Second Life

Second Life is a persistent online virtual world where users create avatars, explore environments, socialize and participate in a huge variety of activities created largely by the community itself. Rather than following a traditional game structure with levels and missions, it provides a platform where people can build objects, design spaces, run businesses, attend events and simply interact with other residents. The result is less a conventional videogame than a vast digital social experiment with a remarkably broad range of possibilities. Its user-generated content is central to the experience, meaning the world can be anything from a quiet meeting place to an elaborate virtual city. Second Life is one of those unusual pieces of software that makes the question 'is this actually a game?' surprisingly difficult to answer.