The author as a young Oompa Loompa.

You hear about the online game “Second Life� the way you find out about a really cool indie band or an underground nightclub.

People talk, and you have a hard time believing that anything that great could exist if you didn’t know about it. Nothing wonderful stays undiscovered for long.

Then, a few weeks later you’re dressed up like an Oompa Loompa, driving a FedEx truck around a desert basin in an impromptu demolition derby with some guy in a brown UPS delivery van.

You cackle with the possessed laughter of someone doing something really weird and watch green smoke curl from the pipe you built and attached to your Loompa lips.

It turns out “Second Life� is the craziest thing you’ve seen in the guise of reviewing videogames. And you can’t believe that everyone in the real world hasn’t heard of this imaginary one.

The idea of gathering people in an online world to play out their fantasies isn’t new.

While the wizards and wenches of titles such as “Everquest� and “World of Warcraft� have dominated the genre, a few games have broken ranks to offer the science fiction of the Star Wars universe, the tights and capes of “City of Heroes� or even a novel simulation of social life in ancient Egypt.

These games share the common trait that whether you haul stone to build a monument to the Pharaohs, or hack up goblins for the chance to learn a new magic spell, you still have to color in between the lines provided by the game developer.

You can’t decide, for example, to build a Porsche and drive your knight over to the land of the dwarves, or start a Jedi nudist colony. Being a more open-minded online world, “Second Life� disposes of the lines and tosses you a blank coloring book and a mega-box of crayons.

Because SL allows players to create anything they can imagine using the built-in 3D modeling, character animation and scripting tools, players have built just about anything you could imagine.

I’ve seen towering staircases that reach up into the clouds and flying boats moored nearby floating dragons. I’ve slipped into nightclubs built from jutting rock and trickling water and wandered through an undersea garden stocked with colorful fish and amorous players.

I’ve visited homes built of gossamer and gold and dropped into a stony dungeon hidden beneath the lava of a volcano. I’ve traveled on roller coasters and a car shaped like a hamburger, wandered from a meditative dojo to a Stepford planned community.

And I’ve done this dressed as a blue space alien, a bright-red tropical genie and as an Oompa Loompa.

Tomorrow I might be a spaceman riding a Pegasus or dress down as a natty architect and spend my time knocking off Le Corbusier. It all depends on my creative muse, my talents with the in-world tools and the people I meet.

For now, when I log out of my virtual wonderland to spend some productive time at the office, what do I do? I talk about a Willy Wonka costume a friend has made and the flying chocolate bar he built for in-game transportation.

David Thomas writes about games and gamers online in the Bloghouse, and gets really brainy about gaming on his own Website, Buzzcut. You can e-mail David at david@buzzcut.com.

Second Life

Macintosh and PC

$9.95 Set up fee. Monthly charge only for in-world land ownership

Regions in-world are rated