I have to chime in here because I have been hanging in the background. I was a little afraid of being misunderstood if I posted.
I was surprised and exicited when Straight was announced in sl.
I have been in sl for six months. I at first thought ummm a waste of time, many play video games and although fun which we all need at the end of the six hours of playing you really have nothing but wasted time.
However, soon I found this WAS different. If you worked hard you actually could walk away in the REAL world with something. For instance, wait before I say that, let me say this, why would people spend 3 thousand lindens for a dress in sl (which amounts to about ten US dollars) I have no idea but they do. They spend in the millions and millions. Like the pet rock. So, I decided to try my hand at designing. I opened a shop and walaa. I waited for real money to roll in. I found out quickly that much like the real world you can't just do it half assed and expect to make anything. My spouse is excellent at coding. So, we put in some real effort and made scripts and some cool things that people wanted. We now make fifty dollars to one hundred dollars extra money a week.
That is something NO video game could ever offer.
Also, the internet has over six billion web sites. That makes it real hard to be the one that people land on.
In SL it is in the begining of it's life , so in a way your in on the ground floor. Getting poised on the ground floor of this seems to be the right thing as far as business goes. Much like those that had html skills when yahoo first came out. As computers become powerful enough to handle it more and more will use the virtual world. For instance; many shop online now right? In sl if you go to a DELL to look for a real computer to order, you actually have live virtual helpers there that you can speak to. No more waiting for emails or endless "please press 3". It is things like that that many believe is it popularity.
My husband actually provides security for events held in sl. Such as Concerts by popular artist, clubs and land protection for some places like "Coke". There are ways to hurt the land people have built.
So, at face value it seems pointless and yet it is becoming the next internet.
Online classes are offered by Harvard University, Microsoft has telecomute workers that get dressed and show up working at the virtual office. This saves them millions. They didnt have to build another REAL building and pay electric etc. They built a virtual one and can see there workers sign in.
Pepsi, Coke, are there too.
The Today show is there as well with a virtal plaza just like the one on TV.
It is bizarre on its face but if you go to their main website, on the left is a list of magazines articles that have been written like "Money" , "Fortune" etc. This I think help explains it.
Now, just like in the real world as the poster above stated there are some weird things or sex things where pervs hang.
As for business though it seems to be working.
For those with coding skills, you can make REAL money.
The highest skills in demand in sl is graphic artist, coders, animators.
Companys are paying REAL world nice salaries to help get them into SL. So , if you can build the virtual meeting place for the fortune 500 companies you stand to make some real money.
It is not a get money quick thing though. You have to have a skill set.