curve.

But it's worth every cent.

I paid my membership and purchased SL money. I've only had access to Second life one time. They took my money, and I am unable to get help logging into the platform. I am going to contact my lawyer. I have screenshots and information that will support my claim. It's unreal. My name there was CoffeeeCandy. I remembered using this site years ago and thought it was the same. It's not!

I haven't heard about any false account bans or terminations outside of the reviews on this site. This platform is not beginner-friendly whatsoever, and everything feels primitive, but if you can get past those hurdles, it's a great platform for more mature users. This is an early example of a metaverse, and it actually feels like its name: a Second Life, as it has a full economy and everything.

If i could give no stars i would its an expensive outfit and not to mention i was stolen from and no one actually cares. I purchased an ad Board in Freebie galaxy the owner there is very crooked i paid $1,700 and instead of fixing the problem they steal my money and the board itself they stick up there own add in it, hoping they can rob me ,they are highly mistaken. The problem is they have had free advertisement for three days on my money .that is not how you do business.please contact me if anyone has experienced this with them i will make a case.

I'm sorry but people who put one star etc how about you say reason your account was removed or banned and the actual responses you got back from the tickets most likely full evidence of reason you were removed or banned. Also people pitching about the cloth and sexual nature of the game and the person saying they got banned for proactive clothing most likely got banned for wearing innapropiate cloth on Sims for everyone not allowing nudity. Don't believe these 1 star reviews it's a fun game also your not forced to spend any money.

Keep crushing ,and i have a 16GB RAM,no matter what viewer i download and use,also everytime after crushing hours and hours of works and editing going lost...counting i had spend more than 200 dollars for this game this is unacceptable and i m quitting playing.
I never raccomend losing your times and nerves and money on this game,just save your time,there are better RV and social games out there who give you proper working services

I have 2 accounts. I moved them both to basic (0 cost) because I knew I would not be playing for awhile. Moved to basic on November 1st, 2024 with both accounts. Just got an email notice that they did NOT stop charging the account as of 01/19/2025. On Either account. Switched to basic AGAIN and this time removed the credit card information. Obviously the company cannot be trusted.

I have been on SL for nine years. The negative is it can be a little daunting when you first arrive and dont know how to do things. I was lucky in that someone gave me a few pointers. It is a comunity and is a second life and has great things to do such as sailing and flying , live performeres and lots of varied comunities. Yes some are adult but you dont have to go their just like the real world. I have not tried to make money on SL and I spend money because I wnat a super avatar and like my fashion with hundreds of clothing stores. I alos pay for a beach side home. Just keep to a budget. I have never been scammed and you just have to be careful like in the real world. The quality of the graphics is constantly improving and is good enough for me . I have made friend with people all over the world. Its a great social place and tought me about other cultures. Because its global you find things get busy at certain times depending what time zones your in. I love it . Its not for everyone but ticks my boxes.

The only MMO 3D app in the world that wasn't a PC game, but a social chat with avatars you would like to be.

This is the only alternative to almost everything from every MMO 3D game on Steam like Tower Unite or Garry's Mod, but with furries without sexual theming.

Few thing I liked and disliked is you'll need to know when it comes to earn Lindens while waiting for your avatars to buy.

First thing is when you are grinding for money at either AFK areas or night clubs. At best when you earned Lindens, you'll be bored. But at worst, you'll feel so impatient to get tips when mods just removed you from dance pole and tip jars.

Another thing that Second Life lacked the most is the gift card that lets you either have premium membership or earning Lindens for $25.

I really wish the gift cards will be implemented in the future.

Wonderful game, I really like to play. I can recommend it to everybody: you do not need to invest money, but can play it for free.

Although second life can be boring if you don't have friends or make friends to explore and hang with, it can be fun if you do and there are many places in the game to explore and things to do. I personally love the magic community in the game. I love a good magic HUD.

I was a long-time resident and saw a lot of things come and go. Nowadays there is mesh but it is still endlessly laggy. Areas with complex textures take ages to load. Even in 2024, teleport-crashes occur on a very regular base. The User interface is still unwieldy, alone how the inventory is built is a mess on its own.

Second Life once had a social aspect, but that is long gone. A lot of sims are just empty. Ghost towns. Social “activities” almost no longer exist, a lot (most) of things are reduced to pornography and pixel tinder. There are some role play sims whose role play is - of course - only about sex. As a woman walking around in fetish fashion or even underwear 24/7 is a normal thing there. It is how it is: The main focus lays on adult activities. There is a reason why Second Life is not allowed to be streamed on Twitch.

A lot of things only happen at big shopping events (if you are not paid premium and those sims are full - you often must wait one or two days until you are able to enter the sim, there is a special type of player prefered in that virtual world and those have preferred access.) where you can buy your sexy clothes to "fit in" or on photogenic sims where people shoot their avatar and upload their pictures onto flickr. If you are a landlord or a"talented creator" maybe you make some rl money. Talented means: Learn to Blender. Or to create a realistic skin. If you are offering sexual pixel services, maybe you can earn money too. That's it. If you doing none of these you will pay your rl money into it to have a decent updated avatar and land. Land is not free. People are highly picky on avatars. If your avatar seems "outdated", some prefer not to talk to you. Well, there goes your money. Gachas are gone but of course those creators had a solution and those things have a slightly different mechanic now. Still dangerous for people with a high addictive behavior.

There ARE some normal activities to do but not as much as the other ones. Just try the search function and you'll see what is more popular. Years ago that was more balanced.

There is hardly any fresh player base anymore. Just around 40K Boomers/Gen-Xers (alts and bots included) who want to feel young/ enjoy pixel sexual activities, logging on a daily base year after year.

Conclusion:
Second Life is a niche product for special players AND creators who are fullfilling the desires of the players for an everlasting youth and a "high potent" pixel love life. Not for children or teenagers, not for sensitive viewers.
-Creativity: It's not like you do log in the first time and build everything straight away. To earn Lindön$ by creating, you need skill. You can buy things and decorate them beautifully, but everything beautiful costs money.
- A lot of "communities" are toxic. It's a "Second Life", there is the same elbow mentality as in real life, maybe even more in "fast motion"
- People with a "past" can get retraumatized at some places. There is no moderation anywhere. Play at your own risk.
- For social aspect SL had it's times but they are over or very hard to find.
- And last but not least: Customer service rarely exists. It is reserved for premium users (and even there it's not fully available), who have to pay monthly. If you get banned - you'll stay banned. And all your future accounts too. If you ask them for what you got banned you will get a "friendly" answer to leave and never come back. It doesn't matter how many years you played or how many Lindön$ were put into this account. It's gone. Without explanation. Did not happen to me but to a friend.

What to do? It's better to switch to other, moderated mmos/ virtual worlds.