Before entering the world of Second Life, the future resident has to create an account and establish his identity. Technically speaking he creates a Second Life Account. Two types of accounts can be separated: the "Free Second Life Account" and the "Premium Account".
The mechanic behind is commonly know in the internet: With the free account the user has access to a basic set of functions. Is the user willing to pay a fee, he can use the full set of functions.
In Second Life it is the same - but yet different: Already with the free account the resident can use the majority of functions and possibilities - and can have a lot fun.
At the entry page of the registration the future resident can choose, whether he wants to join via a community of not. This option is quite new. It was introduce by Linden Lab to split the traffic just here. And to give corporates a marketing opportunity at this central point in the system.
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In step two the future resident chooses his name within a list of names. His first name he can choose free. That is going to be the ID for his login. Birth date and email address will follow.
In step three the resident can choose between some preproduced identities (Avatars). Ethnical groups, both genders will be represented.
In the last step future residents will be asked to complete the free registration with information about name, password etc. One click on the submit button and here we go with the Free Second Life Account