If you?ve heard of Second Life, the 2000s-era web-based online world with millions of loyal ?residents? who populated it with personal avatars, you?re likely to think it has become irrelevant or obsolete. But at the peak of its popularity, the site received a lot of attention for providing users with a potentially dangerous escape from reality?one so powerful that it was not unheard of to leave real jobs, friends, and families for those found within the site.

Screenshots via Second Life

If you?ve heard of Second Life, the 2000s-era web-based online world with millions of loyal ?residents? who populated it with personal avatars, you?re likely to think it has become irrelevant or obsolete. But at the peak of its popularity, the site received a lot of attention for providing users with a potentially dangerous escape from reality?one so powerful that it was not unheard of to leave real jobs, friends, and families for those found within the site.Second Life is the ultimate democratizer in space making. The vast web of locations in the site's virtual world, called sims, are almost completely user-generated. For as little as $75 a month, anyone with an internet connection and basic CAD skills can create, upload, and maintain whatever place they dream up. Sure, sometimes this ?great equalizer? spits out such venues as SeDucTions and Sinners Burlesque, but more often than not, builders have responded to the complex opportunities and challenges presented by their uniq...