I'm thinking of playing with Second Life over the weekend. I don't get out much.

Anyone know of any reason why I shouldn't bother?

Is it worth it?
I believe you can have a free account. Is it really free?
Is the software download ok? No spyware or bugs or anything?
Is it a pain to install?

It would be my first look at an online virtual universe, is it easy to get into?

30 minutes to download an up to date GFX driver to run the software.

20 minutes to download the Second Life software.

A pleasant enough hour wondering around the training / orientation island, learning the controls and changing my avatar's looks, etc.

Now I'm in some sort of travel hub completely lost, lol, totally out of my depth.

Must be for the youngsters, I'm going to leave them to it.

Are there any text based Multi-User Dungeon on-line "experiences" still out there?

While still confused by the whole Second Life experience I managed to link to somewhere called Midnight City by reading and clicking on a link in Wikipedia. This was clearly too advanced for me and I found another link as quickly as possible.

Midnight City seemed to have an adult theme, I'm not sure though as I didn't hang around to find out.

I'd hate to be groomed as a virtual character and end up as someone's virtual gimp.

I am now somewhere else...I don't know where...

Second Life is only for the highly expert computer user.

Four visits, although the last one was extremely drunken so was a bit News of the World if you know what I mean, and now my avatar, if that's the right term, is only partly under my control. Hundreds if not thousands of items are passing through my inventory - No, I've no idea what, why, how???

Unless you really, really know your stuff I'd recommend you leave it well alone.

Oh...And as for The News of the World type stuff, as a newbie in their world you won't be welcome.

Apart from the fact that hackers got to me in-world in Second Life I also agree with the following person who also tried Second Life...

"Other than porn and slavery fantasies, there's not much to do there for most people. I know, I know, the aficionados will take umbrage at that and point at the small Harvard or musical gatherings or the like. But from the POV of the average, typical, new user, what I hear from 'civilians' trying it out is just that: they went in, couldn't find many people, and couldn't find anything to do next (and/or, "and then I teleported into this really strange place..."). Even if there are 100K active users (by some definition) in SL, that means that about 0.1% of them are able to participate in the special events, and 99.9% are left with whatever else they can find."