Designing Your Second Life

List Price: $29.99 Discount Price: $17.52

Customer Reviews:

Very disappointing [Posted on 2007-08-09]
Not a how-to (which the author does state), but it does have some how-to-ish sections. There are many misleading opinions, errors of fact, or editorial gaffes:

p. 10: "So using the Search feature in-world is tremendously flexible, scalable, and responsive to whatever updates or other changes might happen to SL at large."

p. 15: "512 sq/m [sic] (the smallest possible parcel)"

p. 16: "Second Life is three hundred and sixty degrees different."

Screen shots are very dark.

Some sections only make sense if you already know what's going on.

useful and well organized book [Posted on 2007-08-20]
After having spent some time on Second Life (SL) I found that I needed somebody to explain to me "how" SL really works. I wasn't interested in a "how-to" guide, SL web site already covers that.
I was looking for information on what's the best way to customize my avatar, and yes I'm getting new hair and new clothes this week (thanks to this book)! I liked the suggestion of paying attention to what's written on my (and others) profile as the first place to go when meeting new people.
The most interesting information I found was around social etiquette, what it means to be "friend" with somebody and when you want to do that. Lots of details that it would have taken me way too much time to find on my own.

Overall it's an easy book to read (a couple days) and well organized. I enjoyed some of the images, I actually ended up going back to SL and looking for some of those places.

promises more than it delivers [Posted on 2007-08-26]
This is a useful book ONLY if you are terribly new to Second Life. I've only been in SL for 3 months and knew everything in the first half of the book. I learned a few things in the second half, but "designing" implies more than what this book offers. It sounded like a book for those who wanted to go beyond editing appearance, but it's not. It only briefly touches on more advanced concepts. If you need beginner's information, try A Beginner's Guide to Second Life or Second Life: the offical guide for a decent tour book.

A waste of money [Posted on 2007-10-25]
THIS IS NOT A HOW-TO BOOK! But a how-to book was what I wanted so I was very disappointed. This book is mostly full of opinions and advice on how not to look like a n00b. The Official Guide book is much better written and explains pretty thoroughly how to use the interfaces and also addresses things like social rules and cultures. I was really annoyed by the authors silly and redundant manner of speaking.... It's just lame and very expensive. Resist the urge to buy this book.

Not very useful for a non-newbie [Posted on 2007-12-11]
Unfortunately this book suffers the same problems as do so many Second Life "tutorials" -- it is written as a beginner's guide rather than a resource for non-newbies. Therefore it re-hashes all the basic subjects that have been dealt with in other places and offer little that is actually new.

If you are completely new to SL, you might want to buy this book. Or the Official Guide, or any of several others. But only buy one of them -- otherwise the information you're paying for is redundant.

Click here for more details and discount information...