I want to get into Second Life eventually, when I can spare some time for it. I have the book that tells you all about it (second edition), but there's so much to learn, if you want to make money from it, design things in it, and really do much in it. And I'm sure it's advanced much more since I tried it (one time) and read that book.

That said, I've seen some documentaries and show segments about it. I'll tell you a few things I've learned from those and the book:

Very few people make any real money (in other words, a lot of money) from SL. There are exceptions, of course.

The money you use in the game itself are called something else (I forget the name), where real money equals a certain number of these.

Some people do get to live a happy fantasy life, although I think we'd all recommend it shouldn't take the place of trying to achieve happiness in your real life. An example from one documentary was a woman who was too shy to sing on a real stage, but she created her avatar to be her as a singer, and she actually developed a fan base online. (She really did have a great singing voice.) On the doc, she went to a real place to sing for real, and people liked her, but I can't remember if she kept trying. (Some people were more successful than others.) Obviously, this can be a step towards your real life dreams, if you're willing to overcome your fears and give it a try.

You can meet good people or bad people in SL. (As if I needed to say that.)

There are rules, although SL is pretty open. They had some negative behavior in the past that led to these rules.

You can own land and businesses in SL. But something you should keep in mind...despite any promises of you "owning" anything, if the business shuts down, or hackers break in, you might find you don't have those things anymore. The stuff you own is on servers, but you don't own the servers.

There are adult areas, and you can actually buy adult body parts (if you know what I mean) to engage in adult activities (I know you know what I mean). That said, you do not have to engage in any such behavior to be part of SL, so don't let that keep you from it, if it otherwise sounds interesting.

There are groups, support, friends, people who share your interests and hobbies, etc., you can find. You can also get some education, including how to create clothing and virtual items for SL. (In SL, people sell these images of things; I must admit, it sounds crazy to pay REAL money for pictures of clothing for your avatars, etc., but at the same time, it can be argued it's like paying for a picture to hang on your wall, or perhaps more accurately, clothes for your Barbie.)

Unless this has changed, you get the first avatar free. You can get others after that for about $10 each (I think the fee is monthly or a year, but you can find out by investigating the site.)