Second Life

Nop, no need to die to get there. Just download the client and sign in.

Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by a total of 6,085,300 people from around the globe.

More Second Life Pictures at http://www.flickr.com/groups/secondlife/pool/

• From the moment you enter the World you'll discover a vast digital continent, teeming with people, entertainment, experiences and opportunity. Once you've explored a bit, perhaps you'll find a perfect parcel of land to build your house or business.
  
  
• You'll also be surrounded by the Creations of your fellow residents. Because residents retain the rights to their digital creations, they can buy, sell and trade with other residents.
  
  
• The Marketplace currently supports millions of US dollars in monthly transactions. This commerce is handled with the in-world unit-of-trade, the Linden dollar, which can be converted to US dollars at several thriving online Linden Dollar exchanges.

Second Life is considered to be the best Virtual World developed. Though the concept is more like an online game, it does not actually reflect that model totally. In Second Life, you can buy and even build stuff, but for me the idea of spending money on virtual stuff did not click very much. You could even buy or sell land or build a house or run a business there. The idea is not so bad, after all you have some 6,086,003 users. Anyway... I got bored very quickly with SL. The objective is mostly to buy and sell stuff... or be bored. Maybe not, just give it a try and see, some people might like it.