Content Creation

One of the most unusual features of the Second Life Virtual World is that any user can create new stuff that every one else can see and use. The ambitious can create things for sale. The artistic can create art. Monopoly players can buy and sell land using real money and hotels. All of these things together are called Content Creation.

One reason that people are willing to put their creations into Second Life is that SL tries hard to protect Intellectual Property Rights (or IP, for short). just like in the real world, there are ways to steal other peoples creations, but in SL this is for the most part not a common, recurring problem, thanks to the close attention given to it by the SL technology.

So, what does it mean to "Create Content"? This page is a high level overview, with pointers to more detailed information for content creators. It describes the broad categories of things that users of SL create, and what kinds of tools they use to create them. Enjoy. Remember, this is your Wiki. Feel free to edit it to your satisfaction.

Homesteading

Lots of SL residents buy a piece of virtual land, and start building a dream home. Maybe a fishing camp, or a ski lodge, or a beach house, or a mountain top castle with a dungeon. As the tag line says, it is your imagination.

There are lots of different approaches. Some people start out with the Bull Dozer tool in the Land Editor, and grade their land the way they want it. Then they buy a prefabricated house at a place like [SLExchange.com] or [SLBoutique.com], or at one of the many in-world architect firms. With more money, one might have a house and landscaping done by a custom builder.

Is this sounding like the real world?

It is also common to garden, either buying or making Flora and Fauna.

The in-world building tools can be used to make many of these things from scratch. Yes, it takes time and practice, but for some people it is very fulfilling to see blocks of raw materials slowly assembled into a luxury retreat.

The default building material at first looks like plywood. If you want a marble wall instead of a plywood wall, then what? The answer is to apply a texture. This is an image of what the surface should look like, applied over the plywood. Every resident has a library of textures, and there are lots more available for free and for purchase. Textures are also a good example of building tools outside SL. To make a unique texture, use a tool such as Adobe Photoshop or the GIMP to create an image that you later upload to be used in SL. Nice image? Sell it!

One last thing about homesteading. Sometimes buildings, landscape, or flora and fauna do something. Doors open and close. Fireflies flicker. People sit in hot tubs. What these all have in common is that the actions are usually controlled by a script, which is a set of instructions in a language called Linden Scripting Langage, or LSL. Like everything else in SL, there are lots of scripts already available for free and for purchase, and if you like that kind of thing, you can do it yourself.