(MCT)—So I show up, first time in this place, and this fox is speaking to me.

I cannot remember exactly what the conversation was—a mere exchange of passing pleasantries before it walked off—but the whole thing left an unsettling feeling. Like I had fallen through the looking glass and Alice definitely was not living here anymore.

That is because it was my first foray into Second Life, the buzzed-about and controversial online role-playing and social networking site that is being hailed as the next YouTube­—the next thing to bedazzle the tech-savvy and befuddle the technophobes.

Sort of a combination of MySpace, The Sims and Monopoly, with the three-dimensional touch of Star Trek’s holodecks and the video game World of Warcraft, Second Life is not a competitive pursuit so much as an alternative state.

Users choose a fictional name and create an avatar­­—an animated version of themselves that can walk, run and dance— and then are dropped into a landscape where they interact with others’ avatars, buy or sell Second Life land, set up businesses, build houses, buy clothes, work a job, go barhopping, make art and, yes, even engage in some NC-17 activities.

It is free to join but potentially expensive—in the site’s made-up Linden dollars or in real currency. Just like real life.

You can be whomever, or whatever, you want. You can fly. You can teleport. No taxes. No politicians. No war. No terror. No war on terror. But there is plenty of hype.

Hatched in 2000 by a San Francisco company called Linden Lab, Second Life’s backers include eBay cofounder Pierre Omidyar and Amazon.com pioneer Jeffrey Bezos. Major companies and organizations—from Dell and MTV to the American Cancer Society—are flocking to the site to set up islands, or worlds within the world dedicated to their products.

Former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner and Sun Microsystems have given press conferences in Second Life. Reuters news agency even has a reporter embedded in Second Life full time.

Although most of the site’s 2 million-plus residents conduct their commerce in Linden dollars, some are raking in real money. Linden Lab CEO Philip Rosedale estimated that $1.5 million in actual currency changes hands through Second Life monthly. A German woman named Ailin Graef—known on the site as Anshe Chung—reportedly became the site’s first real-life millionaire through buying and selling Second Life real estate.

But the government may start to take a closer look at the tax responsibility of those making money on so-called “unreal estate” through sites like Second Life.

“If you take money out of Second Life, then you’re responsible for claiming that income, like eBay,” said Catherine Smith, Linden Lab marketing director.

© 2007 Fort Worth Star-Telegram