Second Life
Virtual world in Games & consoles
A long-running online 3D virtual world with user-built content and land, still running after more than twenty years; critics mostly call it slow and say it has not been very successful.
A long-running online 3D virtual world with user-built content and land, still running after more than twenty years; critics mostly call it slow and say it has not been very successful.
18 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 8
- approval share
- 56%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 8 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
User-built virtual real estate
“at least you can play around virtually in that 'real estate'”
Comment from 16 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Million Dollar Deeds – Own permanent digital land” “arguably a successful use case for micropayments”
Comment from 19 Feb 2026 in “Micropayments as a reality check for news sites”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Slow performance
“Second Life, which is a large metaverse with good detail but slow performance”
Comment from 3 Oct 2026 in “City building games have a Soul Problem pt.2” “This is much of why Second Life is slow.”
Comment from 20 Apr 2026 in “Modern Rendering Culling Techniques” Not much commercial success
“we're left with Second Life, a much, much older thing. It hasn't been much of a success.”
Comment from 10 Sep 2026 in “No Man's Sky Cosmos” “we know how well Second Life has done”
Comment from 28 May 2026 in “SimCity 3k in 4k” Dated and junky compared to alternatives
“we're left with Second Life, a much, much older thing. It hasn't been much of a success.”
Comment from 10 Sep 2026 in “No Man's Sky Cosmos” “Second Life had that and it was a digital junkyard.”
Comment from 14 Oct 2026 in “AI is mass decompiling games. That's both awesome and scary” “too similar to Second Life and Roblox”
Comment from 17 Sep 2026 in “Show HN: I built a new version of my fun spatial 3D online meeting app”
What people recommend instead
The same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VRChat | 33 | 15 | 69% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Second LifeThis page | 10 | 8 | 56% | 8 | — | — |
What people said
19 of the 20 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Second Life had that and it was a digital junkyard.”
“I wasted a lot of hours in it when I was a teen.”
“art galleries used to be the best thing in Second Life”
“Second Life, which is a large metaverse with good detail but slow performance”
“too similar to Second Life and Roblox”
“23 years old, still running, and investors have never taken money out.”
“we're left with Second Life, a much, much older thing. It hasn't been much of a success.”
“got stuck between the wall and the spiral staircase in the training level”
“Roblox, Improbable, and Second Life are as good as it got.”
“we know how well Second Life has done”
“This is much of why Second Life is slow.”
“Our team thought it was pretty cool and we talked about it quite a bit back at the office later.”
“we've had several mature implementations over the years - VRChat, Second Life”
“it worked EXTREMELY well for conference calls”
“arguably a successful use case for micropayments”
“at least you can play around virtually in that 'real estate'”
“On one end you have Second Life and VRChat, which should absolutely have a no kids policy.”
“second life might be a lot more interesting if you could kill someone”
“Realistic ones are boring.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.