The virtual world you hate to love.. or love to hate.
I have been in second life for more than two years to date. It is an experience i never forget.
I went to sl because i was bored with MMO's like guild wars and world of warcraft. The clearing fields filled with respawning monsters bored me to death.
Second life can best be described as a place that offers you a means tobe creative. This is great for people like machinima makers, builders, designers and artists.
Next to them there are a lot of people who try to make their own adventures, within the technical limits.
Anything is possible as you can built and design your own things. Ships, planes, car, tanks, castles, dancings, galleries and spacestations.
You can be anything you want to be: dragon, goblin, dancer, robot or bird.
Think of something and it is possible.
A large group of people is also in sl for the social experience. To meet other people. As such it has definetly a chat room aspect.
But there is a downside as well.
Sl can't offer a fast and furious enviroment. You can make cars and planes... but you can't drive the first around in crazy ways or use the latter in fast flowing dogfights. It is not that kind of place. Sea battles are probably the best as far as warfare is concerned.
Fighting between people looks to comical for my taste. Any roleplay is better aimed at character roleplaying instead of combat roleplay.
My personal opinion is that it is not a game and as such probably not for the mainstream gamer audience. Those who like to have a place in which to be creative or meet people from all over the world might be interested. Those who are looking to blow up things will probably be disappointed.
Since i belong to the first group of people I have a jolly good time.