Second Life- some online game thing

[uoplax13]

I just read an article in Business Week about an online game or environment or whatever you want to call it called "Second Life". I'm not sure if there is a link to the article, but if anyone's bored you can google it. Totally crazy stuff. I'm not sure if I'd be entertained by it, but a ton of people apparently are. It's basically a virtual world....and now has expanded in the economic sense. People are making actual money through this thing selling products and virtual land....and renting virtual land. The article I read stated that the exchange rate is about 300 Lindens (their play money) to one U.S. dollar. It also posed a question or two about future regulation because of this type of environment's potential for illegal activity.....money laundering, sex crimes, etc... Anyone every heard of this or have some thoughts?

[not5150]

I just read an article in Business Week about an online game or environment or whatever you want to call it called "Second Life". I'm not sure if there is a link to the article, but if anyone's bored you can google it. Totally crazy stuff. I'm not sure if I'd be entertained by it, but a ton of people apparently are. It's basically a virtual world....and now has expanded in the economic sense. People are making actual money through this thing selling products and virtual land....and renting virtual land. The article I read stated that the exchange rate is about 300 Lindens (their play money) to one U.S. dollar. It also posed a question or two about future regulation because of this type of environment's potential for illegal activity.....money laundering, sex crimes, etc... Anyone every heard of this or have some thoughts?

Second Life's economy is small potatos compared to World of Warcraft's 6.5 million players. Some players regularly buy virtual gold for real money. You can google for Warcraft gold and see all the websites. The companies generally employ low-wage Asians to "farm" the gold.