19. Second Life

In 2003, Linden Labs created Second Life, an online space billed as “A New Society. A New World. Created by You”. It was a place where people could create avatars to meet, travel, and prop up in-game economies that would generate real-world money. This was a new kind of place on the internet. And… It. Became. Wild. In this episode we dive into the stories of Second Life that put this virtual world on the map. We talk about rise and fall of Gotcha Machines, Woodbury University, the “griefer” groups that formed to wreak havoc and the “Justice League” that formed in response to fight them. And we’re talking about Anshe Chung, the virtual real estate mogul that CNN called “the Rockefeller of Second Life".