Secondlife.com has over 1.4 million players and is becoming one of the most hottest places online. Not only does its population spend the bulk of their free time logged onto it, but a large subset even turns a sizeable profit (in some cases enough to live on!). We have recently heard of people who buy/sell land "real estate" online, and are able to rake in more than $150,o00 a year!
As all this advancement progresses online, real-world companies have decided to be more involved - for a price, these "avatars" can buy american clothing, buy Toyota Scions, and wear Reebok shoes.
Each month players get a stipend in Linden dollars, the currency of the realm and the basis of "Second Life"'s economy. They can also earn money by working, either as freelancers or as employees, at a virtual company. But, unlike many other so-called massive multiplayer universes, Linden dollars are fully exchangeable into real dollars, approximately 250 to one. And, because players get the intellectual property rights to their creations--design a building in "Second Life," and you own it in real life--wealth creation, and thus economic growth, within the game is every bit as real as it is in "first life."
The question now arises - as "second life" grows in popularity, and as links between our first life and "second life" strengthen and become an extension of the real world - should they be subject to real world government intervention?
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