New World Notes is a blog that concentrates exclusively on Second Life. If you’ve never tried Second Life before I heartily recommend getting a free account and poking around.
Second Life is basically a social setting. It doesn’t have any pre-fixed goals or stats. Lots of people simply use it as a place to hang out and chat with others.
The thing that makes Second Life a step up from just being a glorified chatroom is that it is possible for the users of Second Life to create their own objects, sounds, animations, and even code scripts. Most of the times the things that are created are minor, insignificant things like a sword or a hat, the ability to belch, or maybe a vehicle to travel around in.
Every so often, though, someone like Laukosargas Svarog will come along and make something really spectacular, like a functioning mini ecosystem.