In a 2017 article about Second Life, the Atlantic reported an estimated 20% to 30% of first-time users never returned to the platform. Ease of use and technological challenges remain a huge roadblock for mass adoption. “It’s similar to something like YouTube: You have a relatively small percentage who really make income from it, and a lot of people who are just consumers, or some people who sort of informally make stuff that they don’t sell to make money,” he says. Boellstorff is skeptical of recent utopian digital visions in which most independent creators are able to thrive through selling digital goods. These unique digital items made up a very small percentage of Second Life’s overall economy, and only a scant few made a living off creating them.

“I’m very proud of the idea that there is an intrinsic value-for a coat for your avatar or a motorcycle-that’s driven by the creativity of the designers,” he says. Rosedale says there was a key distinction between Second Life’s one-of-one goods and NFTs, however: Speculative value wasn’t at all a factor in Second Life. A dress designer could create a unique dress for a virtual ball, for example, so that its wearer would stand apart from their peers. Rosedale likes to say that Second Life contained the first NFTs: unique virtual goods that you could buy and sell. Second Life emphatically proved this false: In the 10 years following its launch, Second Life users spent $3.2 billion of real money on in‑world transactions. “You need a toolkit that lets people build things live from kind of small parts: That has to be present in a metaverse to make it successful.” People will spend money on digital goods-but very few creators will actually make a living.Īnother common talking point against the metaverse is that people won’t buy things that only exist in virtual spaces. “I think the reason why tens of millions of people tried it out was the promise of the ability to be creative and expressive in a realistic, lifelike domain,” Rosedale says. Rosedale says this unbounded potential for creation was a key reason for Second Life’s success. Rolling Stone referred to it (skeptically) as “the future of the net ” The Guardian proclaimed: “Today Second Life, tomorrow the world.” Brands like Reebok and Dell invested in virtual stores, preparing for a new era of sales and marketing. Mark Warner gave a town hall, with his avatar sporting a blocky suit and red tie. Second Life appeared on the cover of BusinessWeek presidential hopeful and Virginia Gov. Second Life-a virtual world in which participants can explore fantastical landscapes and build their own mansions, forests and spaceships-was reaching the crest of its popularity, with hundreds of thousands of active residents and a self-reported $500 million in GDP. In 2007, Second Life founder Philip Rosedale made a bold proclamation: “The 3D web will rapidly be the dominant thing and everyone will have an avatar.” Considering the success of his creation, it wasn’t an altogether far-fetched idea.

Subscribe for a weekly guide to the future of the Internet. A version of this article was published in TIME’s newsletter Into the Metaverse.

Second life avatar