Social opinion on the Second Life?

There are several position that can range from two opposite perspectives:

- Second life can become seriously addictive for players: People live in a virtual world evading real world. According to Keith Bakker , director of the Amsterdam-based Smith and Jones addiction consultants, which offers the first clinic in Europe dedicated to treating gaming addicts: "Drug addicts use drugs to escape reality, alcoholics drink because they want to escape the painful reality. And what we see is gaming addicts quite often game to escape reality and also probably with Second Life it's an incredible place to create your own world (…) kids, and adults as well, they don't have or lack the personal skills to have communication with other human beings besides online, it takes a long time for us to get them to open up, certainly in a group situation - they don't know how to share their feelings anymore on a normal level."

- Second life gives people the opportunity to live in a virtual way the fantasies they are not able to live in their real life. According to Daniel Huebner : "With online gaming...you now have an audience. You have friends who you are battling with or against. So there is that audience component, when you achieve that glory of conquering a level you do it with other people who see you do it. So that level of prestige is quite amplified in those games… Suddenly there are millions of others of players around who can see how good you are."