Why is SL so successful?

While traditional video games allow the player to enter into a fictitious virtual world with fictional characters, Second Life has taken it further by simulating reality with a game, and millions of people are now registered. Why all the fuss? 
Dr Tisseron: Lots of people go on once and never go back. Some people are disturbed by the way in which the towns look like chromos you find in travel agencies, and the fact that the avators are all good-looking, sexy and stay young forever, like in magazines. Others love it. Second Life owes its success to the way it condensed the two elements that drive our lives, money and sex, and placed them in a world in which you can still protect yourself by hiding behind a username. 
 
What abot living out fantasies on Second Life and living your life by proxy? Is it a good thing to use Second Life to make your dreams happen?
Dr T: SL is a platform of links, which range from discussions to sexual liaisons, and it has a financial side to it. It wasn't just created for fun, entertainment and meeting people: it was created to make products and services - and to sell them. The money may be virtual, but you can change it into real money at any time. You have everything: places where people meet to talk about issues such as violence, trauma and drug abuse, share tender moments with other people (there are places where you can go and watch a never-ending sunset whilst resting your head on someone else's knees!) and places where you can go to fulfil your sexual fantasies. Human beings invented images so that we can have a visual image of what we see in our heads, right in front of us. Second Life responds to this desire better than any other previous technology because it allows each person to make his or her most intimate fantasies public and share them with others.