Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Second Life

The most interesting thing that I found about this chapter was that the majority of functions on Second Life require "Linden dollars" which translates into real money. This enables the site to establish real world complications between the "haves" and "have-nots", those who can afford to spend on Second Life and those who cannot. Although Levinson points out that things needed to be purchased are relatively, $5 USD to open up a bookstore, these functions can certainly add up and present a problem for the money conscious. In the this scenario Second Life might be more suited for adults with money to spend as opposed to a young middle school child who sees $30 or $40 dollars as a larger sum. Unlike other new media sites, such as Facebook and MySpace which are free, Second Life closes itself off to those who cannot afford to participate.

1 comment:

  1. I was under the impression (not from Levinson, but form other sources) that actually using real money was not necessary, and that there were other ways to make money, it was just that buying Linden dollars was a shortcut. In any event, you have to weigh this approach to monetizing social media against the use of advertising on MySpace and Facebook.

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