Second Life gets exemption from eBay virtual item ban

lol they saw the potential $$$ from listing fees and final fees for such things as virtual space stations

this is terrible that we are turning from enjoying a real life and all it has to offer and wasting the cash that could be used on other thing to buy fake items that get you nothing. i hope anyone who plays this has horrible feelings of regret when they are elderly. fools.

agreed why buy fake items?? go to a store and buy something real for yourself... met real people,talk to socialize with real people and buy real things... i think the internet is going to far with virtual things..

yup its kind of sad. I had a trainer for a job one time and all he did was go on Second Life and never really taught anything needless to say he got fired and I quit due to the lack of essential work knowledge.

Still waiting for jenna jamesons fake boobs are for sale<> saving my milk $$

if they would sale things within reason it might be ok to sale items and gold,my main problem with this is that they stopping the sale of a used MMO for less than new price with the account thats with it. Once you transfer a account get a new pass and such for it and pay the monthly for it its yours,this annoys me they dislike it its like the ban on selling used PC games at retial stores we don't sell them any more because the games have install keys...and they are easily copied wai wai wai I bet ebay will stop selling used pc games soon to...

I tried Second Life, it was Soooooo boring. And now the college here will be teaching faculty how to use Second Life, WTF!? Ban Second Life items, they are just as virtual as WOW items.

The key point you all seem to be missing is that Linden Lab allow the sale of the internal "currency"- the Linden Dollar (L$) for US$, via the LindEx and 3rd party exchanges. You can also buy the in-world land (16 acres) for US$ or L$. By making Second Life exempt from the virtual item ban, this means rather than using the auction system Linden Lab provides for land, you could use eBay, which has a greater market penetration, and I would guess has an easier interface for auctioning, since eBay have been in the auction business for longer. This gives the owners of Class 3 private islands the opportunity to auction off their servers on eBay instead of paying to get them upgraded to the newer Class 5 servers. Yes I'm a Second Life Resident, no I'm not a Linden Lab employee.

SL is great, but only in moderation. if you have disposable income, it's yours to spend as you like, and a few dollars here and there on a game is far from unheard-of or unhealthy. the problems lie when the addicts waste their lives on such games, and it's that small minority that gets most of the attention and (unfortunately) speaks for the game as a whole. however, i must disagree with SL not being dubbed a game. in my opinion, that is utter BS.

@Auslander: Please define how Second Life is a game, and thus, why you think it not being dubbed a game is BS.

it's just like the Sims or World of Warcraft or any other fantasy online world...it's a digital game. not dubbing it so would give the delusional lunatics out there a sense that it's something closer to reality, even if only subconsciously; not confirming that SL *is* a game has the potential to be rather damaging on several levels.

Games have artificial conflict, Games have conflict resolution, Games have goals. Second Life doesn't have artificial conflict, only combat sims and asshole griefers. Second Life doesn't have conflict resolution, as their is no winning or losing. Second Life has no goals except those you make yourselves. Visual Studio isn't a game, but you can make games with it. Operating Systems aren't games, but you can run games on them. Second Life is a platform for creativity, and for making & playing games, but it is not a game in and of itself.

your backup is nothing but an opinion of what a game is.

first and foremost Second Life is a online community,with each person doing as much or as little as they want with the space they have. Its not a "game" at least not in any traditional sense the sims has some rhyme and reason 2nd life is more a comunity/form/make your own place in a virtual world thing.

Whereas Auslander had none. I am paraphrasing statements made by Dr. James Purbrick and Cory Ondrejka at Lang.NET 2006. Look at any definition of a game and you'll find it hard to make that stick to Second Life.

you hop on and impersonate a character that you create in an artificial imitation of reality. games of all sorts, from monopoly to final fantasy, are nothing but that.

meh what do I know I don't think sims is a game so meh *L*

And what about the people who aren't roleplaying ?

i think anything that places you at your pc under a persona that you control and put through courses of action for entertainment qualifies as a game. yes, by my definition, posting on forums is a game. but honestly, either directly or indirectly, all posters here are doing so to pleasantly pass time.

So what about myself and others who use Second Life as a development platform or business environment ?

i would have to ask, "development for what?"

as for business...that makes you like an amusement park. people spending their disposable income in a balanced and moderate way for entertainment is just fine.

however, the moment people start taking things like SL seriously, a problem develops. nothing on the internet, short of a term paper or identity theft, actually matters in the slightest.

Auslander to me tis like a premium form/community with a virtual world setting. its much more than a "game".

and *that's* a problem. taking it seriously is a problem. the only thing that matters is *real* reality (which we could argue about all day). 1's and 0's displayed in fanciful ways on a screen only alludes to the disorientation of society.

when SL wasn't immediately stamped "game," something that was previously unacceptable (and for good reason) suddenly just became okay. (and we can argue about how that could be good as well as bad with examples all day, but that's pointless).

this sucks just beat the game yourself and stop cheating by purchasing items

@Auslander: You seem to have a rather depressing view on reality. @tabletpc: Second Life isn't a game, eBay is now just another venue to purchase items, along with other sites such as SL Exchange http://slexchange.com/

what may be depressing to you, then, is sanity to me. you have to live life, not pretend to by existing through a digital character.

overall, it is a game, not much different from D&D or childhood superhero fun.

You're still assuming that everyone in Second Life is roleplaying, which they're not.

dealing with a game is still playing a game about a game. strategizing and interacting in such a way is in itself a game. we can break down into semantics quite a bit, if you'd like. ^.~

Auslander *L* its not a "game" its more a VR chat/dev/comunity/forum. the game part is what you make or what you play in others lots but still more a VR community than a "game".

umm ok does this sound like a game? make a yourself in this virtual world and make your own place on land and run around a virtual world and talk to people? i do think it is a game simply becaues its virtual and not reality... your running around to have fun so i do think its a game..you can call it a huge chat room but you still make your own place just like sims so it is a game in my sense..

yeah, it does sound like a game.

yeah i dont get it why people say it its not.. its a virtual reality...thats what games mostly are for pass time and there in a virtual world..its just like the sims online that was considered a game and its basically the same thing..

A WORD OF WARNING

I am so glad for this Bloq or forumn posting sites, all sites currently about the MMORPG wnd life, are controled by Linden labs, the equivelent of the fox guarding the hen house
Second life looks so good on the outside, but after closer look you will find trouble brewing.
Linden labs exercises a very firm grip, and can and will suspend your account at their lesure, with no explanation to you!
I would think TWICE about investing any thing of value here, more then one user has current fraud charges against Linden Labs...where theirs smoke, theirs fire, be carefull on this 1.