Second Life ®, abbreviated as SL ™ is an Internet based virtual world launched in 2003, developed by Linden Research, Inc. ® (commonly referred to as Linden Lab ®), which came to international attention via mainstream news media in late 2006 and early 2007. A downloadable client program called the Second Life ® Viewer enables its users, called "Residents", to interact with each other through motional avatars, providing an advanced level of a social network service combined with general aspects of a metaverse. Residents can explore, meet other Residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, create and trade items and services from one another. Second Life ® is one of several virtual worlds that have been inspired by the cyberpunk literary movement, and particularly by Neal Stephenson's novel Snow Crash. The stated goal of Linden Lab ® is to create a world like the Metaverse described by Stephenson, a user-defined world in which people can interact, play, do business, and otherwise communicate. Second Life ®'s virtual currency is the Linden Dollar ® (Linden, or L$ ®) and is exchangeable for real world currencies in a marketplace consisting of residents and Linden Lab ®. While Second Life ® is sometimes referred to as a game, this description does not fit the standard definition. It does not have points, scores, winners or losers, levels, an end-strategy, or most of the other characteristics of games. In all, more than 11 million accounts have been registered. © BDMM Design Group 2008