(Linden Lab)A screenshot from Second Life, the virtual world

Second Life, the original virtual reality, may not be the media sensation it once was back in the heady days of 2003.

Back then, the world was ooh-ing and aah-ing at virtual real estate millionaires who were appearing on the cover of magazines like Businessweek, buying and selling land and goods in an ambitious effort to create a cohesive digital world.

But although you probably haven't heard much about it lately, Second Life hasn't gone anywhere. With 900,000 active users a month, who get payouts of $60 million in real-world money every year, and a virtual economy that has more than $500 million in GDP every year, Second Life is still a world of opportunity.

Today, the rising tide of virtual reality — with companies like Facebook, HTC, and Sony betting big on immersive 3D technology — means that Second Life's time may have come around.

"Now the world is waking up again," Ebbe Altberg, CEO of Second Life developer Linden Lab, which now has over 200 employees, told Business Insider.

Linden Lab is marshaling its expertise and experience in building immersive, functional virtual worlds to make a proper successor to the Second Life platform and take advantage of the bold new world of immersive VR. Specifically, Linden sees a huge opportunity in making it easier for people to build and share cool virtual reality experiences.

At Second Life's peak, the company had about 1.1 million users, says Altberg. Going down to 900,000 monthly users over a 9-year period isn't exactly a sharp decline.

The monetization model has never substantially changed over the years: If you want to build something, you either need to buy a plot of digital land directly from Linden Labs or rent it from someone who has. This is a healthy market, with Altberg claiming that 10 people own more than 30% of Second Life land.

Meanwhile, a thriving market in custom-made player goods — clothing, hairdoes, furniture, whole new avatars — provides a source of income for digital artisans.

It's not a game, and there's no storyline or giant signposts to tell you where you should go or what you should make.

"You have to figure out what to do, just like in your real life," Altberg says.

One Second Life user has led a small but thriving community to create an exacting replica of Berlin circa 1920 for users to tour, provided they're willing to dress their avatar up in period-appropriate clothing. In another demo, Linded showed me a mansion that a lightning designer from Dublin had whipped up, a baroque casino with pointed ceilings, stained glass windows, and, of course, a full virtual bar.