Second Life Web Site

If all goes well, the naked lady won't show up this morning when Pastor Craig Groeschel preaches his Easter service. But several cats will probably drop in. A horned dragon might perch on the crimson seats. There could even, perhaps, be an emu strolling in. Groeschel will deliver his sermon in an Oklahoma City church. It will also be streamed over the Internet to the virtual world called Second Life -- a world populated by 5 million pixilated characters of every description.

A man with an oversized top hat sat in the front row of a House subcommittee hearing Tuesday, munching on popcorn. Next to him was a woman wearing wings that let her fly out of her seat. And she was sitting by a large bumblebee. It wasn't an April Fool's Day stunt but the first time a congressional hearing was simulcast into the popular online virtual world called Second Life.

a three-dimensional online society where publicity is cheap and the demographic is edgy and certainly computer-savvy -- should be a marketer's paradise. But it turns out that plugging products is as problematic in the virtual world as it is anywhere else. At www.secondlife.com -- where the cost is $6 a month for premium citizenship -- shopping, at least for real-world products, isn't a main activity.

Stephanie Roberts knew Second Life was just a computer game, but she couldn't resist the virtual world's promise of a real-world interest rate of more than 40%. The 33-year-old from Chicago, who played the game as a raven-haired vixen called Zania Turner, deposited $140 in Ginko Financial and waited for the money to grow. Instead, it vanished five months ago when Ginko, perhaps the first Ponzi scheme in history perpetrated by three-dimensional online avatars, left Second Life.

Sports fans who frequent the Second Life virtual world on the Internet already can place bets at a sports book, join an online fan booster club and play a game of two-on-two basketball. And, as of today, they will be able to watch NBA broadband video clips, outfit their online personas in virtual NBA jerseys and be pitched by such real-world NBA corporate sponsors as Toyota and T-Mobile.

A man with an oversized top hat sat in the front row of a House subcommittee hearing Tuesday, munching on popcorn. Next to him was a woman wearing wings that let her fly out of her seat. And she was sitting by a large bumblebee. It wasn't an April Fool's Day stunt but the first time a congressional hearing was simulcast into the popular online virtual world called Second Life.

Stephanie Roberts knew Second Life was just a computer game, but she couldn't resist the virtual world's promise of a real-world interest rate of more than 40%. The 33-year-old from Chicago, who played the game as a raven-haired vixen called Zania Turner, deposited $140 in Ginko Financial and waited for the money to grow. Instead, it vanished five months ago when Ginko, perhaps the first Ponzi scheme in history perpetrated by three-dimensional online avatars, left Second Life.

a three-dimensional online society where publicity is cheap and the demographic is edgy and certainly computer-savvy -- should be a marketer's paradise. But it turns out that plugging products is as problematic in the virtual world as it is anywhere else. At www.secondlife.com -- where the cost is $6 a month for premium citizenship -- shopping, at least for real-world products, isn't a main activity.

Sports fans who frequent the Second Life virtual world on the Internet already can place bets at a sports book, join an online fan booster club and play a game of two-on-two basketball. And, as of today, they will be able to watch NBA broadband video clips, outfit their online personas in virtual NBA jerseys and be pitched by such real-world NBA corporate sponsors as Toyota and T-Mobile.

If all goes well, the naked lady won't show up this morning when Pastor Craig Groeschel preaches his Easter service. But several cats will probably drop in. A horned dragon might perch on the crimson seats. There could even, perhaps, be an emu strolling in. Groeschel will deliver his sermon in an Oklahoma City church. It will also be streamed over the Internet to the virtual world called Second Life -- a world populated by 5 million pixilated characters of every description.