i have found 2 steampunk MMORPG's that are soon to be released:
Gatheryn -
http://mindfusegames.com/Gatheryn is announced to be going into beta this december (hopefully an open public beta) so i'm keeping my eye on this oneRemnants Of Skystone -
http://www.remnantsofskystone.com/blog/This looks like another charmingly fun game, with a great little cartoon style to the characters, it is sort of a 3d sidescroller, and some areas have a 45° veiw above the character, meaning that the maps can be explored properly (not just left and right) again, i am keeping my eye on this.As for the Second Life places, here are a few of my favorite steampunk themed places to hang out:
New Babbage -
a massive sprawling neo-victorian city, with plenty of steampunk shops to buy from. it is based partly on HG.Wells worksthere is an introduction to New Babbage on Youtube;
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Jlu5QmMWkpY[PLUNDER] Airship Outpost -
a group of shops, each in their own Airship, all linked to one flying dock. brilliant place to shop, as some of the shops have some brilliant gear accesories, steampunk jet boots, etc.(when i manage to get the SLURL's for New Babbage and [PLUNDER] Airship Outpost, i will add them here)
(SLURL = Second Life URL, if you click on one of these, it will open Second Life and teleport your character to the location)
feel free to talk about anything i have posted above, as well as any other steampunk games out there on the interwebs