Second Life: The Official Guide

Yes, I bought a copy of Second Life: The Official Guide. An acquaintance of mine asked me to take a look at it and tell them what I thought. $20 didn't seem too steep, so I sent off for it - and since I went through the trouble of reading this book - I may as well write a review. There are a few reviews/advertorials out there that I have seen, all of them singing the praises of the book. For better or worse, I have become fairly familiar with SecondLife over the last 6 months; I even found my present job through SecondLife. I have investments within SecondLife. I've had businesses and do make a modest sum of money in SecondLife. It is fair to say, then, that the book was not written with me in mind; it was written with a 'me' that would have been starting off 6 months ago.

The cover is friendly enough, and it has lots of pictures. With about 315 pages of content and 4 Appendices, it does seem like something which would strike the SecondLife-curious as something interesting - indeed, the book could be seen as marketing for SecondLife itself¹; it would provoke interest at a bookstore. I would wonder where it would be placed in a bookstore. Perhaps near the strategy guides for games? Maybe near the 'using software' sections? The multiplicity of what SecondLife is doesn't categorize well by present standards. There is no 'strategy guide' because there is no tangible goal provided; one must provide one's own goal.

So what is the book about? Well, it claims to be an official guide. What does it have in it? A lot for new users:

• Part I: 3 Chapters on what SecondLife is, how to get started, and a 30 page grand tour of places to visit - SecondLife destinations. It is likely that at least some of the things in the grand tour may not exist in the future - and this means it is likely that the 'Grand Tour' may become dated material.
• Part II: 5 Chapters on SecondLife basics - from changing your avatar's appearance, to using the library within your inventory, to managing your inventory (oddly, the library is part of your inventory - so it almost seems that the two are out of order), building and using the Linden Scripting Language.
• Part III: 'Success' in SecondLife - who you are, making money, 'real residents', a cultural timeline of SecondLife and the Future and Impact of SecondLife. This section has interviews with some residents of SecondLife, and in Chapter 11 elevates some avatars to 'published in print status' - which I find a little like introducing NPCs in a MMORPG.
• CD: Some stuff on a CD to get started with animations/gestures, textures, and so forth.

Overall, what it covers - it covers well. However, this is sort of like saying that whatever is in the pool is wet at a high degree.

I was amazed that the book had no glossary (such that people could find threads related to interest in the back). Oh - there it is - disguised as an Appendix. Huh?

Parts I and II seemed like they were written for the person in the bookstore or the people out there who find directions on a computer screen to be alien - which does cover a lot of people. Only the younger generations who are exposed to computer technologies at an earlier age tend to be used to the concept of the screen as an established way of getting directions. To me, the premise of the book is pretty much limited to this, but it does cover what it does well and can be useful for people.

Part III was pretty good, though the 'Real Residents' section seemed to be the authors picks of 'Who is Who in SL'. I don't disagree with anyone who was in there - or the relevant entries on them. I do, in fact, know quite a few of these folks. What I do wonder about is how useful that information is - and whether this makes them more like NPCs in a MMORPG. A read on the internet pretty much reveals the same people and is more dynamic. On this point I expect to be more differing than differed from.

I was somewhat surprised that the Gimp wasn't noted as being useful for textures, especially since it is available at no cost and could have been placed on the CD that comes with the book. It also would have fit with the concept of open source, and may indicate that open source is a selectively used phrase in Official SecondLife writing. I was also surprised at how little information there was on owning land and/or renting land, the differences, and so on.

Overall - I give the book a 6 out of 10 on the KnowProSE.com scale. It would be useful for those starting SecondLife or interested in SecondLife and who prefer books as their medium of learning. Little of this information is not available on the internet, however the book does centralize quite a bit of it. Could the book have more? Perhaps, though it is not clear what the goal of the book is other than to make SecondLife more approachable. In one aspect, it is great marketing on bookshelves - in another, it is somewhat practical for those interested but willing to use a book more than read an interface on a monitor.

¹It is probably no wonder that Linden Lab folks wrote the book.