virtual worlds

So, sweet as we think Second Life is.. it started way before that. Listening to one of the Retrobits podcasts (show 13, on QuantumLink) lead to putzing around on Wikipedia and Google (I'll let you do the same, rather than linking directly here).. There was an attempt at a 3D internet browser, starting all the way back in 1995, ActiveWorlds, with avatars walking around and 3D websites set up to walk around.. basically all that I remember once envisioning as the internet, back in like 7th grade when internet malls and shopping and things were just picking up, back when we thought it would be a complete world to access. Apparently ActiveWorlds is still around, though it costs to set up a site and all, but I'll look into that a little more and let y'all know if it's at all decent.
And, its creation was inspired by Snow Crash. heeh.

Going even further back though - self-designed little humanoid avatars, walking through environments with other little avatars, going into bars and stores where you could buy new outfits and if you stepped outside the main areas, you could even steal from people.
1985.
Commodore64.
...there was a program called QuantumLink, that was a primitive version of what AOL would eventually be (Steve Case was in on it), featuring chat services, email, and even the colourful little rectangles set in a grid with the names of the different areas written on them, that I remember so well from my first log-ons.
Around 1987, there was a joint project between Q-Link and Lucasarts, to make the first graphical virtual world. Cartoony and 2D, but you still had your own little house and things, there were in-game events to go do.. Apparently they couldn't keep the servers going, and cut it back to Club Caribe, where everyone was homeless and stranded on a desert island, and Q-Link itself was gone by 1993 (though there's a project in-progress to bring it back).. but apparently the Tomorrow project wasn't so far-fetched.

..and holy crap, looking at screencaps from the old thing...the chatrooms were just the same as I remember from aol back when it was still cool (1995ish), the same random chatter and even the ::some random action:: format I used so many times, and no-one knows anymore...