When I got into SL, I was amazed at the variety of people (being global in nature) and the fact that you can actually create things using only its inworld tools–you don't have to be an expert in say, Maya, or 3D Studio MAX, to actually recreate an entire university campus or say, design a new concept vehicle. Because of this, I was able to learn the complex interface (it takes patience but the rewards are great) and in a matter of months I was already selling my creations inside this world, and was able to convert the inworld currency to my currency, Philippine Pesos.

This had a tremendous impact to me, because in Second Life, I saw a level playing field–a place where people won't judge you for what degree you're holding or what school and country you've graduated from–it's all about output rather than prestige, and what better way to showcase quality output than to thrust a quality virtual item literally "in the face" of an SL-using corporate executive 10,000 miles away from where you are, and let him judge your work directly, and then get hired immediately to help enable their company to establish presence in this engaging world. And yes, prestige eventually develops later, for if you just work hard on your skills and be diligent in learning all about how makes this virtual world tick, you can make it serve your purposes in the world of eCommerce.

And as far as Kens' viewpoint.....please keep an open mind. It was surprizing to me to find all the benefits in SL. But as you say, there are drawbacks and people do get lost and fail to distinquish between what is real and not. But the same people who fall into the trap of SL would fall into another trap if SL were not available. And when You chose to sit at a computer or a Tv instead of enjoying the real world, you have definately lost out. I have conducted business in SL with people from all over the world that I would never have been able to network with in RL. It is a tool. Nothing more or less for business and should be used to that effect.

On a side note, as far as AV's (avatars) , you learn to listen to the person talking and not see the "shell". Isn't that the ideal of what most people look for?

You can get almost anything you can think up of in SL, and if you can't get it, you can easily request it from those who build like items. If you want an avatar to look like Cousin It from the Addams Family, then you can buy the item or make it yourself as it is easy to find the tools you need for such an endeavor.

Now, seeing it as a viable "work-place"? Eh, no... doesn't seem plausible for many companies due to the fact that it would only be productive to digital-content creators for business. This 3-D avatar chat client is very taxing for performance on most systems due to being a high-end graphics.

You want a client that may be more oriented to a work-place setup? Try IMVU, SL is a "world" where you see, move around, do things.... IMVU is more oriented towards "rooms" where you are least likely to get outside interference from other conferences going on and require less system requirements.

Dwight: "Second Life" is not a game, there are no winners or losers.
Jim: Oh, there are losers.