How Second Life Works
The user interface of Second Life can be understood as a special type of web browser for viewing web pages that contain three-dimensional information. A user requests a URL in their special web browser, this content is found on the web server, and the requested data is downloaded to the browser and displayed. The significant difference in the Second Life browser is that instead of the forward and back buttons used on traditional web pages this special browser includes controls that cause the user’s avatar walk and run forward, backward, turn right, turn left, and even to fly in the virtual world.
Predictably, there is a special type of three dimensional web page design needed to provide information about a virtual world. The language of regular web pages is called Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML.) In order to include the three dimensional information needed, HTML was extended to this eXtended Markup Language is known as XML. To make it clear that these custom web pages contain information that that is only viewable in a special three dimensional viewer, they are also given a custom address. A typical web page is called using a Universal Resource Locator (URL). A virtual world location is called using a Second Life Universal Resource Locator (SLURL).
There is one significant difference between viewing virtual worlds and viewing typical web pages, and that is where the user’s information is kept. When a user visits a website, they typically have no data stored on the site at all. They view the web page and go to the next web page. If a user visits an e-commerce website they may provide their name and address that is stored, but little other information is stored there that they use. However, on a virtual world site, the user can create an avatar that is their own personal identity that they come back to and refine over time. This avatar may have a custom shape, custom clothing, and custom accessories. Further, in a virtual world there is other information stored, such as a list of friends you have made, and list of bookmarks to places you have visited where you would like to go again. Finally, a person in a virtual world may own custom objects, like virtual automobiles, virtual homes, and even virtual land. All of this information is stored in a user information file called their inventory that they access every time they visit the virtual world.
Over time, the inventory for each user can get very large. At the time that Dante Portland was deactivated, I had over 16,000 items in my inventory, and this wasn’t a large number of items to collect for a long time Second Life user. I knew other people that had 70,000 or more items in their Second Life inventory. Many of the items were from free sources; other items were given to me by fellow users, and some of the items in my inventory I paid for. One of the striking features of Second Life is that no matter how large your inventory becomes, or how much you pay for the items in your inventory, Linden Lab has made it impossible for you to backup this data to your home computer.
In the time that I was a user of Second Life, Linden Lab changed their Terms of Service so that it was against their rules for you to backup your inventory information even for your own use. To enforce this, Linden Lab has even taken the technical steps needed to prevent Second Life users from backing up their own inventories, even if they want to. Now, every item in your inventory belongs to Linden Lab even if you have paid for it. This is like having your landlord change your lease while you are living in an apartment to state that all of your possessions are now owned by the landlord and you are not allowed to remove them. Even worse, then putting guards outside of where you live to prevent you from removing the items you owned. At the time when my Dante Portland account was terminated I lost my entire inventory worth hundreds of dollars because of an $80.95 dispute.