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I'm disappointed in your analysis of Second Life, Consumerist! I'm not sure if it was Joel or That Other Fellow who posted that bit, but you've really got it all wrong.

I've been using Second Life for over two years now and the power of the medium is its creative freedom. You can literally build anything you want and you can literally be anything you want. You can become a robot, you can build the ultimate city of the future, you can recreate the beachside home you dreamed about last night. It's an incredible medium and for creative types, it is unparalleled in its ability to set one's imagination free.

There aren't many \"virtual jobs\" at all in Second Life (prostitution notwithstanding). Most folks making money there are creative people who have fun making things. A few of them are really, really good at it, though and do make a lot of money. Building robots for sale in Second Life got me through much of my last year of college, giving me enough cash to buy food and such, and actually be healthy. It wasn't like a job for me, though. Not by a long shot. It was just me letting my imagination go crazy. As much as the press likes to over-expose the money-making aspects of the service, there's really a lot more.

You really missed the point of SL's amazing potential in your post.

The virtual nasty-nasty really grosses me out, though. It just so happens that if you can imagine a... bodily mechanism, you can create that, too.