The 2 Real Reasons Second Life is Successful
People talk about why Second Life is successful. Sure it was timing and was one of the first big players. Sure they had awesome news coverage and kick ass marketing. Sure they offer some of the best features and graphics out of the massively multiplayer online games out there. But the sucess really boils down to two points:
1. It is free. There is no getting past it. They were the first major free MMO when World of Warcraft was striking it rich off of the pay to play model. Say what you want about Second Life reliability, etc but hey it is free and you get a lot for what you are paying for.
2. The users retain the rights to what they create. So many other MMOs give users the ability to create but try to maintain ownership. People do not want this. This is why their virtual economies struggle.