I’ve now bought “Second Life: The Official Guide” a guide to the virtual world produced by Linden Labs, the company behind Second Life.

A few trips around Second Life have encouraged me to read the book before going back. This is not what most participants, who are a lot younger than me probably, would do. They would undoubtedly jump in and check it out.

But, even only half way through the book, I’ve already realized I made a mistake when I tried that approach. When I finished the instructions on Orientation Island, which give a good introduction to moving, changing your appearance, etc., I went straight to the mainland instead of a place called Help Island. Apparently had I gone there I would have picked up on a lot of free stuff. Now, having arrived on the mainland of Second Life, I can’t go back.

The book seems both too little and too much. Too little basic stuff, and too much advanced. For example, the interface for walking around using the arrow keys is massively clunky. The guidebook says there is some kind of mouse-driven alternative (apparently similar to the one used in Star Wars Galaxies) but it doesn’t actually seem to mention how to turn it on.

On the other hand, there is a chapter about LSL, the scripting language that is used to do all kinds of things in Second Life, that for me, who only knows a smidgen of Javascript, is more or less totally inaccessible.

You can play Second Life for free, pick up free stuff, wander around and see the sights, without knowing any advanced stuff.

Or you can pay for land for a house or store, set up a company, and make really cool stuff to sell. But to do that, you really need:

1. Masses of time
2. To be a geek

The chapter before the LSL chapter is about how players make things in the game. With the exception of the vegetation, more or less everything in Second Life is player-created. (And unlike Star Wars Galaxies, where Sony Online Entertainment sets down very strict limitations about what can be made, so that it fits their vision of Star Wars.) Making stuff seems less daunting that scripting, but also seems to be massively time-consuming.

The whole thing seems pretty cool, and pretty overwhelming.

Meanwhile, on the Star Wars front, the book says there is a Star Wars inspired area called Dantooine, complete with Jedi temple. But when I tried to go there, it didn’t seem to exist anymore.